Liberia: one more plot uncovered by Doe
By Elizabeth Ohene
"Gen. Doe has announced so many attempts to destabilise, overthrow or assassinate him that it is now impossible to keep track of the number of times... the accusing finger was often pointed at his closest friends."I have been wondering whether it is not time to remind many African leaders about that story which we all read and were told many times as children. That famous story of the Shepherd Boy who cried Wolf by Aesop. This tells the story of the shepherd boy who had a habit of crying 'wolf' just for a lark and sat back to enjoy seeing the entire countryside rush up to his aid thinking he and his sheep were genuinely being attacked by a 'wolf.'
Well, the day the wolf did come around, he screamed all he could but everybody thought he was up to his pranks again and paid no heed while the wolf savaged him and his sheep.
Take the Liberian leader Commander-in-Chief, Dr Samuel Kanyon Doe, for example. He has announced so many attempts to destabilise, overthrow, or assassinate him that it is now impossible to keep track of the number of times.
Most times, the accusing finger was pointed at Dr Doe's closest friends and colleagues. One by one, such friends and colleagues have been eliminated from the scene.
Now a new element seems to have entered the scenario. According the the latest plot that has been foiled, as recounted by the Liberian Information Ministry, "terrorists from abroad had tried to destabilise the Liberian state and destroy the Liberian people, kill innocent citizens, Government officials and surprise, surprise, kill the Head of State, and you guessed right ... establish a different form of government.
It is such a pity that the identities of the terrorists have not been disclosed for it will be interesting to learn if they were Liberian citizens resident abroad who had infiltrated the country to terrorise the people or if they were foreign nationals in the pay of Liberian citizens or foreign nationals in the pay of some foreign power.
For if the terrorists from abroad were foreigners or represented foreign interests, a different hue altogether will need to be put on this latest plot, if, however, the culprits are once again Gen. Doe's friends and colleagues then the reaction will predictably be the incredulity and tired yawns that have greeted the announcement..
The last but one 'plot' which necessitated the premature ending of Gen. Doe's private visit to Germany and ended in the arrest of Dr Amos Sawyer and Maj-Gen Podier and others was announced with similar fanfare and the clear suggestion that Liberia had just been saved from a veritable hell.
As things turned out, Gen. Doe said he was exercising his prerogatives as Head of State and fount of mercy and he released them.
He however did not stop there, he dared the entire Liberian population to prove him wrong that Dr Amos Sawyer was indeed guilty as accused. If anybody had any information which showed that Dr Sawyer was NOT guilty, Gen. Doe wanted that person to come forward and make such information known to him. Not surprisingly, there were no takers, there were not many people who would want to challenge Gen. Doe especially when he had already, out of his mercy, released the accused people in spite of him knowing that they were guilty!
The only contrary word has come from Dr Sawyer himself who after his release has in an interview, vigorously denied complicity in any plot to overthrow Gen. Doe. Luckily, that seems to have been the end of it. It will be interesting to discover how far the unravelling of the current plot goes.
Gen. Doe has refused to appreciate the difficulties that will necessarily be involved in him as the incumbent Head of State of a military Government running for the office of President in a proposed constitutional government to be headed (hopefully) by a civilian.
If every time a party that is not Gen. Doe's party campaigns about the need to replace Gen. Doe or if somebody tries to tell the people that there is this other candidate eminently more suitable to be President than Gen. Doe, the conclusion will be that there is a plot to overthrow the good General, then obviously the campaign is going to be a non-event. How is anybody going to be able to say on the campaign trail, for example, that Gen. Doe has not got the slightest understanding about Economics nor about world affairs, the way the whole world heard President Reagan of the USA constantly being described in the recently concluded American elections, without being accused of subversion?
How will the other parties ever be able to tell the people of Liberia their concept of a multi-party democratic Liberia which does not include Gen. Doe as the leader? The impression has been created that any and all opposition to Gen. Doe means "an attempt to establish a different form of government in Liberia . . .
It is not unlikely that Gen. Doe's mode of campaigning involves the announcement of the uncovering of a series of 'plots' to remove him from power. For if anybody else apart from him is to win the elections in the future, that person would necessarily have to replace him as Head of State and it is not impossible that he understands every attempt by opposing parties to win the elections as an attempt to overthrow him and horror of horrors "establish a different form of government."
The dangerous part in it all is that with the never ending uncovering of 'plots' the day there will indeed be an emergency, people would think that Gen. Doe was crying 'wolf' again.
