Upon taking over and driving away his political allies, late Samuel Doe dreamed of ruling Liberia the Tubman style. But political analysts believe he surpassed the man he professed to imitate.  

In order to disguise his totalitarian rule, late Samuel Doe founded his own youth movement to use it as a cover-up to get at opposition members. YOPDA’s chairman, Wille Jones, usually dressed like one paramount chief from Lofa County became late Doe’s agent of elimination schemes. Wille Jones, other than YOPDA, founded a hostile group known as NDPL Task Force which terrorized mainly followers of opposition members and other civilians.  

Recent statement issued by the Youth for the Promotion of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf Administration YOPME JOSA alleging that opposition members are behind the wave of crimes allegedly committed by Isakaba in Monrovia and other parts of the country brings back the memories of the late Samuel Doe’s YOPDA and its task force. 

A couple of days ago I wrote a commentary titled, “Using modern technology to solve Executive Mansion Fire Incident.” In that article, I praised the Unity Party-led government for living up to its promise to the Liberian people by eliminating the concept of witch-hunt based of speculations, rumors and whispers.  

The article was prompted by the fact that there was a room as was in the case of past regimes to falsely incriminate opposition members. Immediately after the fire incident, it was reported that former LURD leader, Sekou Conneh and former Presidential Affairs minister, Morris Dukuly met in the latter’s office at the Executive Mansion.  

However, the president was not deterred by this news and other circumstances in the event of the fire; instead she pursued the most advanced investigative method to solve the fire mystery. Shortly after the article was published, one reader emailed me asking why I could not wait and see. The reader said African leaders are African white chickens, meaning that they change quickly when praised.  

I respected the reader’s opinion, but made him to understand that as journalists we suppose to be neutral and objective in our reports, commentaries, and editorials. As journalists we should not only point out the wrong of the government, we should also point out things government does that are right.  

When YOPME JOSA surfaced on the Liberian political landscape, its first major mission was to accuse opposition members of being behind the notorious criminal gang called Isakaba. While analysts from media and political institutions were analyzing YOPMEJOSA’s accusation, the president added her voice by agreeing with her youth movement that some elements were using the infamous Isakaba to destabilize her government.  

When I heard about YOPMEJOSA, I began to ponder over the significance of a presidential youth movement. What are its objectives and what contributions would it make to Liberian socio-political development. Judging from past experience, I was quickly convinced that YOPMEJOSA is nothing but a group of opportunists bent on exploiting Liberian current state of affairs- whose first mission has the resemblance of YOPDA.  

Liberian current state of affairs is security-Isakaba men are terrorizing ordinary Liberians. The fact of the matter is Isakaba men are the same elements who lived their lives through the Isakaba way for 14 years. The name Isakaba is what new but the behavior should not be strange to us Liberians and to the incumbent government.  

When we as Liberians examine ourselves properly we will find out that both the so-called defeated politicians and the ruling politicians created Isakaba. The day we freed Charles Taylor from the US prison and arranged his mysterious disappearance from the US was the beginning of Isakaba.  

We are living in a country without our own armed police amid thousands of jobless ex-combatants coupled with inflation, and yet we tend to blame one group of people for the rising crime rates. Why shift this economically, socially, and psychologically motivated problem to politics?  The bottom line is what the root cause of the security problem in Liberia?  Until then can we arm our police to go after these hooligans or do we compound the problem by attributing it to people based on unsubstantiated claims?  

Will the Sirleaf administration disregard or in fact dissolve this so-called YOPMEJOSA which many Liberians believe brings back the painful memories of late Doe’s YOPDA?