This post was originally published on The Washington Informer
By Sam P.K. Collins
As Liberians prepare to commemorate the adoption of the nation’s flag on August 24, young people will take to the streets of Monrovia to demand that Liberian President George Weah, and other politicians, take the steps to significantly improve the quality of life in the small West African country.
This rally, organized by the Student Unification Party (SUP), counts as part of an ongoing #FixtheCountry campaign. It will take place nearly a month after supporters of the Congress for Democratic Change, Weah’s political party, allegedly stripped, beaten, and tortured Christopher Walter Sisulu Sivili on the campus of African Methodist Episcopal University in Monrovia.
“In their manifesto, SUP has called on the Weah administration and other officials within the Liberian government to stop siphoning funds allocated for the census, infrastructure projects, and the public education and health sectors.”
Sivili, an SUP member and University of Liberia student, was counted among several young people who converged on the campus during a protest on July 26, Liberia’s independence day. In a statement, SUP members likened the public beating to the well-documented torture and killing of President Samuel K. Doe during the Liberian Civil War in the early 1990s.
In their manifesto, SUP has called on the Weah administration and other officials within the Liberian government to stop siphoning funds allocated for the census, infrastructure projects, and the public education and health sectors.