SI News Admin
As the popular parlance goes, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” This statement can be attributed to the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), as Liberians have witnessed huge internal wrangling among top executives of the party in the last few months.
The Collaborating Political Parties is a conglomeration of four political parties – the All Liberia Party (ALP), the Alternative National Congress (ANC), the Liberty Party (LP), and the Unity Party (UP).
The CPP was established in 2019 and formally adopted into law in April 2020 with a famous mantra of making President Weah a “one-term president.” This mantra was the “talk of the town” among supporters of the party both in Liberia and the Diaspora.
During the 2020 Senatorial mid-term elections, the CPP headed by Mr. Alexander B. Cummings won six counties, including vote-rich counties like Montserrado, Bong, Grand Bassa, and Lofa County.
The Coalition for Democratic Change didn’t just perform decimally in that elections; they lost their stronghold to the CPP for the first time in its existence. Pundits predicted a significant battle between the CPP and the CDC, expecting the CPP to emerge as winners based on the results from the just-ended elections.
What a great starting point for the CPP? With this momentum and “unity,” the collaboration became the new hope of the Liberian people.
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Individual Interest over Country Interest
As I mentioned earlier, the real intent of the CPP was to form a formidable collaboration that could unseat President George M. Weah in the 2023 general and presidential elections. Although the senatorial elections victory boosted their chance, the CPP goal accomplishment was still far from reach.
The first major hit in the CPP was based on “whom to lead the collaboration?” The two presidential hopefuls, Joseph N. Boakai (Unity Party) and Alexander B. Cummings (Alternative National Congress) were only opting for the standard bearer-ship of the party and nothing less.
Amb. Boakai and Mr. Cummings, on separate occasions, lamented their ambitions for the standard-bearer position of the party. You could sense that nobody was willing to accept the decision that would favor the other person.
Their supporters couldn’t help but “add insult to injury” with the constant war of words from one party to another. “Cummings is greedy for power; Joseph Boakai is old and sick to run for the presidency” are some of the comments from supporters of both parties.
Rather than working together for the country’s common good, they are all seeking their parties’ interests.
Mr. Urey – ALP VS Mr. Cummings – ANC
Despite the controversy of “whom to head the collaboration ticket,” the party was still holding on. During the chairmanship of Hon. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence – the standard-bearer of the Liberty Party – Mr. Urey wrote a communication to her alleging that Mr. Cummings has altered the framework document of the CPP. This alleged alteration saga was the point of destabilization for the CPP. Mrs. Lawrence was unable to handle the matter. The four Collaborating Political Parties’ Lawyers advised their clients to calm down on the situation and refrained from using words that had the propensity to destroy the party. The two-party standard bearers and their members couldn’t stop publicly accusing one another.
From one accusation to the other and both parties not willing to settle down on the matter, the ALP’s standard-bearer to the matter to court – not just stopping there but the party’s National Executive Committee also instructed their political leader to withdraw from the collaboration. At the time of this writing, Mr. Cummings is currently being trial by the Monrovia City Court.
It will amaze you to know that top media outlets are reporting that the government’s lawyer representing Mr. Urey’s interest is asking for the appearance of Madam Lawrence and Amb. Boakai to testify against the ANC standard bearer – one of their colleagues. Isn’t this a complete contradiction to the reason they form the collaboration?
Final Thought
Instead of focusing on strategies that could make them better candidates in the presidential and general elections in 2023, they have turned their attention to tearing each other apart. With the massive love and support from the Liberian people, the CPP executives are paying them back with disagreement, division, lack of leadership, bad feelings, and you name the rest.
The Collaborating Political Parties are firmly working towards the reelection of President Weah in 2023 rather than making him a “one-term” president.
Watch Out for part two!
