Key figures of the Liberty Party hierarchy, including the party’s Chairman, Musa Hassan Bility, and Standard Bearer, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, have over the past days demanded an unconditional lockdown of the entire country due to the rage of the deadly Coronavirus.
Senator Karnga-Lawrence is on record for calling on the citizenry to prepare their families for a lockdown in a day or two, get non-perishable foods, such as rice, farina, green plantain, eddoes, sugar, milk, oil, sardine, luncheon meat, butter, cornmeal, oak, etc., in order that they may stay home to prevent the virus.
Also, Chairman Bility is on record for alleging that the Muslim community buried about 15 persons over the weekend—many of whom were victims of COVID-19. Though the Hot Pepper could not independently verify Bility’s allegation, he took to his Facebook page to tell President George Weah, “Mr. President, we have reached the point for a complete lockdown. It may get worse than this, politics aside. A stitch in time saves nine.”
However, the government, through the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), contested the opinion of Senator Karnga-Lawrence for a lockdown, and urged the public to remain calm. NPHIL noted that health authorities have not reached any decision on imposing a lockdown at this time.
It is still unclear whether the lockdown Senator Karnga-Lawrence spoke about is being planned by the government or a personal call on the citizenry to self-isolate, but the NPHIL has however said that when a lockdown decision is reached it would be communicated to the public by the Incident Management System (IMS).
In another Facebook post, the Liberty Party Standard Bearer called on government actors to “stop playing politics with a deadly virus. The virus does not discriminate, more death news today again; we care more about making the right decision than the popular one. Lockdown and control the spread”.
Howbeit, what seems like an unconditional demand from the Liberty Party leaders for the government to shut down the country and impose a lockdown has not been well received by the public, including some local officials of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).
The CPP Coordinator of Montserrado County’s district #10 has expressed disagreement with his party’s Chairperson, noting that a lockdown would not augur well for the already struggling masses. “Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, you are my leader but I’m in total disagreement with this. How many Liberians can afford to buy these items you mentioned, or is it because you are getting money every month so you think it is easy to get these items? Ok…do you know how many Liberians need to sell every day before they get food on their table? Sometimes it is good to think before you post,” the CPP Coordinator, Mustapha Diallo, noted in a Facebook post.
A purported circular claimed to be from the authorities of the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Hospital almost rendered many Liberians frustrated when it stated that “everyone should stay in-door tomorrow up to 11:00 p.m. till the sun rises up, because the Liberian government has decided to spread the coronavirus early tomorrow morning by 5:00 a.m. Please be careful within your communities and counties. People have already received money to spread the coronavirus…” However, the fake news was quickly intercepted by JFK authorities, immediately releasing a disclaimer to counter the lies.
In the disclaimer released by the JFK Hospital on June 28, 2021, the hospital’s authority said, “The Management of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center attention is drawn to a statement circulating on the social media, which indicates that the Management of the JFKMC is cautioning citizens to remain indoor because the Government of Liberia has decided to spread the Coronavirus in the air, and that some individuals in the communities had received money to carry out the exercise.
“The Management of the JFKMC informs members of the general public that said information is false, misleading and counterproductive to the fight against the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Liberia.
“The public is hereby advised to ignore those messages and desist from spreading them further to family members and friends on the social media or in their various communities.
“The Management of the JFKMC encourages everyone to continue to practice those preventive measures in adherence to public health guidelines.”
Observers are pointing fingers to members of the opposition as the crafters of the fake news against the JFK authorities, and blaming the opposition for playing “dirty politics” with the locking down of the country. An observer who spoke to the Hot Pepper said those behind the government for a lockdown have sinister motives, as they may want to use shortcomings of the government to score political points, which is not the right time. The observer said, “This is a health crisis; dirty politics is of no help to the situation. Members of the opposition, especially the Liberty Party (LP) need to follow the good example of the Political Leader of the Alternative National Congress, Alexander Cummings, who has offered to render his services to the government during this time of the crisis.”