Bility knows there are people who stand aside and watch history being made by others and then there are the history makers themselves.
LFA President Musa Bility deserves some pity, though not real pity in the absolute sense of the word. For the last seven years or more he has not hidden his desire to develop soccer in Liberia.
In the course of his love to improve Liberian, African and world football, there have been some unfortunate events that have fought against him. As a businessman, he has had issues with the law and though in the end he was exonerated, the world and those he has challenged on the corridors of football to do the right thing saw him as a threat to their ambitions.
True, Bility is aware that those who have called for transparency and fair-play in leadership have been sacrificed and even forgotten and have suffered greatly. Please recall the tragedy of Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s classic novel THINGS FALL APART and you will understand the fate of those who fight for others.
And Bility should be aware that as a consolation, there are two groups of people in this world, according to Dr. Todd Phillips, Chief Executive Officer of The Last Well – a US not for profit organization.
Dr. Phillips recently said in Monrovia that there are people who stand aside and see history made by others and then there are the history makers themselves.
Mr. Bility is among the latter, a selected number of people who believe that they have the capacity to join the history making process, instead of standing by and see others make it. So when he saw the leaders of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as a clique doing all to ensure it remains leader for life, he thought otherwise and campaigned for change.
At the time the wind of change swept through Liberia and Bility was personally involved in the campaign to bring Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to power, but he did not realize that on the corridors of power at CAF justice and fair-play were alien, to say the least.
Of course now he knows very well that unlike the political sphere, the football sphere is filled with one-sided decisions and no amount of agitation can change them. But until the world powers are interested to make a change, those who are sincere to make change are doomed to be written off, as Mr. Bility has come to learn.
Cast off by CAF after he raised legitimate concerns about lack of transparency, Bility’s attempt for the FIFA presidency was rebuffed and his quest for leadership at the world stage closed before him. Bility may take comfort in the fact that some Africans have not lost faith in him, and he now enjoys the position of being the 2nd Vice President of the West African Football Union and recently elected as Chairman of Anglophone Countries in West Africa.
Africa is to get two additional seats in FIFA's cabinet, which has been significantly expanded as part of reforms introduced by the new president of world soccer's governing body, Gianni Infantino. The pair will be decided in a vote in Cairo on Sept. 29.
CAF's first vice president Suketu Patel from the Seychelles and second vice president Almamy Kabele Camara of Guinea have been nominated as well as two other members of CAF's executive committee -- the Ghana Football Association president Kwesi Nyantakyi and his counterpart from Madagascar,
Ahmad. The other three candidates are the heads of the football associations in Niger, Senegal and South Sudan - Hamidou Djibrilla, Augustin Senghor and Chabur Goc Alei, respectively.
It is hoped that future changes in FIFA would make amends to benefit people with the spirit like Musa Bility to give them the chance to showcase their leadership ability to develop world football.