Manneh, Deh beh?, Deh beh nee?
Posted May 7, 2022
by Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
As a proud Klao-Kru man who is concerned about Liberia, leadership, and the current president’s poor handling of the state of affairs in the country, the question that comes to mind translated from the Kru dialect to the English language is “Manneh, why? What’s going on? What’s the problem?”
As the Kru-Klao he supposedly is, he should by now be able to understand the astoundingly emphatic tone of the question that most people from my side of the country are quietly asking themselves as they see their once beloved kinsman, the once popular George Manneh Weah, sinks into disgrace as the most incompetent and tone-deaf President in the history of the Liberian nation.
Even though most Liberians kinda always tied the Kru-Klao people to President Weah because of his assumed or acknowledged ethnicity, we are barely in the know of things around George Manneh Weah, i.e., decisions, kitchen cabinet, key cabinet members, and advisors, southeast region neglect, etc.
However, if these Liberians want to continue to hold us responsible for George Weah’s poor, inept, and ineffective leadership problems because some of our people have been handed sprinkles of low-level cabinet positions here and there to mute the criticisms of him for neglecting us, well, then we are guilty.
The reported crisis at the Roberts International Airport, the nation’s major gateway to the world, with major international airlines canceling their services, and the tone-deaf and insensitive appointment of the overweigh-potbellied aircraft mechanic, Darlington T. Karnley, inexperienced and with no supervisory, management, and administrative skills and training to lead this troubled airport with a nagging history of neglect and corruption, says a whole lot about George Weah’s leadership style.
That leadership style of fealty to ‘King George,’ CDC party loyalty, brazen corruption, and creeping allegiance of friendship at all costs to King George as a requirement to work in the Weah administration has led to the hiring of the most corrupt, incompetent, and low-level on the job trainees in the history of the republic, which has led to meltdowns and a breakdown of services, or no service at all.
As bad and out of control as things are at the Roberts International Airport, you would think George Manneh Weah would appoint an industry insider, a competent, practical, hard-nosed person with both local and international credibility, one who understands airport management in and out, and who is willing to make tough decisions to get the airport’s ratings back as safe and ready to operate.
Instead, we have been introduced to child’s play, the ones Liberians often refer to as “play-play” at the expense of poor services and death, as we have seen in the country and at other ministries and agencies in the Weah administration.
Sadly, the country is reportedly out of jet fuel.
Manneh, Deh beh?, Deh beh nee?
Manneh, Why? What’s going on? What’s the problem?
Why are you defiling the presidency, and the Liberian people?
Why are you defiling the name of the Kru-Klao people, known historically as warriors, and known for their strength, independence, and smarts?
Why?
But this guy, Darlington T. Karnley, the presidential appointee reportedly embellished his credentials as a Master’s degree candidate in aviation management at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance in Philadelphia.
The Aviation Institute is more of a technical school that does not grant degrees to its graduates. Darlington T. Karnley earned a professional certificate in aviation maintenance from the Aviation Institute of Maintenance.
Sadly, Manneh’s not talking.
Knowing that partisan, spineless, bench-warming legislative branch, and how they operate by bowing to their president’s wishes, George Manneh Weah’s going to get his way and his nominee will be confirmed, and it will be back to politics, as usual, the Liberian way.
The Liberian people hardly hear from this president when it is necessary to calm their fears and the anxiety of a broken people who need all the calming words from the presidential bully pulpit that a political leader can make to calm the storms in their lives.
Instead, Weah prefers to bask in the pomp and pageantry of the dominant presidency and wait annually to read his meaningless and inconsequential State of the Nation Address (SONA) talking points to the nation that doesn’t add anything worthy and meaningful to the lives of his poor, hungry, and struggling people.
Where are the gains from Weah’s presidential county tours?
Highways and roads are still bad and inaccessible, the counties are still not electrified, there are no running sewers, community colleges are struggling to stay afloat and relevant, and sea erosion are destroying and drowning coastal areas of the country.
By the way, what’s the latest report from the Princess Cooper case? Have you heard anything new about the case since Weah promised to import pathologists to undo the work of his pathologists?
How about the four auditors who died tragically on George Weah’s watch? How about the deaths of presidential sons John Tubman and William R. Tolbert, III? Unemployment is on the rise, and there is no access to affordable healthcare and housing.
Opposition leaders? Where are they?
They are jostling in courts. Don’t ask me why.
As far as I am concerned, there are no opposition leaders.
However, Liberia’s unsafe.
George Manneh Weah is unfit for the job.
Please do not reelect him.
He has to GO!
dorbioh@hotmail.com
