By Lincoln G. Peters
Opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) standard-bearer Mr. Alexander B. Cummings says he is prepared to contest for the presidency of Liberia alone, adding that leadership is carrying the burden alone.
‘’When I say, going to contest for the presidency alone, I don’t mean I’m going outside the CPP [Collaborating Political Parties]. I necessarily mean I’m going alone as a person, as a leader right. It says that leadership is lonely,’’ Mr. Cummings said Wednesday, 5 January 2022.
His comment on the OK FM 99.5 evening conversation Wednesday came at a time the CPP which he once chaired, has been rocked in a bitter internal fight leading to one constituent party the All Liberian Party (ALP) announcing its plan to exit.
On top of ALP’s exit from the CPP, Mr. Cummings has been taken to Court by fellow former CPP chair Mr. Benoni Urey on the accusation of forgery and criminal conspiracy.
Urey accuses Cummings of tampering with the CPP’s framework agreement and allegedly attaching his (Urey’s) signature to a photocopy version which was purported to be the version approved by all the parties in the CPP.
Cummings has denied the claims and said he won’t be deterred.
“The burden of leadership rests on you alone and I am prepared to carry that burden alone because this is about the Liberian people and making change for our country,’’ Mr. Cummings added.
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Liberians are due to go to the polls in 2023 in general and presidential elections and there are dozens of political parties, some in collaboration, seeking to battle incumbent President George Manneh Weah.
Mr. Cummings and his ANC party have been part of the main opposition bloc CPP which says it wants to make President Weah a one-term president.
But many have been holding the CPP in suspicion given its own unending internal division and fight for power and control which lasted almost throughout 2021 and up to present.
Mr. Cummings now expresses interest in forming a new alliance with other grassroots political parties to contest alone for Liberia’s presidential seat.
According to him, not everybody has the shoulder, spine and the value to carry the burden of leadership.
But he believes that he has those values and he has been demonstrating them to the Liberian people.
The businessman-turned-politician explained that if the CPP stays together, he believes that he will emerge as its standard-bearer.
In case it breaks up, Cummings added that he hopes he will run or contest for the presidency alone in 2023, noting that the key thing is that real change will be on the ballot one way or the other.
“I have said this consistently, that if we go to the CPP process we agreed and the outcome of the process is somebody else, I will support them. I am confident that I will win the CPP convention because I have the support internally,” he noted.
“For the presidency, I will win because Liberians want real change and they understand that the structure and system are not in their interest,’’ Mr. Cummings continued.
According to Mr. Cummings, he and Liberia’s former Vice President and current CPP chair Amb. Joseph Nyumah Boakai recently met in Ghana and had a meeting, but he failed to disclose what the meeting was about.
Cummings dismissed rumors from the public that he offered money for former Vice President Boakai to back off from the presidential race and contest instead as vice running mate.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/cummings-we-will-not-be-deterred/
