Leaders of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) are Struggling Politically from Incompetence, Corruption, and Lack of Leadership. The December 17 “We Are Tired Suffering Rally” Did Not Help Them
Posted December 19, 2022
by Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
The Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) of Liberia comprised of former Vice President Joseph Boikai, Alexander B. Cummings, Jr., Benoni Urey, and Musa Hassan Bility, have always been an interesting group of people made up of ambitious individuals whose core reason for being is to replace a sitting president.
And for good reasons, President George Manneh Weah is the target, reasons that have been chronicled over the months and years since his ascendency to the presidency, made worse by his profound lack of leadership, ineptitude, reticence, insensitivity, and public-sector corruption.
There is nothing wrong with forming a political alliance to defeat an incumbent president when there is a strong possibility that without a unified front, this unpopular president named George Manneh Weah, in a semi-democratic country such as Liberia, could lose the election and seize the ballots by deploying a North Korea-Pyongyang-style tactics with his CDC partisans to violently go after the opposition and destabilize the 2023 presidential election to remain in power.
There is a historical precedent for this electoral shenanigan that etched Emmett Harmon, Chairman of the then-Special Election Commission (SECOM), into our collective minds when ballots were burned during the 1985 presidential election to keep dictator Samuel Kanyon Doe in power.
The 1985 debacle brought Samuel Kanyon Doe to power illegally as students and opposition presidential candidates were jailed and tortured.
A way to replace the current president, to these CPP people, means engaging in questionable back-door and front-door political maneuverings, unfavorable political alliances, and shady deals with former warlords and co-conspirators of the then-14-year civil wars, which hasn’t bode well with Liberians who are watching this scary, heart-wrenching movie from the sidelines.
This strategy is not a prudent one at a time when the Liberian people are still shaking from the painful loss of their loved ones and haven’t had a closure, while some are still mourning, unemployed, exiled, and homeless, coupled with the raw facts that those that destroyed their country, tortured them and killed their relatives are roaming the streets – some serving as lawmakers, presidential friends, and friends of current lawmakers who are supposed to watch their backs.
Replacing this president, however, requires leadership, courage and convictions, patriotism, and a bold and rugged determination to get rid of the status quo of the nasty culture of impunity, and public-sector corruption.
Unfortunately, leaders of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) lack the competence, courage, convictions, compassion, and patriotism to lead Liberia.
The Republic of Liberia deserves more than colorful talking heads and emptiness.
The suffering people of Liberia deserve more than a showy mouthpiece and discredited individuals whose laid-back, criminal-like dealmaking styles and pay-for-play leadership styles are no different from the fellow in the Executive Mansion who they desperately want to replace.
The naked ambitions and disconnect shown by leaders of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), the Unity Party (UP), the Alternative National Congress (ANC), the All-Liberian Party (ALP), and the Liberty Party (LP), have been quite evident in the way these key players have carried themselves in public as they shamelessly display their egos, and radio silence even as they portray themselves as the alternative to President George Manneh Weah, who continues to give ammunition to the opposition presidential candidates as they continued to push their agendas to defeat him in the 2023 election.
A dishonest way to attract public sentiments and keep their name on the lips of the Liberian people (not spearheading a groundbreaking agenda and bold platforms to change lives and transform the country), was to announce a December 17 “We’re Tired Suffering Rally” intended to highlight dramatically the suffering of the Liberian people under President George Manneh Weah.
What these hacks did not tell the Liberian people was the profound deception hidden under their breadths during the animated public campaigns to promote their December 17 “We’re Tired Suffering Rally” which was actually a campaign to promote the presidential campaign of the dispirited Alexander B. Cummings, who as a presidential candidate is no different from the clueless George Manneh Weah.
What became an embarrassing distraction for the CPP during the planning of this rally was a missing $70,000 set aside, according to Mr. Kollah, for salaries, water, t-shirts, and transportation for people attending the rally, allegedly stolen by one Simon Davies, the driver of Martin Kollah, secretary-general of the Collaborating Political Parties.
“We had just started paying people and because of the huge crowd, I left my driver in the office and tried to divert the crowd downstairs so that I could have space to pay people who were hired to render services. It took me less than five minutes to get back, the guy, my driver was missing and he left the keys in the car with the doors opened,” Kollah said.
But how can this CPP organization and its presidential candidates accuse the incumbent president and his government of rampant corruption after making such a blunder that no sane person can wrap their head around?
Because in this era of advanced global banking with its many modern advantages, apps, money transfers, and withdrawals of funds during a 24-7 period to make life comfortable, putting this huge money into the hands of a driver, in a country of lawlessness and in-your-face-stealing, and impunity, is the height of not only outright stupidity but deception.
Why keep $70,000 around like it is $7.00 in a country where people are suffering, and corruption is shooting through the roof, yet you have around you this large amount only to tell the Liberian people that your driver stole it?
This is a country where the average Liberian lives on $1.25 and $2.00 a day, but the secretary-general of this so-called Collaborating Political Parties can play games with $70,000, only to say that his driver took off with it.
This bold-faced, shameless lie warrants an investigation and prosecution.
And this Martin Kollah guy has a lot to explain to his bosses at the CPP and the Liberian people who are tired of suffering from poverty, neglect, insensitivity, and lies from those that claimed to care for their plight.
Will this be shoved under the rug like other criminal acts in Liberia?
This is decision time for Alexander Cummings, Joseph Boakai, Benoni Urey, Musa Hassan Bility, and other leaders of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), and their various political parties.
dorbioh@hotmail.com
www.theliberiandialogue.org.
