Liberia: Debunking the Myth and Setting the Record Straight: A Cursory look into the Dirty Closet of the Swindler Amara Konneh

The scoundrel Amara Konneh must be aware that he would have been nobody in Liberia without Madam Sirleaf. Had history not favored Ellen, our man would have probably been languishing on the streets of Philadelphia being subjected to wage slavery by one of those predatory capitalist enterprises. This chap was nothing more than a common and pathetic refugee in Guinea who was opportune to be resettled in the US. While many of his mates struggled and acquired decent education, he managed to obtain a low grade certificate in Information Technology from an unknown community college in the US. Due to a very special and abnormal relationship he had and still has with Robert Sirleaf, the rogue son of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, he was brought to Liberia, given a job in the office of the president and was later appointed Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, a position he held until he became Minister of the combined Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

At the expense of the taxes of our people Ellen sent Amara to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he obtained a diploma in some bourgeois course that is not even relevant to the African reality. After the chap’s abysmal performance at the MFDP, he was recommended by the same Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as he is her little poodle, to work with the World Bank. It must be noted that Ellen’s recommendation was considered not only because she once worked there and has a special relationship with the bank but also during her presidency she adhered to all the bank’s neo-liberal prescriptions that have distributed poverty and misery among third world countries and made possible the exploitation of the labor and resources of the Global South by western-backed multinational corporations. This is why we are not impressed by a conman working for an international financial institution whose policies have deprived millions of Latin American peasants of their land, created an army of unemployed labor in Africa, thus subjecting thousands of African youth to the deadly voyage to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

Amara Konneh must be aware that we are in the know of the dirt he has in his closet. This thief, in collaboration with the con artists James Kollie and Sabastian Muah, raked millions of dollars from the public treasury through the Debt Management Unit at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in the name of paying government’s 25year old, 10year old debt when in fact those millions were paid to the bank accounts of the surrogates of these criminals. It is through this dubious scheme that Sabastian Muah got the money to buy shares in a lucrative casino in the Central African Republic for which he was exposed in 2016 by Rodney Sieh. Crooked Amara Konneh used his half-sister Zainab Dukuly to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in bags to Ghana – one of the biggest hub for money laundering in the world as was recently reported by the EU. And one wonders why the chap made his brother-in-law Sekou Sannoh the Comptroller General of Liberia. Amara must have it at the back of his mind that all his ill-gotten wealth will be confiscated and we can assure this serial rogue that at the appropriate time his day of reckoning will come, a time where he will be jailed and placed in an orange jumpsuit and sent to prison for stealing the people’s money.

Here I have the scumbag talking through his teeth about history. What history Amara Konneh, the simple thief has been chest-thumping about? Is it the history that is plastered with loot, plunder and profligacy? Is it the history of using public service to enrich himself? Is it that history of turning little boys into faggots in exchange for jobs at the Ministry of Finance? Where was this chap when people of his age became conscious of the historical process and threw themselves into struggle against the military dictatorship of Samuel Doe? Where was this funny fellow when men like Alaric Tokpa, Wuo G. Tapia, Dougbeh Nyan, Ezekiel Pajibo (all militants of HB) were challenging the repression and banditry of the military junta? Where was he when conscious and courageous men like Augustine K. Ngafuan were putting the feet of Taylor’s despotism to the fire? Where was him when men were brutalized, whipped and teargased simply because they were agitating for a higher civilization? Amara Konneh is nothing more than a coward who hides himself when the fate of the people has been thrown into question and appears to reap the benefit of struggles that he showed utter contempt for. This punk must be aware that the democratic order that existed under Ellen which he took advantage of to rake the public treasury and enrich himself was established on the backs and thrives of the struggle and sacrifice of icons like HB whom he now sees necessary to throw tantrums at?

How could this flaccid clown even think of influencing little political pickpockets and rancid nincompoops to elevate him over an impeccable struggle icon in Dr. H. Boima Fahnbulleh, Jr.? Is this man aware that his attempt to promote his ambition which is larger than his potential at the expense of HBF is equated to political suicide? We value Dr. HBF because of his role as a committed Pan-Africanist and Revolutionary Nationalist. And we have no doubt that unlike elements of the Amara genre, serious-minded people know the thinking of HB and relish his contribution to the transformation of the Liberian society from sectarian despotism to the current transitional democracy which is being rapidly degenerated by the farce that the lousy tribalist helped to impose. No amount of insults from the insane fanatics of Amara can disfigure the sacrosanct character of Dr. Fahnbulleh. For Amara to have even sent those idiots to impose a blemish on the character of HB and say he only depends on government jobs to survive is a display of an ignorance which is pitiful.

Unlike Amara Konneh, Dr. Fahnbulleh went to school and acquired a terminal degree at age 26 without benefiting from any government’s scholarship. Doc’s primary and secondary education were funded by his mother who was a classroom teacher. His undergraduate, graduate and doctorate degrees were funded by private scholarships which he earned through hard work and studies. When HB returned to Liberia in 1978 after his studies, naturally he had people in the True Whig Party oligarchy. Were he obsessed with government job as the poodles of Amara want us to believe, HB would have taken up a top post in a ruling clique that had held the country and people hostage for more than 130years. As a conscious militant dedicated to the African liberation struggle, HB could not join that reactionary social formation that deprived our people their dignity. So he not only took to the classroom at the University of Liberia to build the consciousness of the people’s children, he also joined the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA) to struggle against that backward aristocracy.

If Doc were corrupt and among those who see public service as the platform to further their nest, he would have remained with Samuel K. Doe and accumulated vast wealth either as a minister or an ambassador. He parted company with Doe in 1983 on the basis of principles and went into exile where he continued exposing contradictions in the society. A corrupt man who is obsessed with working in government to loot and plunder would not have spent years in exile defying the brutal regime of Taylor. The latter was his friend and it would have been easy to have joined the banditry. Doc had long known Taylor to be a venal rascal who saw public service as way of enriching oneself rather than an opportunity to put one’s talents and skills at the service of the people and use public resources to advance their material welfare. So Doc opposed Taylor from the Libya days in 1987. He knew that Taylor war was never a war of liberation but rather a war of revenge against the Liberian people as well as the quest for an opportunity to wallow in the glamour of power.

Dr. Fahnbulleh is not perfect but he has some values and principles that he consider sacred and cannot be renounced. To put him on the same pedestal with a reprobate like Amara Konneh is an aberration. A “corrupt HB”, as that funny toddler has been mandated to bombard social media with, would have asked the Ellen’s leadership for a job at either LPRC, NOCAL, NPA, etc. and lined his pocket instead of choosing to serve as National Security Advisor to watch over the security situation and help stabilize the country after long years of a macabre war. As the National Security Advisor, his annual budget under the Ministry of State and Presidential Affairs was US$ 72k – one of the lowest allocations in government. HB habitually returned an average of US$32k back to the National Treasury. Dr. Antonette Sayea, Augustine K. Ngafuan and even the rogue Amara Konneh can all attest to this but due to the dishonesty of the latter, he will choose to keep his mouth shut on such matter. HB refused to be assigned a government’s vehicle. For nine years, he used his private jeep gifted to him by his friend Dr. Abdouyla to serve his people. During the UNMIL drawdown, the UN mission presented to the office of HB over 200 sport utility vehicles. Doc presented all the vehicles to the GSA Director Mary Broh without taking any for his personal possession.

Dr. Fahnbulleh will be 70 years old on July 16 of this year. He has worked in public service for approximately 14years. So to the quacks who say Doc has lived on the taxes of the people all his life, how has he been surviving for the 56years he has spent out of government? Has he been living on the sweat of the fathers and mothers of those who harbor such ridiculous hatred and prejudices against him? Doc worked with some of his fiercest critics. Some of them including this patent thief call Amara Mohammed Konneh were privy to financial documents from the office of the fearless militant. Had Doc siphoned state resources for personal benefits, those reports would have long been out. In fact, Doc is the most feared individual by the current elements in power. They fear his politics. They fear his stance. They wish he never existed! So who told you they have not checked his public service record for any trace of financial impropriety that they can use to witch hunt him? They have searched! They have searched! But they found nothing but the record of a discipline cadre who abhor accumulating wealth at the expense of the taxes and resources of the people.

The two claims they have against him are that Fahnbulleh is a rebel and he lives in his father house because he has never built a house of his own. The former is a reckless assertion because HB was never a member of any warring faction that participated in the 14year Liberian civil war. In 2008, at the TRC Hearing, he used nine hours to explain his role in the political history of our country. The commissioners of the TRC vindicated HB and was never recommended for prosecution and barring from contesting public offices. HB is a militant Pan African and like the martyrs who lived before him, he believes in revolutionary violence and teaches that it is necessary only at a certain stage in human history. There should be a condition when the contradictions in the society have taken the revolutionary upsurge of the people to its height and the state’s reaction to the active participation of the people in the life of politics and society becomes brutal, repressive and barbaric. Also, there should be a split and vacillation in the ruling class which lead to the weakening of all its strongest links of reaction and lastly, the leaders who are the subjective actors of the revolution must not be mad men and rascals who think they can take advantage of the objective condition of the society to deny the people victory. The last condition was missing in 1989 and that is why HB did not join the NPFL or any other warring faction that participated in the civil crisis.

The second claim against Dr. Fahnbulleh is a laughable platitude. It comes from wretched of the earth who think serving in government is a “big shot” venture that goes with owning houses, cars, big bank accounts and other luxury. This is the culture of indiscipline and indecency that a revolutionary Liberia will have to deal with in order to fast forward the process of social transformation. Our closeness to Dr. Fahnbulleh has informed us that he does not believe in the private accumulation of wealth. He does not envy those who accumulate wealth so long it is not at the expense of the taxes and resources of the people. This is the disciplined Fahnbulleh for you. So what semi-literates say about his lack of houses and accumulation of wealth does not move him. They do not understand his stance. They know nothing of the conscious reflections he has had for which he has made certain choices in life. For HB, the obsession with vanity is not part of his pedigree.

One can say HB is far ahead of his time. The ideas he espouses are ideas for the transformation of Liberia. The discipline he possesses is such discipline we need in the new society of merit, decency and honor which will be constructed in this space. His commitment to noble causes is such virtue we need in our new society in order to attain egalitarianism. His sense of history is that tool the new Liberia of inclusion and transformation must harness so that the people are aware of the national itinerary. Like Batista wished Fidel was never successful in Cuba, like the imperialist wished Mao and the Communist Party were not victorious in China and like the little father wished there was never an October Revolution in Russia, people like Amara M. Konneh and his slavish minions would wish that a social revolution never happen in Liberia. But history neither seeks endorsement nor consult parasites who seek for the maintenance of a backward order when it is ready to act. I can feel the tempo of the new society shaking off itself from the debris of the current rotten society. This day is coming soon!

Yahmia is a youth and student activist in Liberia. He can be reached via [email protected]