7 Mins Read
By Bishop Nimley J. Donyen Column
ADNews-Monrovia: An Igbo-Nigerian Roman Catholic missionary to Pleebo, Maryland County (1978 to 1980), Rev. Father Edwin Ngorkor used to say: “When clothes are dirty, though we may have soap and detergent, we still need water to wash the dirty clothes. But if the water is very dirty, there is no need to use it to wash the dirty clothes.”
Immense thanks to all of you, My Dear Supporters, who support my plan to go to the Supreme Court for redress, and those who say I should not go “there.” Because most of You, My Dear Supporters, say I should not go “there,” I will not go “there.”
Immense thanks to you for your advice that I should not go to waste my precious time at the Supreme Court of Liberia.
You gave me this same advice before in October, November and December 2023, and I gave you reasons why going to the Supreme Court for redress was the best way. So you allowed me to go. I went to the Supreme Court. By the time I got to know that you were very right when you were saying that the Supreme Court of Liberia was not a place for me to go with a political case, and that going to the Supreme Court of Liberia for redress was a total waste of time, it was very late for me, and for all of us. I pray that I always remember your wisdom and seek your wisdom.
Experience being the best of all teachers, I cannot, at this time, do otherwise if the majority of you, my Dearest Supporters, say that I should not go back to the Supreme Court to waste my precious time. I will not go.
I am sorry the words of a Chief Justice at the opening of a term of court are not, “I obeyed my conscience in rendering judgements. I believe that my judgements were in line with the spirit and letter of the law. So I will leave this court with clear conscience.”
Rather, some of the statements in the last speech of a Chief Justice of Liberia at the opening of a term of court, which is the last of the Chief Justice’s term of court, are: “We are aware that our opinions have been met with criticism, oftentimes what I considered bias, particularly in cases where political figures are involved. As we continue this important workout, I extend my deepest sympathy to those who may feel at aggrieved and unsatisfied with our decision.”
This brings to my mind what happened in a town in Southeastern Liberia. A man in the town was respected and revered. But when his days on earth were coming to an end, the mouth of this so called honorable man said things that shocked almost everybody. He confessed to being responsible for some of the atrocities that took place in the town:
“I killed this person. I killed that person.”
“I killed this person. I killed that person.”
“I did this bad thing. I did that bad thing.”
I hope the apology is not the beginning of what Liberians will hear when the days on earth are coming to an end.
In his play, Julius Caesar, the English writer William Shakespeare includes the statement of the Roman General Marc Antony: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” It is good that the end can come.
Let us pray so that when the days of a justice of our Supreme Court are coming to an end, the justice will say, “I obeyed my conscience in rendering judgements. I believe that my judgements were in line with the spirit and letter of the law. I leave with clear conscience. My God, I am coming to you.”
To my admirers who want me to focus only on rendering humanitarian services, I thank you for your advice. With the grace of God I will do what the good Lord equips me to do.
However, I need to say to all that the same spirit of sympathy that leads me to see someone in an unwholesome condition and inspires me to go and beg around to bring relief to the sufferer, is the same spirit that leads me to see wrong in society and not pretend that things are fine.
To pretend that things are fine when they are not fine is to refuse to do what I am obliged to do. When I pretend that things are fine, but in reality they are not fine, I commit the Sin Of Omission. This is why the great Apostle St. James says, “Anyone who knows the good he or she is supposed to do and does not do it, is guilty of sin,” (James 4:17).
Know this and believe it. My trying to give to people who need help does not mean that I am rich. I am not rich. I am poor. But God gives to me so that I can give to others. I am just a medium.
I also know that God is not limiting my ministry to giving alone. My ministry also includes seeing and recognizing social evils and doing or saying something about it.
It is no secret that this Supreme Court Bench, on which Sie-A-Nyene G Youh, Jamesetta Woloko, Yussif Kaba and Yamie Gbeisay sit,
is unable to administer transparent justice.
This “water” is too dirty. We cannot use “this water” to wash “our dirty clothes.” A living example is the House of Representatives Majority Bloc and Minority Bloc case which has been in the Supreme Court of Liberia for more than a quarter of a year.
The justices know what is right, but they are afraid to say what is right.
What will ever be wrong with the Justices of Our Supreme Court looking in the faces of the Majority Bloc and telling them that they are wrong?
What will be wrong with the Justices of Our Supreme Court looking in the faces of members of the Minority Bloc and telling them that they are wrong?
If it were some poor person like Nimely Donyen, the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of Our Supreme Court would have twisted the truth long since in order to end the dispute.
This is why the most honorable thing that this Chief Justice and the three Associate Justices who were active in Our Supreme Court in December 2023 and January 2024 need to do is to resign and leave Our Country’s Final Place Of Arbitration.
Your refusal to leave the Supreme Court is doing a lot of harm to Liberia.
I am surprised Sie-A-Nyene G Youh, Jamesetta Woloko, Yussif Kaba and Yamie Gbeisay did not leave the Supreme Court Bench of Liberia last year 2024. Sie-A-Nyene is caught by the retirement law. The other three justices need to leave the Supreme Court Bench of Liberia also.
The “water” is too dirty. We need the kind of “water” that can be used to “wash” our clothes.
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