Senator Edwin Snowe of Bomi County frowns at the United States Government for allegedly fueling disunity and hate among Liberians.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Monrovia, Liberia, December 5, 2024- Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe accuses the United States of America of disuniting and breast-feeding hate and evil among Liberians due to its numerous sanctions and subsequent demand for Liberians to desist from having interactions and doing business with sanctioned officials.
Speaking here Tuesday, December 3, 2024, in the Liberian Senate when he paid tribute to fallen Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson, Senator Snowe called on the senate and Liberians generally to continue to unite and not allow ” third parties” to divide the country and give them an image that they don’t deserve.
According to him, the U.S. will tell Liberians when a person is on sanction, they should not speak to them on grounds that they have committed this or that crime, “Wondering who are the Americans to say that when some people hate you, everybody else should hate you?”
Snowe argues that it is alleged that the “late Senator Johnson killed former Liberian President Samuel K. Doe because the late senator did not face trial and he was never guilty of the crime therefore, it is alleged, but with all that, the late PYJ and Senator Z. Emmanuel Pennoh of Grand Gedeh County shared seats in the Senate and they were always seen conferring and talking, noting that Senator Pennoh was never mean to late Senator Johnson.
Today, America has elected a President convicted of 34 criminal charges. Should we tell them too that we should not accept their President because he is a criminal? But, they will come here and tell us, say, don’t speak to your colleagues in the senate because they are this. They even said that Senator Johnson should not be chairman of the Security Committee because he killed Doe and if he began chairman, America will not support the Liberian security and we took him from there. Now, they have a criminal as a President of the U.S. Where is our answer?” He further ponders.
Commenting loudly on PYJ’s war-time intervention, the former youth chair of Mr. Taylor’s National Patriotic Youth Council, which once wedded the former jailed president’s daughter, says that when people talk about the late Senator Johnson and negativity, they are never reminded who the INPFL leader was calling that faithful day from the Port of Monrovia on a walkie-talkie with the code, “Tango, Tango.”
He laments that people have failed to ask this critical question: Who gave the late Senator Johnson the walkie-talkie, logistics in uniform, and ammunition, and who was he calling Tango, Tango?
“We have never asked those questions. Those very people made us antagonize each other. Everyone in Liberia knows who Tango-Tango is, but Liberians have forgotten about Tango-Tango and the radio owner and are talking about the late Senator Prince Johnson. It is about time that Liberians ask the hard questions, as to who gave the radio to Senator Johnson, and where and who is Tango, Tango he was calling?”
Accordingly, Snowe says Senator Johnson’s death should teach Liberians a lesson that they should never allow people to divide them as a nation and people because they have a common value to uphold and protect.
He adds that “when the election came, and Senator Johnson supported the Unity Party, the Congress for Democracy Change would call for War Crimes Court, but when he supported the CDC, UP would call for the court, and they have made that a taboo, but they have never asked who gave Senator Johnson the walkie-talkie and logistics to enhance his war machinery.”
He points out that today, Senator Johnson is gone, and people are crying, but it’s the Liberian Senate that is hit the most because they have lost a leader who spoke with everyone and called everyone despite being a man of few words. He added that anytime he spoke on the senate floor or in consultative meetings, he spoke wisdom.
“May the soul of Senator Johnson rest in peace and may the people of Nimba remains united, losing a son that cherished his county and love his people. I want to extoll Senator Thomas Y. Nimely for the kind words he spoke on behalf of the people of Grand Gedeh County. That was touching, and he said a lot. If the people of Grand Gedeh were so hateful and couldn’t stand Senator Johnson, Senator Z. Emmanuel Pennoh could not have been there to carry the body and share tears”, he eulogizes. Editing by Jonatan Browne
