Monrovia – Cllr. Winston Tubman who led the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) to the 2011 presidential elections has alarmed that the new the CDC coalition is not offering any new direction for Liberia.
“The direction they (CDC) have moved in, they can’t tell the Liberian people they have something new and different to offer because the people who they have now made partners are people who the Liberian people know a lot about.
The people are saying that they will not give the Unity Party a third term because they want something new, but if you want to offer something new, you don’t go back to people who have already shown what they can produce for the Liberian people,” Cllr Tubman explained on the Capital Breakfast Club (Radio talk show) on Tuesday.
Tubman questioned CDC’s association with people like J. Alex Tyler who was ousted as Speaker of the House of Representatives and currently facing trial for alleged financial crimes. Cllr. Tubman wondered whether the new CDC could provide any direction that can lead Liberia to a brighter future.
“They’ve gone to names that the Liberian people know about and have read about in different context… well for instance, Mr. Tyler is one of the people they are teaming up with he’s in the news almost every day for things that still have to be clarified.
Is this the direction the CDC is going? Is this the people they are following to bring a new future for the party? What I was thinking when I was associated with the CDC I felt that George Weah could bring in a lot of young people to the party who could lead the country,” Tubman noted.
Tubman averred that the re-emergence of a Tubman-Weah ticket is a sure victory for the party and the opposition.
“I felt it was a good development for someone who has the popularity as he had to step back and say let put together our best possible ticket, since we didn’t take power at that time; I felt if we do that ticket we would do a very good job and in fact win, but it wasn’t responded to,” he added.
It was rumored that part of the reasons that led to threats of expulsion of Cllr. Tubman in 2011 was his inability to secure government positions for the party, something Tubman said was untrue.
“Well I did as much as I could; the fact that not many got government position was not because I didn’t try hard to get position for people.
When you are not the winner and people who have won have their own preferences, although we push hard but we didn’t get as many positions in the government for our people as we would wish,” he added.
Tubman who has been able to maneuver his way since 2005 has again announced his ambition to contest the presidency this year.
“I’m not going to be running as an independent candidate, I’m going to be on a party ticket. I thought that it would be possible for that to happen with the CDC of which I’m still a member, but at the end of last year I came to the conclusion that I will now have to find a plan ‘B’,” Tubman said.
Tubman: “I’m in the field looking for appropriate point of departure from which I can stand as a candidate; I haven’t resigned from the CDC.”
The former CDC standard bearer said that his retirement from politics was as the result of threats of expulsion and confusion, adding that the earlier retirement was the best option to get out of the CDC way.
“At that time I retired, you know in the party had lots of confusion, people were saying various things, there were people in the party who said they were expelling me, part of the reason I retired was because I felt I couldn’t get expelled.
What was I being expelled for? I felt it was an arbitrary thing – people who said they were expelling me didn’t have the legal authority to expel me at that time; I was the only functioning legal authority to do what was required for running the party.
So when they got together and said I should resign or they expel me, I said I had done nothing to resign and I was not going to resign,” Tubman recalled.