Congress for Democratic Change political leader Musa Hassan Bility is warning Liberians that politicians who invoke tribalism and religion on the campaign trail are doing so precisely because they have nothing else to offer, urging voters to demand integrity and competence instead as the country moves toward its next election.
In a written statement titled "Never Again: Liberia Must Reject the Politics of Tribe, Fear, and False Religion," Bility argued that Liberia's fundamental problem is not ethnic or religious diversity but a political class that exploits those identities to escape accountability for governance failures.
"They divide us because they cannot develop us," Bility wrote. "They frighten us because they cannot lead us. They manipulate our faith because they cannot defend their stewardship."
Bility said politicians resort to tribal and religious appeals when their failures become impossible to conceal, when poverty, corruption, bad roads, unemployment and broken hospitals demand explanations they cannot give.
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"Because they know one thing," he wrote: "when their incompetence becomes visible, when the people begin demanding answers, they have only two weapons left -- tribe and religion."
He argued that every tribe, county and religion in Liberia has produced capable leaders, yet ordinary citizens continue to suffer under poor governance, undercutting any claim that ethnic or religious identity determines leadership quality.
"Tribe was never the solution, religion was never the solution, and fear was never the solution," Bility said. "Character, competence, courage, stewardship, and principle were always the solution."
Bility also took direct aim at politicians who display religious devotion during campaigns and abandon it once in office, arguing that if the teachings of the Bible and Quran were genuinely practiced by those who invoke them at election time, Liberia would not be facing its current governance crisis.
"They use God to gain power, then abandon godliness once they have it," he wrote. "Religion condemns corruption, greed, deceit, wickedness, hatred, and division. Yet the same people who wave religion before elections throw morality away the moment they enter public office."
On the question of accountability, Bility called on Liberians to stop allowing public service to function as a marketplace where political loyalty is traded without conscience or commitment to constituents.
"We cannot continue choosing leaders based on fear manufactured by warmongers and ethnic merchants," he said. "We cannot continue allowing politicians to reduce Liberia into a battlefield of tribes while they sit comfortably enriching themselves."
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He urged citizens to confront tribal and religious bigotry directly in public discourse rather than accommodate it.
"We must challenge them directly, reject them openly, and expose their hypocrisy loudly," Bility declared. "Every time Liberia has listened to fear instead of vision, division instead of ideas, and tribe instead of competence, the Liberian people have suffered. Never again."
