Consult followers before pledging support

Discussions and negotiations are currently ongoing between leaders of political parties and the two forerunners from the October 10th Presidential election – the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and the governing Unity Party on the possibility of pledging support for either side during the pending runoff expected in November between Senator George Weah and Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai.

However, what has begun to unfold from these pronounced declarations of support as it is being experienced with the case of the United People’s Party (UPP) Standard Bearer Macdonald Wento’s recent declaration of support for Coalition Standard Bearer George Weah in the impending runoff, which has received quick rebuff from UPP executives.

That some executives of the party, including H.Q. Taylor and ex-senator Blamo Nelson, among others have publicly disagreed with their Standard Bearer on the reported support for the CDC, clearly signals a crack in the UPP.
According to the two executives, the party has reached no such decision on whether to support Weah or not, stressing that when a definitive conclusion on the matter is arrived at, the public will be duly informed. It is so sad that Mr. Wento went public without first consulting with his executives and the entire membership of the UPP on which way they should go as a political institution.

We all are aware that 19 senators and nearly 40 members of the House of Representatives, who endorsed the candidacy of Vice President Joseph Boakai prior to the October 10 polls and vowed to deliver their respective constituencies to the UP failed miserably to live up to their promises as indicated by the poor performance of the Boakai-Nuquay Ticket in those districts and counties.

In fact, nearly all of the incumbent Representatives who pledged support to the Vice President were vehemently rejected at the ballot box by their people, because of their dismal performance in the past six years. What is even more frustrating is that they made those commitments of support without consent or approval of their constituents.

Now that a runoff is underway, failed candidates from last week’s polls are gearing up to commit their respective parties and followers to any of the forerunners, cutting deals and negotiating in their own interest rather than the people they claim to represent. This is bad leadership and political deceit at the highest level.

No wonder why they did not score any significant progress in the polls, because if the electorate had given them state power, such politicians would go abroad to negotiate deals on behalf of the entire country with no input from the citizenry thru their direct representatives.
Greedy and self-seeking political leaders should have no place in the rebuilding of Liberia, because they are not only dangerous to the forward march of the state, but are enemies of progress and blood-sucking vampires. The mark of good leadership is the ability and willingness to always hold consultations before acting. By doing so, any true leader of the people would have built consensus rather than using their names to pursue self-gratification.

Therefore, we call on party leaders and unsuccessful candidates poised to give support to CDC’s George Weah or UP’s Boakai to genuinely do so in consultation with their respective partisans and sympathizers or else, they would be acting along and deceiving the two forerunners, which is tantamount to committing political suicide.