In a statement issued Monday, the Liberia National Student Union (LINSU) has condemned the Liberian government’s current memorial, healing, and reconciliation efforts as a “national scam” and a “grotesque betrayal” of the country’s struggle for justice and democracy.
LINSU’s leadership sharply criticized the initiative launched under President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s administration, which includes exhumations and ceremonial reburials of selected national figures. According to the union, the program dangerously glorifies “tyrants and appalling oligarchs” while ignoring countless victims of state violence and war-era atrocities.
“This state-sponsored rebranding of tyrants under the deceptive guise of ‘national memorial’ is a grotesque betrayal of Liberia’s progressive legacy,” the statement reads. “It is a subtle act by remnants of the oligarchy to delay or escape accountability.”
The student union argued that the current memorial agenda is “selective,” ignoring martyrs and victims from critical moments in Liberia’s troubled past, such as the April 14, 1979, Rice Riots, the April 12, 1980, military coup, the 1985 Greystone massacre, and the 1990 St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre where over 600 civilians were killed.
“Whose pain do we remember? And whose wounds are we healing?” LINSU asked, highlighting the exclusion of student martyrs and unnamed victims of rape, murder, and displacement.
Adding to the criticism, LINSU expressed disappointment at what it describes as the “cowardly silence” of former student activists and self-declared progressives now holding positions in the government. Without naming specific officials, the union accused them of betraying the ideals they once championed.
“You cannot sing Fidel, Che, Nkrumah, and Sankara in opposition, and whisper Tolbert and Doe in power,” the statement said. “Political power is not a license to forget.”
LINSU also issued a four-point demand to the Boakai administration:
* Establishment of a People’s Memorial Commission (PMC) to recognize all victims of past violence, including victims of state repression and war crimes.
* A national dialogue involving civil society, students, traditional elders, and victims’ families to create an inclusive path to national healing.
* Full funding and activation of the War and Economic Crimes Court, calling justice the necessary foundation for genuine reconciliation.
* A policy of balanced national narrative in educational curricula, media, and national monuments ~ ensuring the legacy of grassroots heroes is not erased.
In closing, LINSU declared its continued commitment to resisting historical revisionism and defending the memory of Liberia’s martyrs.
“We are calling on President Boakai, if he is truly intent on leading this effort of a reconciled nation, let him first stand where the victims of our bitter past fell,” the statement concluded.
Signed by LINSU Secretary-General Darius S. Toweh and approved by President James Gbelee Washington, the release underscores a renewed wave of student activism challenging the nation’s political establishment on questions of justice, memory, and truth.
