By Willia Selmah, wselmah@gmail.com
“The last group of people you might not want to see get into the streets is the church. We are not just pastors and preachers. We also have civil responsibilities to ensure that justice, fair play and fair treatment are ensured for our people. The last thing the government wants to see is to see evangelicals being mobilized across the country and not for the wrong reason…”
The Executive Director of the Evangelicals of Liberia (AEL), Pastor James Cooper is calling on the George Weah government to do more in following up on series of unresolved economic and security issues on which investigations have been conducted.
“So many investigations have taken place without results. We know something happened and something went missing, but most often, no one is culpable and nothing is damning,” Rev. Cooper lamented.
In an interview with www.newspublictrust.com at the weekend, he said while investigations are always welcomed for the mere fact that you cannot accused someone without evidence, it is disappointing that recommendations that accompany most of the probes are hardly ever followed through.
The AEL Director made reference to the missing billions, the unauthorized printing of Liberian banknotes, the Bushrod Island electoral violence, attacks on CPP officials in Grand Gedeh County and the mysterious deaths most recently, of four Liberians involved with audits.
“In Liberia, investigation is almost becoming synonymous to nothing will be done, the cleric pointed out, while decrying the huge sums diverted from development funds and spent on inquests which often yield no dividends.”
He said the culture of silence on these ills by those who supposed to be acting is a tacit indication of complicity.
Pastor Cooper said, “I just think the nation is not just doing well for itself. When I say the nation I mean all of us”
But the Liberian cleric said that the government bears the greater share of the blame because it is the government on whose shoulders greater responsibility is given under the social contract theory: we give you power, you provide for us security, peaceful environment, social services, economic empowerment and equal opportunity
But he believes the government is not honoring its side of the bargain as it should, and is therefore making a clarion call on President Weah and those responsible for investigating some of these issues to get much more serious and involved because what is happening could scare people away.
“The last group of people you might not want to see get into the streets is the church. We are not just pastors and preachers. We also have civil responsibilities to ensure that justice, fair play and fair treatment are ensured for our people. The last thing the government wants to see is to see evangelicals being mobilized across the country and not for the wrong reason, but to tell the government that you are not living up to the social contract: you told us to entrust you with power, you would protect us, create opportunities for our children to live in peace and harmony, provide equal opportunities. We gave you that power but we don’t seem to be getting the dividends of our votes,” Pastor Cooper said in the interview.
He said if circumstances depict that they hold civil, peaceful protests when pushed against the wall, they will do just that.
At the same time, the head of the AEL has expressed the hope that the government should not push them to go that far.