Editorial: Don’t Complain, Weah, Reform CDC and Then

The front pages of a number of newspapers in Monrovia highlighted Mr. George Manneh Weah after his re-emergence to the political lamplight. Ambassador Weah’s reappearance as the Political Leader of the Congress for Democratic Change or CDC on the front pages of Liberian newspapers and radio airwaves again follows the “political Coup d’etat” staged against Cllr. Winston A. Tuibman by a few of his party officials, including Secretary General Acarous Gray and Mobilization Committee Head Mulbah Morlu, probably under his influence.

“Fellow partisans and fellow Liberians, since the end of the 2011 Presidential and Legislative elections, there appears to be too much tensions in every sector and such atmosphere is not healthy for the country; people are without question disgruntled, either over jobs or they simply feel rejected in their own country, and failure of this government to reconcile the people of Liberia,” were the words of Ambassador Weah when he hosted a news conference in Monrovia last Friday. The primary focus of Weah’s news conference was the failure of the current Ellen Administration to reconcile the people of Liberia and create jobs for qualified young people.

“Let it known that the issue of reconciliation far exceeds mere paperwork and rhetoric. It is a commitment of the heart; but when people are still disgruntled about jobs and marginalized, they feel isolated and unprepared to sit with those, who they feel are responsible for their conditions. We have come today not to point out the problems, but to reawaken them so that they may form a part of the national debate”, he underscored.

Weah also commented on the recent “coup d’etat” which occasioned his re-emergence as the Political Leader of the CDC, noting that many CDCians viewed his ascendency as Standard Bearer of the party as a mistake. But he said, the issue of Cllr. Tubman’s leader was now a history in the CDC. While some may concur with the CDC’s Political Leader on the inability of the administration to foster national reconciliation and create jobs for qualified young Liberians, others may also attribute such situation to his own political inadequacies in Liberian politics.

His unstable political nature, lack of proper structure in the CDC, as well as the violent approach to national issues before, during and after the October 11, 2012 General and Presidential elections may be the main factors responsible for that he is today claiming against the current administration.

Ambassador Weah and his likes must also understand that while the CDC as a political institution may not have been financially resourceful as the ruling establishment, it also must have consistently exhibited its intellectual ability and capacity to re-awaken the consciences of would-be voters on the shortcomings and inability of the incumbent ( the ruling Unity Party) to score the needed political capital. Within such political agenda should have been the issues of national reconciliation as clearly spoken about by Mr. Weah last Friday and jobs for the qualified in general, not only the youth.

Unfortunately, for most part of President Sirleaf’s first term, Mr. Ambassador was in school in the great United States at the same trading his position as Standard Bearer, while the presence of the CDC was only felt in Monrovia through Mr. Acarous Gray’s press releases/statements and appearances on radio talk shows, instead of providing political education and direction in “Greater Liberia.”

Even when politics went into full swing in 2011 upon the return of the Ambassador, the issues were about attacks and insults on the President of Liberia wherever the CDC took its campaign, down-playing the establishment of political values for itself among the voting population nation-wide. On the issue of his reference to Cllr. Tubman’s ascendency to the leadership of the party as a mistake, Mr. Weah was rendering a complete disservice to CDCians.

If not all, it is an open fact among CDCians and other well-meaning Liberians that Tubman’s ascendency as Standard Bearer was knowingly organized and influenced by Mr. George Manneh Weah, as evidenced by the Kakata convention. How then could he insinuate that many CDCians viewed such ascendency as a mistake?

Now that Mr. Weah has taken over through the “patriotic forces” of the CDC, it is incumbent on him and his executive committee to introduce to reforms to include proper administrative structures and policies within the party to foster political maturity.

When these shall have been done and implemented to the latter, there would be no cause to complain because the CDC would have done its home work, as well as preparing finally as the “government-in-waiting” come 2017.