The political water in district #7, Nimba County, is said to be getting increasingly muddy by the day as the October 10, 2023 polls beam closer and closer.
At first it was Musa Hassan Bility of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) whose name was skyrocketing above all other contenders, given his development initiatives, including road projects, as well as his dishing out money among the locals.
At first it was Bility who was commonly hailed at all corners as the political darling boy and the newest savior or redeemer of the people.
Bility is on record for saying that he will ensure that history is made to see a Mandingo man taking the lead as representative of the Gio and Mano people for the first time since the civil war. According to Bility in a recent interview with journalists, he remains the underdog among other contenders given his ethnicity, Mandingo, a tribe that remains indicted by the Gios and Manos for their role in the civil crises.
But reports emerging from the district say Senator Prince Johnson, Nimba County, has muddied the water, especially for Musa Bility.
The Nimba Senator has publicly advised the people in the district not to make any mistake by electing Bility, whom he said has a deep hidden agenda to take back the land belonging to the Gios and Manos and give them to his Mandingo ethnic group.
Prince Johnson is reported to have advised the Gio and Mano people not to elect Bility, as doing so will only amount to carrying themselves back to “Egypt” as slaves. Senator Johnson is reported to have told the people in a recent political gathering in all parts of the district that Billy is being supported by the Islamic world to buy strategic places in Nimba County to build mosques, which he said will undermine Christianity in the area.
Based on Senator Johnson’s revelation, report says the Christian community in Nimba has begun preaching against the allegedly hidden agenda of Bility in all churches, which has caused the morale of Bility, who is reported to be secretly begging Senator Johnson, to sharply declined.
Meanwhile, William Dahn, who hails from the Gio belt including Zoe Chiefdom (which has a voting population of about 9,000), is said to be gradually rising as the alternative, even against the incumbent, Roger Domah. William Dahn is the only standing candidate from that side.
As it appears, Bility is being amused by the melody of the song whose wordings and meaning he does not understand. They call him savior in the songs that often greet him, yet at the same time they are telling him that his conscience is not reminding him to take precaution: “That Bility we want, but he’s stranger; that Bility we will carry, yet he’s a Mandingo man; that Bility we will vote for, yet he knows not our culture; that Bility we will carry as our representative, yet we fear for our land.”