Woods Describes ARCHBISHOP FRANCIS As “MY HERO”
This is a discourse with my dear friend, mentor, father, patron, spiritual leader and benefactor. On today your natal day, I cannot be at your side due to urgent travels. On my travel, I woke up to a dream on the morning of the 6th of February and was thus moved to pen you few lines. I commit to pen you these lines every year on the 12th of February: your natal day.
After long years of struggle against tyranny, state gangsters and national complacency, you now look on in silence.In silence, you look at the many that come by your side. You ask them questions they cannot answer. You beckon to some who cannot understand. They come for many reasons known to them but God knows our hearts best!
As a hero forced into reflection after years of battle, God, our Almighty; has said to you like he said to Moses that the promise land is nigh but you will not be the same actor. Now you will look at other actors some of them your children with their faults and frailties and allow them to chart their path of destiny. Your looks will be of regrets, of surprise, of pains but also of joy tempering with the reality that life is imperfect.
PUBLICAGENDANEWS-LIBERIA
A Discourse By Attorney Samuel Kofi Woods With Archbishop Francis Before His Demise On One Of His NATAL Days
The Samukai Rants & Police Street Acrobatics
-A Critical Appraisal by Sherman C. Seequeh
On Thursday and Friday last week, the nation’s capital was submerged in the seas of trepidation when the security machinery of the state growled over the top of its throat and stampeded, drilling with trucks of armed police in the streets of Monrovia respectively—all representing their “robust” official responses to pronouncements by a group of citizens to protest against corruption and bad governance. As the echoes of Defense Minister Brownie Samukai’s roars and threats against April 12 protesters faded away on Friday then Police Inspector General Chris Massaquoi launched “military drills” of forces of the Liberia National Police on Friday. These twin events of last week coming four and five days to the planned demonstration not only increase an already extremely charged public disquiet but also revive memories of the dark old days of terror, tyranny and political bully. Whatever those conceited display of power intends to achieve, it is becoming amply clearer now that following a chain of tragic political upheavals that befell the Liberian people in the last 25 years in the name of freedom and liberty, the country is still sadly firmly locked in total stagnation if not retrogression.
Assessing The April 12 Demonstration: A Moment For Transformation Or Transgression
As the well-publicized and planned protest gets underway in Monrovia and perhaps other parts of the country, many Liberians and foreigners alike are seriously contemplating about the consequences of yet another April 12. Some have embraced the demonstration and even chosen to participate with physical, moral and financial supports. The proponents claimed through far-flung propagandize silver-tongued exposition about the current political, social and economic state of affairs. With somewhat clearly articulated viewpoints, the architects of the demonstration have gradually managed to persuade their followers to believe that the time for “Emancipation, Liberation and Redemption” has come and it is certain to occur on April 12, 2013. In the midst of extreme hardship, appalling educational system, dreadful healthcare, high unemployment, unacceptable inequality and unbearable cost of living; once again, the people are hopeful, reawaken and yearning for change in the status quo. The organizers and supporters of this revolutionary tactic that has existed for far too long in Liberia are determined to be emancipated from the banish of impoverishment, liberated from misrule and redeemed from corruption, nepotism, favoritism, sectionalism, tribalism as well as other societal vices.
The Call For Liberia To Be A “Christian State” Has No Constitutional Backing!!!
In recent days, we’ve seen the reemergence of a “Christian State Campaign” by some group of people calling for the imposition of Christianity as the state religion of the Republic of Liberia against several provisions of our organic law of 1986 and its preamble. Those unpatriotic and unnationalistic group of people are attempting to justify their anti-peace and divisive demand through the misconception of CHAPTER XII articles 91 and 92 subtitled, “AMENDMENTS, which read Article 91: “This Constitution may be amended whenever a proposal by either (1) two-thirds of the membership of both Houses of the Legislature or (2) a petition submitted to the Legislature, by not fewer than 10,000 citizens which receives the concurrence of two-thirds of the membership of both Houses of the Legislature, is ratified by two-thirds of the registered voters, voting in a referendum conducted by the Elections Commission not sooner than one year after the action of the Legislature.” And Article 92 “Proposed constitutional amendments shall be accompanied by statements setting forth the reasons there for and shall be published in the Official Gazette and made known to the people through the information services of the Republic. If more than one proposed amendment is to be voted upon in a referendum they shall be submitted in such manner that the people may vote for or against them separately.”
Petition to the National Legislature of the Republic of Liberia
by a cross-section of Liberians under the banner:
“Liberians United For The Adherence & Preservation of Chapter III, Article 14 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia"
Done on this Tuesday, March 26, 2013 on the Grounds of the Capitol Building in Monrovia
Being fully aware of the inherent national danger vividly associated with transforming a multi state whose historical foundation is rooted in the practice of secularism to a religious state or theocracy with reference to the negative impasses and consequences unleashed due to the imposition of the Ducor Contract of 1822 which has been considered as the first legal document in the history of our country that openly institutionalized marginalization and discrimination, and also prompted one of the first deadly civil warfare ever on the soil today known as Liberia; moreover, to a lager extent be held responsible for some of the persistent national vices that continue to attack and erode those basic values that should hold us together as one nation. The anguish and dissatisfaction which descended as the result thereof had a spillover effects that possibly formed the ideological basis for a revolutionary struggle that was eventually initiated through the April 12, 1980 coup thus turning a new page in our national existence heavily characterized by despotism, militarism, and subsequently accompanied by the 14 years devastating civil war.
More Articles...
Page 1 of 52