Cummings drops gay noose 

By Patrick N. Mensah, Maryland County

Presidential hopeful Alexander B. Cummings has dispelled rumors that he is gay and wants to support gay rights when elected Liberia’s president this October.

Mr. Cummings said such an argument from his opponents is untrue, adding that it’s intended to tarnish the clean records that he seeks to bring to the presidency.

“I’m happily married to my wife Theresa Cummings for 40 years now and we are blessed with two children and 5 grandchildren,” Cummings said.

“So, the truth is if they can’t blame you for being corrupt, [nor] refer to you as a man who fought [a] war, they’ll find or try by all means to lie [about] you. And those who see me in said path to be gay are all nonsense people,” he said.

He said there’s nowhere he has ever come up to support gay practice, and he can never do that even after winning the election because it’s not healthy and encouraging at all.

Despite the clarity he provided, our correspondent says many Liberians including Cummings’ kinsmen are still not convinced that he told the truth.

He said callers on the radio show in Maryland expressed doubts about Cummings’ response.

Cummings has been touring some towns and villages in Maryland County, southeast Liberia where he hails from.

During the tour, the CPP leader appeared on one of the local community radio stations in Pleebo, Maryland County Electoral District #2 on Wednesday, 14 June 2023.

Cummings is the standard bearer of the opposition Collaboration Political Parties (CPP) which is made up of his alternative National Congress (ANC) and a faction of the Liberty Party (LP).

Cummings suggested that the rumors linking him to gay practice are coming out because he has been seen as a person with a clean record.

He boasted of having no corruption attachment, but good governance and a plan to improve the suffering that Liberians are going through in the country.

The former Coca-Cola Executive is among dozens of politicians seeking to unseat incumbent President George Manneh Weah in the upcoming 2023 presidential and legislative elections.

His visit to the southeast was to seek residents’ support. He maintained that his government will support good governance and provide several job opportunities for ordinary Liberians.

“Let me explain [a] little bit further, Liberia is blessed with several resources that need to benefit its people, but once it’s not managed well, the people stand to suffer. And that’s what’s going on now,” said Cummings.

If elected president, Mr. Cummings said everybody will benefit and his government will checkmate those who have stolen the Country’s resources.

He noted that a CPP government will be a government of policy and respect for the rule of law.

During the radio program, the CPP leader disclosed several plans explaining how he hopes to fix the economic system.

He cited resource mobilizations, international connections, and job creation, among others.

Cummings said his first one hundred days would ensure credit opportunities for Liberian entrepreneurs, the creation of a national youth service program, and prompt payment and steady increment of civil servants’ salaries.

In the first hundred days, he also plans the reorganization and consolidation of government institutions with competent staff and getting the right people in integrity institutions to conduct a comprehensive audit of the previous government, void of witch-hunting.

During the radio program, Cummings encouraged southeastern Liberians, especially Marylanders, to support his dream.

He stressed that it will help reduce the suffering Liberians are going through under the Weah government.

On Saturday, 10 June 2023 citizens in the southeastern town of Pedebo, Maryland County defied the heavy downpour to welcome the CPP standard bearer, Mr. Cummings.

He arrived in the county via the neighboring Ivory Coast due to perennial bad road conditions in the southeast.

He received a rousing welcome from chiefs, elders, women, and youth groups as well as religious groups who lined the streets during his arrival.

Accompanying Mr. Cummings was former River Gee County Senator Matthew Jaye.

The CPP leader asked his kinsmen to reflect on their lives for the last five years and make a choice if they want to continue such a path or join him to make a difference.