Editorial: News from the grapevine

Speculations have saturated the air both at home and abroad about ongoing frantic efforts in the opposition bloc to revise the disintegrated Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) ahead of elections in October.

Discussions are reportedly being engineered by interested parties and individuals to bring the two key opposition leaders – Mr. Alexander B. Cummings of the CPP/Alternative National Congress and former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai of the Unity Party to the table along with like-minded people in the opposition to forge a common front against incumbent President George Manneh Weah.

If it is correct, we hope that this time around, all sides will come to the roundtable in good fate with clear minds and intentions. In fact, it would be dangerous, very dangerous with barely eight months to election to have judases coming in the midst of well-intentioned people under the pretense of forging a common goal when they have ulterior motives.

There are some people in the opposition who were responsible for the collapse of the CPP. They are still around and should watch with eagle eyes, as this latest effort begins to salvage a united opposition front. For they will be more than treacherous in having their motives achieved, especially when the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change is willing to go the extra mile in keeping the opposition fragmented and weakling, as we go to the polls.

We recall the Ganta Declaration that saw the likes of Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, businessman Benoni W. Urey, Alexander B. Cummings, Joseph Nyumah Boakai and the late Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, among others coming together against Mr. Weah and his CDC in 2017. But the marriage fell apart even before the first round of polling.

The opposition should not take the current bad blood between Senator Prince Yormie Johnson and President George Weah as liberty, for the man PYJ is not a catfish in water. He is slippery and difficult to pin down. In other words, he is highly unpredictable and unreliable. He let the CDC down in 2011 before finally lending his support to President Weah in 2017.

Whatever talks are being initiated behind the scene right now are not strange. They had been there before and were successful, evidenced by results from the December 8, 2021, Special senatorial Election that left the governing CDC with a bloody nose, including losing Montserrado County, once its stronghold, to the opposition.

We are encouraged by the latest effort to reunite the opposition, for it is good to do so that the electorate may have a better opportunity to choose leaders that would represent their interests.

Reducing the number of presidential candidates and political parties makes out democracy stronger and more competitive than the other way around. We urge key actors to bury their egos and place Liberia first above all other interests in these discussions.

If the CPP can be truly revised and strengthened before the start of voters’ registration and official start of campaign, we strongly believe the goal of making President Weah a one-term President would have been accomplished halfway to polling day.