All 22 candidates for the Liberian presidency in 2005 entertained no fantasy that the post-conflict reunification of the Liberian people will be a non-priority or easy.

They knew it would be the platform upon which the nation will grind the ashes of bitterness and hatred that dragged its people into a war of no substance.

	• Pres. Johnson-Sirleaf

Many hooted tcredentials and will powers; but Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf won. Two years later the country appears to still be asunder and former House Speaker Edwin Snowe is passing the buck.

The Analyst Staff Writer sifted his recent interview with FPA and compiled this report.

Former Speaker Edwin Snowe says the Johnson-Sirleaf administration lacks the will power and ability to contain corruption in government and reunite the Liberian people, plus that elements in government are planning a cover-up indictment against him.

These claims of the controversial Montserrado District #5 house representative were contained in the April 10, 2008 interview he reportedly granted to an online Liberian news magazine, FPA.

“I respect President Johnson Sirleaf. I think she’s development oriented, I think she means well. She has good international contact; but I think she lacks the ability to reunite Liberia,” Rep. Snowe (Independent) reportedly told the FPA.

The Montserrado District #5 representative recalled that he got President Sirleaf’s promise prior to her take the gavel of state that there would be no witch-hunting and that the focus of her administration would be to reunite the Liberian people.

"I had a meeting with Mrs. .Johnson Sirleaf. Mrs. Sirleaf said to me, Edwin when I win the elections, my first priority will be a National Conference to reconcile this country. She said I believe Liberia is not reconciled and we must put Liberians back together no matter where you come from. We must reconcile this country. It’s three years, there’s nothing of such,” he said.

Also, according to him, President Sirleaf told him at the time that she would not go after former public officials because it would be very difficult to choose a starting point.

“She said all governments in this country have been corrupt; will I start from Tubman, Tolbert, and Doe? I’m not going to go in the past. What I’m going to do is when I take over; the train is going to start on that day. Anyone caught with corruption in my government or doing any wrong, I’m going to go after you,” he reportedly quoted President Sirleaf as saying and then wondered where Liberians were today in terms of those promises.

Rep. Snowe said he described the President’s statements at the time as “welcoming statement” since the nation could not move forward if the citizens don’t work together as it were in the past.

	• Edwin Snowe, Jr.

But then he wondered where were those promises as transitional government officials were being hunted for corruption while corrupt individuals currently in government were allowed to roam scot-free.

“We have left all the corruption walking around Broad Street in this government and said let’s go after Gyude Bryant.

Whether is because Gyude Bryant defeated Mrs. Sirleaf in Accra, or the LAP confusion, or Mr. Taylor short changed her, so the Bryant and Taylor people are the targeted citizens today. I don’t think it’s the right way to proceed,” he said.

According to him those who plunged the country into its current mess were the very ones that were being awarded high positions in government and wondered how the country would be reunited under this situation.

“How can we disabuse the minds of Mr. Tolbert and the likes of Mr. Tolbert or those that felt short changed in the process one way or the other either 1980,1990, 2006 or even now?

How can we reconcile? If you look at our government today, take for example Paul Mulbah. Before the President took over, she said Paul Mulbah can never work in my government; but there are people in this government today that their character is times ten of what we thought Paul Mulbah was or is.

“I read on the internet through the same FrontPageAfirca the “war letter” written by the same Harry Greaves to Clarence Simpson who is a key legal adviser to the president today. Dr. Amos Sawyer, he’s Chairman of the Governance Reform Commission. Those are people, according to that letter and if that letter is true, those are people who brought and sponsored the war, ok.

“I live each day realizing that those that brought war on our country and to our people that have us today just looking for a college degree that carried our lives backwards are still passing around here free. Yes, you have one of them in The Hague, maybe he shortchanged the others and went on the fast lane, but the co-collaborators are still here.

How can we as Liberians collectively move this process forward that we will not haunt each other that we will understand that I did this at a time I had to do this and today I am a new person and I want to move my country forward?” wondered Mr. Snowe, an erstwhile member of Taylor’s first family that most Liberians blamed for deepening the Liberian wound and making reconciliation seems impossible.

He said there was no way Liberia would progress while its citizens were still at loggerhead with some yet to see reason to return and settle permanently in Liberia. “You know, you could be the richest man on earth; you can give your child all the money you have, if you don’t educate the child and you die, the child will waste the money.

It comes to this case. We could have all the international recognition, we could have all the money in the bank, if we don’t unify our country, that we will appreciate each other and be our brother’s keeper, we will not progress. We will continue not having feelings for the next man,” he said.

He believes the Tolbert, Doe, Taylor, and other Liberians families rudely routed by the conflict must be provided an opportunity and a forum to reconcile as the stepping stone to a grander national reconciliation effort.

According to him, the TRC would make little progress because certain public officials, including President Sirleaf, seem to find it condescending to appear before it to testify to their involvement in the 14-year civil war.

Rep. Snowe who said he was currently putting academic pursuit over political achievement revealed that he has no intention to run for president in 2011, something for which he said the Sirleaf Administration was mounting “efforts to undermine our credibility or to weaken our move in ensuring a vibrant opposition and pursue democratic tenants of our country.”

It is not only the President that stands accused, according to Representative Snowe. He said the House Judiciary Committee that is currently probing allegations of the use of bribery to conspire to oust him from the speaker position in January 2007 also lacks the will power to prosecute the bribe takers lest that implicates the Executive Mansion and triggers a rush of impeachment proceedings against corrupt officials in government.

“By and large I believe that except for the pressure from the public and the international community, the will power from both the House of Representatives and the Government as the prosecuting arm for such a crime is lacking,” Rep. Snowe said of the ongoing probe at the lower house of the Liberian parliament.

The Montserrado representative accused the House Judiciary Committee of dragging the probe knowing that its outcome would hurt its own members some of whom are on the investigation panel.

He gave no indications why he thought so, but he noted, “Like I’ve said to you, it could be dragged to ensure that Mr. Greaves and the LPRC management go ahead with their indictment that would undermine the on-going investigation.

So I doubt there would be a timeline. So as a way of collaborating and ensuring that those facts are not unearthed, anything to sabotage the process would be the best option for those that could be named.”

Rep. Snowe was not letting up or mincing words on the allegation that caused him his prestigious top post at the Lower House of the Liberia Legislature and effectively clipped his neophytic political surge:

“We believe that almost all the Representatives that signed the resolution to get me out of office received that amount including and not limited to people on the investigation panel, the House’s Judiciary Committee. I believe that it was by and through the acquiescence of some key factors within the Executive Branch of government and as we progress with the investigation, I’m sure that these other facts will come up,” he said.

According to him Representative Alex Tyler of Bomi County who was in the center of the allegation to oust him through financial inducement was now the Speaker of the House of Representatives responsible to oversee the probe committee.

“Interestingly, the recordings that we have, all of the voices on the recording alluded to one giver and that one giver was the then Chairman of the Ways, Means and Finance, who is the current Speaker, Alex Tyler.

He was the one that received the money from wherever it came from and he was distributing the money. Now he’s the presiding officer,” he claimed, adding that the process would regain its credibility were Speaker Tyler to recuse him.

Meantime, Rep. Snowe has alleged that in a new twist of events the government is masking its lack of will power to fight corruption and reunite the Liberian people by orchestrating conditions that will culminate into impeachment proceedings against him. 

According to him, the alleged foot dragging by House Judiciary Committee to rule in the probe was intended to provide maneuvering space for the LPRC management to muddle the process by lifting the case of corruption filed against him in a magisterial court in Monrovia sometime last year.

“But there are plans and there will be plans to stall this process. As a matter of fact, we’ve received indications through our network that come May there will be this massive campaign on indictment regarding the situation at LPRC which I think is welcoming because it’s just fair for us to clear our names,” Mr. Snowe, who said his current studies is preparing him to contribute to conflict resolution in the future in Liberia and at the UN level, told the online magazine.

He said if the court vindicated him that would force the government cooperate with him in matters regarding his constituency plus paving the way for the establishment of a vibrant opposition against the Sirleaf administration.

“Liberians will have to do that and until we reconcile this country to appreciate each other and to understand that where my rights end, this is where yours begin and to know that we have to co-exist as Liberians and that we are equal before the law, we will not move forward,” Rep. Snowe said.

The Analyst could not reach relevant agencies of government for comment on Snowe’s allegation, but when the issue of bribery to remove the speaker popped up last year, President Sirleaf said it was the figment of the then speaker’s imagination and that the Presidency would not stoop so low to enter into a conspiracy against any public official, to say nothing about Snowe who is “a friend” of the Executive Mansion.

The President at the time also said the government was willing to launch a probe in conjunction with the House of Representatives and would release any subpoenaed official to any probe.

What can't be easily be commented on without first frisking relevant government agencies, according to observers and analysts, is whether or not the government lacks the will power and ability to reunite the Liberian people, as claimed by Mr. Snowe, even though it continues to provide financial and moral support to the TRC process.