And The Oscar Goes To...

Each time Hollywood gives the Oscar to a winner for the first time, history is made on the night, and TV watchers like myself relish to see the moment when the winner ascends the podium to give the "Thank You" speech. Protocol demands that the speech remain under 60 seconds, but this can pose a challenge for first-time winners--remember Halle Berry's bizarre lip-locking with Russell Crowe when she made history as the first black woman to win an Oscar, but then forgetting to thank her co-star Billy Bob Thornton.

So all week I was worried how Djimon Hounsou, the male model turned actor who left his native Benin at age 13, wandered the streets of Paris as a vagrant, before he was discovered by fashion designer Thierry Mugler, would handle his "Thank You" speech if he won, becoming the first male African to win the Oscar. "Blood Diamond," the movie he co-starred in alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, was nominated for five Academic Awards, including the nomination for best supporting actor in a Hollywood drama, for which Djimon was nominated.

But "Blood Diamond" was shut out in all categories. Hollywood missed a glorious chance to make history by failing to give Djimon the award. Well, forget the Oscar, because Djimon's portrayal in the movie of Solomon Vandy, the Mende fisherman who loses his son and is forced to work in a diamond field by the ragtag Revolution United Front(RUF), has helped convinced the world that what went on in Sierra Leone-- and Liberia as well-- was fuelled, in large part, by the the West's voracious obsession for diamonds or "blood diamonds."

Even though Djimon did not win the Oscar, of which I am so disappointed, the tale and intrigues that drive the plot of "Blood Diamond" is an all too familiar experience of how innocent lives are lost in the crossfire, becoming the collateral damage in conflicts where mercenaries served as the middle-man between local warring groups and multinationals desperately seeking to benefit from the spoils of war.

As a consequence, "Blood Diamond will, perhaps, play a significant role in helping to implement the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), which is designed to certify the origin of diamonds from sources devoid of conflict. Many countries, including Liberia, have affixed their signatures to this document, which was established in 2002 to prevent rival rebel groups from financing their war aims from diamonds.

To this end, we must congratulate Hollywood, and especially director Edward Zwick, for masterminding the telling of a story against the backdrop of a civil war where a local farmer, a diamond smuggler, and a relentless journalist are brought together, each wanting to outsmart the other. In the end, what you have is a classical movie. For me , the Oscar goes to Djimon Hounsou to say the least.

Willis Knuckles would be out if he were a Nigerian Minister of State

I read on the BBC last week that the Nigerian parliament is holding a public debate intended to gather support for a proposed bill that will officially ban the practice of homosexuality in that country. If this succeeds, Nigeria would have taken a bold legal stance against homosexuality on the continent.

While our Nigerian brothers and sisters were debating the illegality of homosexuality over the weekend, in such places as Abuja, Lagos, and elsewhere, their cousins to the west, in Liberia, awoke to a photographic embarrassment in which their Minister of State Willis Knuckles poses as a sexual protagonist in an orgy with two women.

Expectedly, Minister Knuckles has come out to admit that he is the the one in the picture, offering apologies to his wife, family, friends, the President and to the Republic for the embarrassment his action has caused. But the minister stopped short of the wise, expected and prudent action--resignation.

His refusal to step down after embarrassing the nation makes me wonder what would have happened if this had been in Nigeria. I am just curious to know what would the head of the Nigerian Anglican Church, Archbisphop Peter Jasper Akinnola, who broke away from the Episcopal Church of the United States over the ordination of gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson, have said to President Olusegun Obasanjo if one of his ministers had been caught in such gross sexual indecency? I guess Bishop Akinnole would not have had to say anything because that minister would have resigned on his own accord, fearing the rebuke of the Nigerian public that has little patience and tolerance for such deviant sexual depravity seeming so disrespectful of African women.

I even wonder whether President Obasanjo would have waited after Friday's prayers to be pressured by the late Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Mohammadu Maccido, former spiritual leader of Nigeria's 70 million Muslims. You bet not!

Fellow Liberians, I am not judging Mr. Knuckles here, neither should anyone. He made a terrible mistake and has apologized and must be forgiven-- he's human. I'm no moral compass for the Tera Connors, the Ted Haggards, and the Anna Nicole Smiths of this world. Neither am I one of the Pharisees who took it upon himself to stone the woman caught in the act of adultery.

But I have a right to demand the resignation of a minister whose sexual misconduct has brought disrepute to his office, shame to the presidency, and indignity to the nation. You have that same right as well. If Minister Knuckles were a private citizen, we would not be having this conversation. But as a public figure, he can not be caught in such an act and still expect to remain in his position.

No government official or public figure should get away with this type of behavior in our democracy. In an era where Liberians hope to raise the profile of the Liberian woman in all spheres of Liberian life, Minister Knuckles' refusal to resign undermines this effort. I call on Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia's and Africa's first female President, to request the resignation of the disgraced minister, sparing her office, the women of Liberia, and the entire country the emotional pain and embarrassment of Minister Knuckles' behavior.

If the president can not act, then we need to hear the voices of the pastors, the bishops, the imams, who nourish the moral direction of the state. What is Pastor Dr. Sam Reeves of Providence Baptist Church saying? Is Pastor Reverend Trokon Lanford of Effort Baptist Church appalled by Mr. Knuckles' act? I want to know whether Pastor Wolo M. Belleh of the Bethel Cathedral of Hope will be requesting the minister's resignation in this Sunday's sermon. There has to be somebody in that ecumenical body who will raise a loud voice and tell Minister Knuckles: "We love you and forgive you, but you ought to step down."

But if our Christian community fails us in this regard, our Islamic conscience must not let us down. Are Imams Mohammed Umaru Sheriff and Imam Vangomor Tully of the the Supreme Muslim Council ready to take a stand?

Like their Nigerian counterparts, Liberian Christian and Muslim leaders must never allow such precedent, where a minister will be involved in a sexual debauchery and refuse to resign.

Is there any role for civil society, the media and opposition political parties in this scandal? Shouldn't they compel the resignation of the minister? Are newspapers and radio stations prepared to sanction the executive until Mr. Knuckles leaves the Ministry of State?

If anything, I know one group of people who will inevitably issue a call for resignation-- the men and women of the University of Liberia. I expect SUP, SIM and STUDA to demand the resignation of the minister.

I admire the Nigerians, and I know exactly what they would do in this situation. I know what they would say to President Obasanjo. They would shout in Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, and English and demand the resignation of such a minister. Can my native Liberia do the same?

The consequences of wrong choices in politics

Edwin Snowe, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Liberia, has thrown in the towel, but not without putting on a strong show that may suggest that he won the fight. He took as many embarrassing punches against the ropes, went down in the early rounds, but managed in each round to use his jibs so effectively that the judges, in the end, ruled that many of those punches were way below the belt. Therefore, they disqualified his opponents, leaving the impression that he won the fight.

Mr. Snowe also seems to have won the public support and sympathy, thanks in large part to his adversaries' poorly conceived and batched plan to knock him out. Once it backfired, Mr.Snowe played the victim's card well. And by resigning today, his popularity may soar among his supporters and even those who think politics--not anything he did or didn't do--ignited the fight.

That a man who is under serious allegation of corruption and may soon be charged by the Liberian government could be going home from now onwards to a heroic welcome in his district and elsewhere is utterly unbelievable. But this isn't the first, second, or third time this is happening in our politics. We saw it under Charles Taylor. Many of the former warlords used it. Mr. Snowe is just the latest beneficiary among the many before him to enjoy this unfounded public support.

Now that the crisis in the first branch is over, it is important to reflect upon why this scenarios always recurs in our politics. As a nation, we continue to suffer the consequences of wrong choices. Why if Taylor had not led the revolution? The outcome would have been probably different.To begin with, Taylor represented so many wrongs; he was charged with corruption, had a questionable past, but strangely enough, he was given the leadership in the NPFL. The history that follows after Taylor should remind us of the serious consequences of wrong choices in politics.

Fast-forward to 2006, after an important election that ended years of civil war, the in-coming House members had to choose a leader. Instead, they settled for Mr. Snowe as Speaker, ignoring accusations upon accusations that as head of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC), Mr. Snowe misappropriated thousands, if not millions of dollars. By attempting to remove him as speaker, most of the freshmen members who elected him, were trying to correct a previous mistake of electing him, but this could have plunged the nation into serious chaos and confusion.

Under any condition--whether a choice may have a profound deleterious consequence on the nation or not, as in the case with Taylor leading the revolution, or a relatively modest political hiccup as the Snowe saga--deciding what choice to make must be weighed heavily against immediate and future consequences to the nation. In fact, such a choice, I believe, is easier when it involves a small number of privileged group of people, say, lawmakers gathering to elect a new leadership, which members of the House will soon do, or certain powerful political elites deciding who should lead a major political event, say, the group that decided on Taylor leading the revolution in 1989. On the other hand, the choice is hardest when it is open-ended as in a general election for president of the nation. The 1997 election could be cited as an example.

Thus, the resignation of Speaker Snowe presents members of the House with another chance to make amends with the past, and to this end, the House must elect a speaker by avoiding the unnecessary closed-door desultory negotiations by bringing the matter to the floor for open debate. Anyone seeking the position must be made to earn it by the quality of debate, ability to build consensus among the various parties; he or she must be made to show evidence of sound leadership, must be an individual who commands respect, a person of integrity, and a one who can represent the people of Liberia in the eyes of the world.

It is my conviction that anyone who emerges out of this type of vetting process would bring some credibility and respect to the House. He or she will earn the admonition of his colleagues. But more importantly, members of the House, by electing such a speaker, would be vindicated by their own staff, by their peers in the Senate, members of the executive branch, their constituents, and the Liberian population both home and abroad. Only by subjecting potential candidates to this type of rigor would House members be thoughtfully considering the consequences of their choice.