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Musa Bility’s Tsunami Victory,
Liberia’s Obama Moment By Nvasekie N. Konneh 23 March, 2010  It
was a fiercely fought campaign between the incumbent president Ms.
Izetta Wesley and challenger, Musa Bility. The incumbent leader had no
impressive record to wow the stakeholders and football enthusiasts to
her side and the challenger ran a campaign anchored on change message.
For Liberian football enthusiasts who are nostalgic about the past
glorious days of football in Liberia and are longing for the resurgence
of such, it was the change messenger and his message of change that
resonated with them. And the result was a Tsunami victory for the
messenger of change crafted as “Commercialization of football in
Liberia.” He pointed out his own success as a business man as example of
what he can do for the Liberian football. The victory of Musa Bility has its most significant meaning in the fact that ethnicity, religion didn’t matter to the 88 stakeholders who decided the outcome of the election. Though the 88 voters may be small in number, they represent the cross sections of Liberians for whom football is like a religion. For these people to have overlooked Musa Bility’s ethnicity and religion is an indication that despite everything, Liberians can overcome the negative effect of ethnocentric and religious divisions. It also shows that Musa Bility has demonstrated the ability to transcended ethnicity and religion in his dealing with his fellow Liberians. Over the years, he has not limited his relationship with only people in his community. He has built friendship with people from various backgrounds and today he counts among his friends some of the most influential people around the issue of football in Liberia. Some of these former and present football executives have been around when Musa was in diaper. This sentiment was echoed in the remark by Mr. John Tubman, a former president of LFA. In his brief remark during the unveiling of Musa Bility’s “Vision for the New LFA,” Mr. Tubman said, “When I was the president of LFA, most of you were not born.” The fact that Musa has come from a humble beginning in Saclepea, Nimba County to reach this far speaks volume of his ability to connect with others. That ability to connect with others beyond ethnicity and religion plus the necessity for change in the leadership of LFA combined to give him the opportunity to be elected as the president of LFA. Others that were elected along with Musa are the former Lone Star player, Musa Shannon as Vice President for Administration, Adolf Lawrence as Vice President for Operation. There were four candidates vying for the post of vice president for administration but from all indication it was a two-horse-race between Musa Shannon and Sekou Konneh, President of the 2009 knock-out champion, BYC FC with Shannon winning by 33 votes versus 28 for Sekou Konneh. An incumbent Adolf Lawrence, VP for Operation, was able to retain his post against challenge from Joseph Farkolie 62-24 votes respectively. According to report, Bility and his allies won the three top posts with 97% of the Executive Committee. This makes it the biggest victory in the 74 year old LFA history. Prelude to the Tsunami Victory For all those who attended the “Unveiling of Musa Bility’s Vision for the New LFA” on March 16, 2010 at the PA Ribhouse in Lakpazee, Sinkor, the result of the election on March 20 was a foregone conclusion. The program started with short invocation delivered in Bassa vernacular. There were prominent faces in the crowd and these are faces that have been around Liberian football for decades. Among them were Willie Knuckle, former Minister of Public Work, Edwin Snow, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Mulbah, former president of LFA among others. One by one they all took to the podium to declare their support for the candidacy of Musa Bility. Mr. Mulbah was the first to speak. As veteran sport administrator, he took a retrospective look at football in Liberia which he said is a very important cause that compelled him to be at the program. He said, “In this public manner, I am here to formally declare my support for Musa Bility. I believe in his vision to take rescue the Liberian football.” This was followed by Mr. Knuckle who said, “It has pained us to see football collapsed in the last few years.” He considered this election as a “turning point for the Liberian football” and went on to say “we will be doing Liberia a favor by supporting Musa Bility.” For his part, Edwin Snow, the former LFA president said, “I am here for a simple reason. If we intend to see Liberian football degenerate any further, vote for the current leadership.” He went on to say that “Liberia football is about to wake up if Musa Bility is elected as president.” In support of Musa’s campaign, Sonie Nyuma of the Ministry of Planning promised a 1 Million dollars prize for the winner of Liberia annual football league. In my own brief remark, I talked about Musa’s humble beginning in Saclepea. How he started as a jersey boy for Golden Boys Football and Social Club in Saclepea and rose to the rank of vice president in a year time. I was the president of Golden Boys then. Since then Musa’s passion for football has not diminished. Whenever he can he has always jumped on the field to play. That was the case in 2006 when we invited him to serve as the keynote speaker during the first FELMAUSA Convention in Philadelphia. The moment he got there, he was on the field playing for Atlanta against Philadelphia. It is that passion Musa is bringing to football today which made him the candidate to win this fiercely fought election. In the audience there were many former and present executives of Liberian football as well as former and present government officials and cooperate executives representing banks and cooperations in Liberia. Among the government officials were Ambassador Commany Wisseh, Minister Amara Konneh of Planning and Economic Affairs, and former Internal Affair Minister Ambulai Johnson. They all had come to show their support for the campaign of Musa Bility. After hearing from everyone, Bility came on the podium to make a power-point presentation of his vision: Commercial sponsorship of the national leagues, the decentralization of the LFA activities; interschool system association league; youth soccer development (academy); female soccer development and improvement; national county meet decentralization, rationality and revival of participation in international club competitions (WAFU, CAF & friendly matches). Others items that form parts of the platform are incentives for the national league winners (cash); overseas training for coaches, referees, statisticians, medics, etc; introduction of beach soccer into the LFA annual season activities; the development of old timers and amputee’s football; cooperation and constant consultations with LFA stakeholders, former LFA presidents, Ministry of Youth and Sports, teams and former Lone Star players, amongst others. The result of the election was announced among jubilation from Musa’s supporters at SKD Sports Complex in Paynesville outside Monrovia as well as those that monitored it on the radio. Since then there has been many more calls to congratulate the winners. From George Wah William, one of the defeated candidates comes this, “We want to thank Mr. Bility for the convincing win. Our counsel is free, if call upon for pieces of advice and we are calling on all stakeholders to work with the new leadership for the sake of Liberia. We want to advice Mr. Bility that the world is watch him owing to his manifesto of commercializing Liberia football. Mr. Bility should be mindful of deceptive and cruel cronies. He should not allow allies to use his administration to pay-back or witch-hunt, because football is unity.” Also congratulating the newly elected president and his corps of officers was Dr. Amos Adamu, President of WAFU (West Africa Football Union) who is also a Vice President of CAF and Executive of FIFA. He declared the election as “free, fair, and transparent but football is the winner. For the good of the game, football is the winner because football is unity.” He went on to assure the newly elected officers of the Liberian football of WAFU, CAF, and FIFA full financial supports.” From a Humble Beginning Today, many people will attest to the fact that Musa Bility is a successful business man but he was not born into wealth. He has gotten this far by sheer determination, hard work and luck. He was born in Saclepea, Nimba County where he grew up until early 1988 when he moved to Monrovia. He survived the war and has since then lived in Liberia except for a period of seven months in the late 90s in US. He has BSc. In Economic from the A. M.E. Zion University and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Director, Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation, Chairman and CEO of the Renaissance Communication, the parent company of Real TV, Truth FM and the Renaissance Newspaper. He’s the President and CEO of SRIMEX Enterprises, Inc. and Chairman of the Nimba County Land Despute Commission. He also presides over both the Alpha Old Timer and Watanga FC. As he gets ready to take over as the president of LFA, Musa has announced that he would be stepping down soon as head of the National Mandingo Caucus of Liberia, an organization he has led for more than five years. |
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