2 senators join CDC with various tales

Two senators from the opposition have crossed over to the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, respectively giving reasons for their latest decision.

Sinoe County Senator Doctor Peter Coleman, formerly a member of the Congress for Democratic Change, but left the CDC and contested as an Independent Candidate in 2011, and River Cess County Senator Dallas A. Gueh of the former ruling Unity Party have been providing various accounts here.

Senator Gueh, one of the main supporters of the ex-ruling Unity Party during the 2017 Presidential and Legislative Elections publicly confesses that both the UP and the campaign team of former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai seriously underestimated George Manneh Weah in the race.

He says his declaration of membership with the now ruling Coalition for Democratic Change on Sunday evening, July 22, at the CDC headquarters in Congo Town is as the result of the first democratic transfer of power in 70 years that ushered in the leadership of President Weah, adding, “A man we underestimated, but achieved a victory that we can described as a tsunami victory. This leadership is a reflection of hope, idealism, and pragmatism as opposed to theories and the lack of political will. It requires all hands on deck, from all political spectrum and ideologies”, while Senator says he resigned earlier from the CDC because cerebrum malaria ate his brain.

“You know the story in the Bible of a prodigal son; I am the prodigal son. A son that was part and parcel of the beginning of the party, but I know maybe that Cerebrum Malaria got in my head and I went the other way,” he disclosed Sunday while declaring his membership with the CDC again.

President George Manneh Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change is one of three political parties that formed alliance against former ruling Unity Party (UP) to win the presidency on the ticket of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) last December.

Senator Coleman confesses he left the CDC at a time the party needed him most, but claims that during the two past presidential elections … the party was robbed of its victories.

For his part, Senator Gueh was among 20 senators, who endorsed former Vice President Boakai for the presidency and vigorously campaigned against Weah.But he now says the Weah administration, which many believe will fail, will be a slap in the faces of haters and pessimists.

“They will be forced to respect the man. Because of what we have envisioned in our futuristic telescope mind, and being a political realist, we can no longer afford to sit on the fringes and periphery of history. We have to be a part of this history. And this we set to do,” he maintains.

According to him, he has come to realize as a public servant that the true tenants of democracy are sustained by concerted collaborative efforts, encompassing people of different political ideologies – liberals or conservatives.

“My compatriots, where we find ourselves, is not about an individual or a party; it is about Liberia. No one else can make it a better place than each one of us. Liberia supersedes my individual interest. Our individual loyalties must be to this Liberia. It is all we have. We cannot afford to sit on the fringes of history. We must be the history makers. This why I have come to this party, to join hands with those who have paved the way to offer my support in whatever way I can to contribute my quota towards nation building ,” he concludes.

Sen. Coleman, also a former Minister of Health, says during his membership with the CDC, he was criticized on grounds that the party was a place for gangsters, hustlers, zogoes and bunch of violent people, noting that those people are today part of the CDC and are heaping praises on President Weah, and as a founding member, he couldn’t continue to be outside.

He resigned from the CDC on April 3, 2017, when the party attempted to investigate him about his role in the John F. Kennedy Medical Center’s operations.
Meanwhile, CDC National Chairman Mulbah Morlu welcomes both senators on board and immediately appoints Senator Gueh as chairman for the party’s local headquarters construction in Rivercess County.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor–Edited by Winston W. Parley