Bro. Fofin Konneh

Sometime last week, I read on the Felmausa website, a statement from the Organization’s president, Richmond M. Konneh that some of our brothers were impersonating as representatives and conducting activities in Liberia on behalf of Felmausa.

A day later, The Vice President for Operation, Mamadee Sesay, came on the same website and identified those involved as Mohammed F. Bility of Milwaukee, the first official appointed by the President-Elect in the capacity of Chief of Staff, Alieu Swary, and Ali Syllah as the “imposters.”

While this news was coming in from Liberia, it was also reported that the Head of the Transition Team that President Richmond appointed to facilitate the smooth transfer of power between the outgoing leadership and the incoming Dukuly administration, was acting like she represents the incoming administration more than the administration of which she is part of.

Immediately after his Big Victory in the election during the convention in Minnesota, President-Elect, Mohammed Dukuly, told the Board of Directors to freeze all financial spending in Felmausa until he takes office.

In similar development, there were rumors that the Chairman of the Board of Directors contacted President Richmond Konneh to turn over the finance of the Organization to him so he can open new bank account for Felmausa different from the organization's present account.

He is said to have gone as far as requesting for the fund generated from the 2009 Convention to be withheld from the leadership. These developments and the many that have been heard over our shoulders are sending mixed-signals to some of us who have been around this generation involved in promoting the welfare of the Mandingo Community for the last two decades.

I know that this article will take many who have known me to be cautious of the internet and usually opt to addressing issues behind the curtain by surprise. Nonetheless, I am constrained to call the attention of our community to the behavior of some of us who now prefer to be “Political Frogs.” This is the generation that we depend on to fight for the good of the Mandingo people and to support us for our future political aspiration in Liberia.  But here we are- saying one thing here, and doing another thing  there.   This chameleonic attitude not only mislead some of us, social thinkers, in tracking and predicting the psephology  of the voting and political behavior of our people, but also cast some doubts on our leadership abilities and the way we make decision to affect our community.

As I analyze some of these conspicuous development s in our community, two assumptions appear to pop up in my head:

1) This generation is a conscious and ambitious set of people who enjoy and always want to be in the decision making apparatus of the Community. We have got all the degrees but we neither know how to translate our education to the needs of our community nor do we know the ethical challenges and moral obligations that gown the responsibilities that our Community needs and demands; and,

2) This generation is a conscious and ambitious set of people who have got the required education/ training but for selfish intent have chosen to mask ourselves into “Political Frogs” and raconteurs to exploit the ignorance of our Community.  

Neither of the above assumptions projects optimism for a rewarding outcome for our Community. Let’s take, for example, the “impostors” story that was reported to have been taking place in Liberia involving some of our brothers from here. Is that not a unique scenario to explain the assumptions that I have just propounded? Why frog-jump onto a dead end? Why not trust and celebrate the democratic victory we all won in Minnesota by believing that as slowly and surely that the night follows the day, the transition is in sight and inevitable.

If you read the response that our brothers sent to clear themselves of the allegation, you can see the contradiction in what they are saying and what they are doing in Liberia. How can they say “We did not tell anyone we were FELMAUSA Executives… All we are doing here is to strengthen FELMAUSA’s own agenda and not to undermine the leadership,” when they conducted meetings and set up committees and reported to the President-elect without the knowledge of the organization designated representative in the country? I believe it would have been logical if they had told the Felmausa representative in Monrovia that they were committed members of the organization and whatever they were doing were in line with the aims and objectives of Felmausa, they recognize and respect the outgoing leadership and know that it is the only leadership at this moment which is clothed with the responsibility of conducting business on behalf of Felmausa. That would have sent a uniform message to everyone concerned. That would have prevented the mixed signals as it now appears to be the case.    

You see brothers and sisters, the late Bob Marley said that “you can fool some people sometimes but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” The letter the brothers  wrote, which should have been written by  those accused of impersonating as  Felmausa emissaries was written by one Josefu Morris Keita but not by Ali Sylla or  Mohammed Bility who are known Felmausa members. The two brothers are college graduates and as such should know how to write letter. But why the letter had to be written by Jusefu Morris Keit? Is he a Felmausa member? Which U.S. City or State does he reside in? Let’s look at the heads of the Committees that our brothers set up. The names of the appointed heads appear to be the same names associated with QUAGBODOUSA and the Progressive Youth for Progress and Transparency (the organizations that endorsed Mohammed Dukuly during the campaign. Is the president-elect rewarding these folks in Monrovia for endorsing him?

My attempt here is not to castigate or crucify our brothers for the alleged duplicity but to use the scenario to unearth and explain the dissembled and unethical behavior that some of us, leaders, are encouraging in our community. The incoming leadership should be reaching out to everyone in the community to build confidence instead of doing things that will make people feel distrustful of them.