It is not uncommon for most Liberians – mostly those reviewing prevailing in-country conditions from political perspectives – to blame the nation’s snail-paced recovery on the Sirleaf Administration’s believed lack of workable policies or amenability to corruption.

But rights advocate Abraham Darius Dillon, while bewailing Liberia’s lack of progress, says there is more to the practiced attack on the so-called fair game. 

He thinks the growing lack of patriotism and nationalism amongst political administrators, politicians, techno- and bureaucrats, and ordinary and Diaspora Liberians is equally suspect.

“But how?” is the question many are asking. The Analyst, reports. 

Rights advocate Darius Dillon, while bewailing Liberia’s lapses, says the nation will remain backward, unless Liberians of various persuasions and residency took concrete steps to reverse the prevailing brain drain and lack of patriotic and nationalistic spirits.

The assertions were contained in the undated apostrophe he released over the weekend. Mr. Dillon currently resides in the US studying at the Strayer University.

The apostrophe opened with a lamentation in which the ace political kingmaker bewailed the nation’s lack of progress comparable to its neighbours – mainly Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire that had suffered the same fate as she did – and then progressed to the main causes for the nation’s underdevelopment and seeming stagnation.

“To be candid with you [Mama Liberia], most of them [neighboring countries] provide opportunities that you lack; and it takes real courage, love and strong will to resist. The opportunities some of your ‘compatriots’ provide for and affording their children are opportunities you have never provided for me and about 95% of my brothers and sisters since your existence."

"It is due to lack of these opportunities that some of my brother and sisters will (understandably) stop at nothing until they adopt a second ‘Mother’ and practically renounce you. In fact, some of them have even done so already,” he said.

But he was quick to concede that given its abundant resources, the nation was not entirely to blame for the prevailing snail-paced recovery and lack of development. Some Liberians, at various levels, share the blame, according to him.

From the senseless civil war that left thousands of Liberians dead, sent thousands others scurrying into exile and refugee camps, and precipitated the brain drain, to the lack of patriotic and nationalistic spirit, to the current fade of naturalization in countries in which Liberians took residency, he said, the bleeding of the nation had known no end.

He said not only did Liberians killed one another during their quest for freedom, but that many who chose to flee the hostilities, have resorted to adopting new countries while those who remained in the country resort to self-seeking and pillaging of the nation’s meager resources.

Mr. Dillon said he was opened to corrections, as he knew not everything, but that those who abandoned the country or who chose to use the plight of the poor majority to enrich themselves deserved God’s wrath.

“But, that was just one aspect,” he said, noting that there were other class of Liberians who were prepared to work with all they have to set the nation back on a forward trajectory of development, stability, and reconciliation.

He said this class of Liberians would take advantage of their training gained at home, abroad or in exile, to turn the nation’s miseries into opportunities. By their escaping the hostilities in Liberia, he noted, Providence predestined these Liberians to rebuild the nation.

“You see, there is ‘good’ in every ‘bad’. These categories of your children are better prepared to help rescue you today. So, please understand and forgive them. ‘Mother Liberia’, your ‘dark days’ are over. You need to rise up,” Dillon said in the apostrophe.

He blamed the greed, selfishness, corruption, and sheer lack of love of country perpetrated by some Liberians in position of influence and trust for the nation’s current pathetic state of recovery and noted that the end of the party was in the offing.

According to him, in collaborations with the Sirleaf Administration sincere Liberians, including himself, will proceed to face the challenges facing the nation’s recovery and its underprivileged children and unemployed youths.   

“Mother Liberia’, be assured that we, your well-meaning children still LOVE and BELIEVE in you so much. Like the Biblical Ruth said… ‘Wherever you live, we shall live; and wherever you die, we shall die. Whatever you eat, we shall eat’,” the rights advocate and kingmaker said.

The new breed of citizens whom he dubbed ‘belly-born’ patriots and nationalists, he said without naming names, were prepared to heal the nation’s wounds, restore its pride, and protect its integrity as member of the comity of civilized, productive nations.

“We are very much unwilling to hurt, destroy or abandon you (again) for any reason. The thought of being your belly-born brings us joy and pride, even in your current state. I, along with a host of your other children, owe you so much. We owe you a nationalistic and conscious responsibility,” he said.

In the new spirit of love of nation, he said, in which loyalty and patriotism will prevail, the nation will know no greed, heartlessness, and don’t-care attitude.

The apostrophe described a Liberian close to a utopian society, something like the Earth after Armageddon as described in the Bible. Without saying whether these new normal will come into being under the Sirleaf Administration, Mr. Dillon who was a vocal critic of the Sirleaf Administration before becoming its proselyte, said the new crusaders for fast-track development in Liberia “dare not fail you again, ‘Mama’”.  

He said it was the vow of this class of Liberians to “strive to bring and keep hope alive”.  

“Although few of your children and some ‘strangers’ are losing faith in you, most of us shall continue to have abiding faith in you. Where there are no opportunities, some of us will do the right and proper things so as to ensure provision and affordability of needed opportunities for your underprivileged children,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dillon said Liberia would continue to march ahead, fearing no digression from its path. He revealed that he composed the apostrophe in tears as an “obedient, humble, and repenting son” of the land.

The Analyst was unable to contact Mr. Dillon for comment on what prompted the apostrophe, which analysts say is more prophetic than politically or economically realistic for its silence on concrete political or non-state actor agenda for development.

http://www.analystliberia.com/index.php/politics/224-dillon-bewails-liberia-s-lapses