There are two deceptive questions Liberian politicians want to impress on the minds of voters in 2017.

First, who has the best platform or agenda? (Why the politician’s platform and not the citizens’ platform if the voter is the employer?) Second, who is the most experienced and qualified candidate academically? (If a smart Harvard Graduate and Nobel Laureate failed to uproot systemic corruption, why not prioritize changing the corrupt system?)

The answers to these deceptive questions will never lead to a better quality of life, a bright new feature of hope, justice, and equal opportunities for Liberians because Liberia’s current system of governance designed by politicians to enrich the political elites is corrupt, broken, and beyond redemption!

We need a new system designed by the citizens to empower citizens as masters who can set the salaries and benefits of public servants as well as make good laws and repeal bad laws without the permission or approval of the president or legislature! The old corrupt and broken system must go!

Now is the time that we the people unite to abandon the 170-year-old broken system in order to start from scratch. Just as Liberians in 1847 abandoned a racist and corrupt system after decades of fruitless struggles in America, Liberians in 2017 must prioritize designing a new system of governance that is consistent with Article I of the Liberian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All power is inherent in the people. All free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit and they have the right to alter and reform the same when their safety and happiness so require…”

Some may ask why now? “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is now,” the popular adage says. Liberia is going nowhere until we have systemic change – a new constitution and new institutions – not President Sirleaf’s flawed constitution!

Compared to Canada, which recently celebrated 150 years of progress as a country, Liberia’s 170 years of retrogression as the fourth poorest country in the world is not due to the lack of experience or academic qualifications of our past or present presidents.

Liberia is backward because of our broken, deadly, and corrupt system of governance that empowers politicians as masters and relegates citizens to positions of slaves and mere voters.

Therefore, the most relevant and important question of 2017 isn’t who is going to lead Liberia but what’s the best system of governance that can unleash the God-given potentials and dreams of Liberians? It’s not the choice of candidates but our system of governance that will determine where Liberia lands in the next fifty years.

With Liberians crumbling under the weight of economic woes, thousands graduating from colleges without jobs, endemic corruption, excessive salaries and benefits of politicians and diabolical human sacrifices, the message to voters from the cohort of 2017 aspirants is shortsighted, self-serving and unanimous; “Just Put Me There!”

Accordingly, no matter who is elected, it will be “business as usual” because Liberia’s broken and corrupt system will remain firmly in place. After election day, the politicians will become the masters, not public servants.

They will set excessive salaries and benefits for themselves and lawmakers will continue to make bad laws with no regards to our future and interest of the people! The voters will become powerless and must wait hopelessly for another election cycle.

In 50 years, all the current career politicians and political novices seeking elective office in 2017 will be dead and gone as well as all the trees in our forests, all the iron ore, gold, diamonds and crude oil deposits underground. Countless young lives will be lost to barbaric human sacrifices and Liberia’s old, broken, deadly and corrupt system of governance designed by politicians to enrich politicians will continue to enrich politicians, to the detriments of the people.

Liberian politicians are not bad people. Like ordinary citizens, they are human beings-mere imperfect human beings, albeit, stuck for 170 years in a broken, deadly and corrupt system designed by politicians to enrich the political elites of the day!  To cure Liberia’s political woes, we need systemic change, not “business as usual”!

For 170 years, Liberians have been deceived to think we can make progress with the right political leader running a corrupt and broken system of governance. Despite fielding four Harvard graduates in our last election cycle, a smart Harvard graduate at the helm for over a decade, Liberia, Africa’s first republic, is still the fourth poorest country on Earth, with barbaric human sacrifices, endemic corruption, widespread illiteracy, uncontrolled unemployment and a crumbling economy.

In a democratic system, the ordinary people, irrespective of their education, religion, ethnicity or social status are the only ones who can design new democratic systems of governance. After all, democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Instead of wasting your votes on politicians, use your votes to change your future by creating a new system that works for the people, not the politicians. Join Citizens Independence Initiative and help create the citizens’ agenda and citizens prosperity platform for systemic change! Join today! Don’t delay!

Featured Image courtesy of Wikimedia