The New Dawn reliably gathers that the two political leaders competing for the standard-bearer post of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP)- Ambassador Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Mr. Alexander B. Cummings held separate meetings this month in Accra, Ghana over their perspectives for national leadership and taking the CPP to elections in 2023.
The meeting was said to have been attended by some foreign actors with vested interest in Liberian politics.
Amb. Boakai is the incumbent Chairman of the CPP and standard-bearer of the Unity Party, while Mr. Cummings is the leader of the Alternative National Congress and the former chair of the CPP.
Both the UP and the ANC are constituent parties of the CPP.
The group, the Liberia Renaissance Office Incorporated (LIROI) says it held two separate meetings with Boakai and Cummings, in Accra, Ghana on December 18, 2021, to gauge their perspectives for CPP’s choice for President of Liberia in 2023, including critical issues that are germane to its objectives of promoting democracy, economic transformation and sustainable development in the country.
The LIROI was established few months ago as a mass-based citizens’ movement that is open to all, including Liberian professionals, diplomats, academics, students, workers, and religious and civil society actors both at home and in the diaspora, with shared values and aspirations, to usher in a NEW ERA in Liberia.
The LIROI says in touch with the staff of both Leaders, it was aware of their presence in Accra, and used the presence of its partners, the BW Global Group (BWGG), on a field trip in the region, to meet separately with Boakai and Cummings.
It details in a release that the separate meetings centered around LIROI’s interests in realizing the aspiration of the Liberian people for a united opposition through the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) for which the group was subsequently informed the two leaders separately reaffirmed their commitment to a united CPP.
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It said the meetings also solicited the views of the two leaders on additional ways and means by which the LIROI could be more supportive of the CPP.
The LIROI and its partners expressed pleasure over the cordial atmosphere surrounding the separate discussions and the expressions of both leaders to resolve all outstanding issues within the CPP, particularly the conflict within the Liberty Party, and promote democratic ideals as they go about the processes leading to the selection of candidates of the CPP for the ensuring 2023 Presidential and General elections.
“The LIROI will continue to explore and engage all the key stakeholders of the CPP in public and private to advance the objectives of LIROI in its support of a united CPP”, says the release issued under the signature of George Gyude Wisner, as Coordinator of the Liberia Office.
Meanwhile, the LIROI clarifies that at no time did it or any of its partners meet jointly with both leaders, neither did it facilitate negation by both leaders on the leadership question of the CPP.
The group says while it would welcome such meeting as positive, were it to have taken place between both leaders, “We are cognizant that such exercise must be voluntary and ought to grow out of the willingness of the parties and their leaders to do so.”
According to the release, the LIROI is committed to promoting good governance and the rule of law in Liberia, advocating for justice and accountability, and fighting impunity and corruption.
It stresses that deterrence against impunity and corruption is fundamental to achieving transformation and sustainable development in Liberia, including promotion of genuine peace and national unity based on equal opportunity for all and equality before the law as well as advocating policies to grow the economy, create prosperity and reduce poverty by promoting and supporting candidates for elected office with shared beliefs and commitment to these principles and concepts.
The LIROI says Liberia can no longer tolerate people coming to the office to play and have fun with power, with flagrant disregard for human rights, mysterious deaths, and disappearances, rampant corruption, economic mismanagement, and personalization of political power.
“As we approach Liberia’s Bicentennial, we must prepare the country for a NEW ERA of inclusiveness, unity, equal opportunity and prosperity for all”, the release concludes. Press Release
