Editorial: Boakai should seize the opportunity to reconcile the opposition bloc

It is but time that former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, who is also leader of the ex-ruling Unity Party, truly demonstrate his slogan ‘Liberia First’ by seizing the current moment to for once, reconcile the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) in order to move ahead.

Now that the government has thrown out the CPP Framework Document case and dropped criminal charges against Mr. Alexander B. Cummings, political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Boakai has another opportunity to step out and show leadership by reuniting the CPP for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of Liberians, who look up to the Collaboration to provide them a future, as an alternative government in waiting.

But what we see is that Ambassador Boakai seems to be behaving like JONAH in the Holy Bible, who God instructed to go to Nineveh and warn the inhabitants to desist from wickedness and turn to God, but he refused and tried escaping when he was swallowed by the whale and remained in the whale’s belly for three consecutive days before being spilled out.

 The CPP longs for genuine leadership, but the older statesman did nothing to resolve the internal wrangling. Instead, he cited disagreements among leaders of constituent parties of the Collaboration and eventually quit, abandoning the ship without a captain.

He did not stop there. The UP leader even went to court and testified against his own brother, Mr. Alexander Cummings! We do not blame him for going against Cummings, for there were forces working from behind in the dark to make sure the CPP break up.

This has failed. The CPP should return to the status quo ante, and put its acts together, for the Liberian people are yearning for reliable leadership. They still believe CPP holds the future. Their hope should not be dashed or traded for anything else.  

And we believe strongly that it is only he (Boakai) that can execute this mission at this time, which is why the entire CPP Framework Document saga has been thrown out of the window. It is time to start afresh again, for to err is human and to forgive is divine.

Forgiveness is the gateway to progress. No personal ego should be higher or bigger than the Motherland. Liberia is the common patrimony that we all belong. The ruling CDC can only be given the run for its money in 2023 when the opposition bloc holds together.

Boakai should stop listening to people with selfish interests and agendas and look beyond his immediate surroundings to call out to Cummings, Urey and Senator Karnga Lawrence to sit at a roundtable to discuss the future of the CPP.

We are of the strong conviction that being an elderly statesman, the onus is on Amb. Boakai to bend over and extend an olive branch to the rest of the CPP leadership to sit together and strategize on the common dream of the opposition.