Sen. Cooper dreams Presidency?

Margibi County Senator Oscar A. Cooper

Report from Margibi County indicates that Senator Oscar A. Cooper, whose 20% salary reduction advocacy was met by serious criticism from his colleagues, has reportedly been holding series of stakeholder meetings with citizens across the country to gauge their views on whether he should contest for the Presidency next year.

A staff in Senator Cooper’s office confided in The NewDawn that citizens from six counties in Liberia recently visited the Senator’s farm in Margibi and asked him to contest in the 2017 elections. According to the source, the citizens came from Sinoe, Nimba, Grand Bassa, Bong, Lofa and Margibi, respectively.

The senator is said to have initially considered the request as mere joke but it reportedly became serious when the rest of the counties started to pull in to make similar request, though informally. Our source said the citizens went asking the senator one group after the other.

Based on the many requests, Sen Cooper reportedly told the citizens that he has to hear from more stakeholders in order to reach a definitive decision. The Senator has allegedly appointed a team that is working with him in hearing from broad spectrum of citizens and members of the team have already visited Nimba, Lofa, Bassa and Bong, while others were heading for Bomi as well. 

The source indicated that so far, citizens engaged in these counties are unanimous in seeing the Margibi County senator vie for the Presidency. Report says Senator Cooper himself is not ready to go public on the issue, pending extensive consultation.

He was recently in Nimba County where is he said to be implementing a road project, meeting with citizens, and that the Chief Zoe of Nimba has pledged his full support.

By Ramsey N. Singbeh, Jr. in Margibi-Editing by Jonathan Browne