Ghana must work hard to maintain peace … Says former Liberian refugee

Iso Paelay, a former Liberian refugee in Ghana, has pleaded with Ghanaians to eschew pride and rather work hard to maintain the peace in the country, explaining that laxity could disturb the country.

Greed, accusations and counter-accusations, in addition to unguided utterances on the airwaves, ethnocentrism and trouble spots, he noted, are some of the causes of conflict.

“It is undoubted that Ghana is very peaceful, because the citizenry are tolerant and peacefully co-exist, but I want to caution Ghana not to be complacent. Maintaining the peace is more essential,” Iso Paelay opined.

February is the month of peace and conflict resolution on the calendar of the Rotary Club, Ghana, and hosting Iso Paelay as its main speaker on 'Effect of snowball conflict', the guest told his Tema host of the Rotary Club that his homeland, like Ghana, used to be more peaceful and more beautiful, with loving people, until complacency began to tear the country on the eve of Christmas of 1989.

Telling the story of Liberia with videos, Iso Paelay said the country used to be home to the world's largest rubber plantation plus other rich natural resources.

In addition, Liberia had airlines and plans of expanding their international airport and making it one of the best and busiest airports in the sub-region, “but our disregard for greed, accusations and counter-accusations, crude utterances on the airwaves, agitations at trouble spots and ethnocentrism, set families and loved ones apart through war.”

The population of Liberia then was 2.7 million, and Iso Paelay said about 1.1 million fled the country, with Ghana hosting more than half the refugees.

“A beautiful country like mine was torn into shreds…we killed one another, maimed other Liberians, because we failed, as a people and opinion leaders, to stand up to be neutral in putting things right. Like Ghana today, we thought our peace could not be jeopardised by anything.

“Complacency caused us, because our silence on what caused the conflict was too loud,” he said faintly, keeping his host gloomy, with others leaving their mouths open and lips hanging in awe.

After realising that he could not speak French when he fled to the neighbouring francophone countries, he said he arrived at Dansoman, Ghana, on August 14, 1993, where he was fortunate to continue with his education, and later gaining employment at TV3, where he still works.

Interspersing his narration with some soul-Liberian renditions, he said he lost all his siblings in the conflict except his mother, who he later found when he returned to Liberia to trace his home.

“The devastation was so immense and immeasurable that when I first returned to Liberia, I could hardly locate my home. My mother didn't know I was alive, because she knew her children had all died. Families had been torn apart,” he said.

Iso Paelay has parenthood from Liberia and Sierra Leone, and recounting a similar reeling devastation of conflict in the latter, he advised Ghana not to rest on its oars in ensuring that it works harder to hold its peace, saying that the aftermath of conflict is a narrative nobody would like to tell.

He said certain developments he is witnessing in Ghana makes his heart bleed for the country, thus, cautioning that the country's peace is fragile.

Consequently, he entreated opinion leaders and civil societies to be loud, “because when the unfortunate happens, and they start being loud that would have been too late

From Inusa Musah, Tema