BONG COUNTY – The political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Alexander Cummings, has told Liberians that if they want to change the economic hardships they are experiencing today, they should make President George Weah a one-term president.
Cummings made the statement in Zeanzue Town, Bong County, where he made his first stop at the start of his three-day tour of Bong County. Cummings tour took him to Janjay, Samay, Gbenequelleh, Tamayta and Kokoyah Statutory District.
“I understand the hardship Liberians are going through and it pains me,’’ Cummings said, speaking in Zeanzue Town, Bong County on at the start of his three-day tour of Bong County. “There is nothing we can do now, but to make the right choice in 2023. The right choice is making President George Weah a one-term president.’’
Cummings, a former executive of the Coca-Cola Company, said President Weah has failed to deliver on his promise to ensure equitable distribution of the country’s resources and close the economic gap between the rich and poor in Liberia.
If elected in 2023, Cummings said he will not neglect the Liberian people.
“Things have gone from bad to worse under President Weah,’’ he said. ‘’Compare your life three years ago before President Weah came to power, then you will know that exactly how things have become in this country.”
The ANC political leader cited the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) victory in the Special Senatorial Election on Dec. 8, 2020, as an indication that the Liberian people are disappointed in President Weah’s government. The CPP won eight of the senatorial seats.
The Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) lost Montserrado County, President Weah stronghold, to Senator Darius Dillon of the Liberty Party. Dillon overwhelmingly defeated Thomas Fallah, though Fallah outspent Dillon. In Bong County, the home of Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor, the CPP’s Prince Moye, also defeated the CDC’s Henry Yallah.
Cummings, who began his nationwide tour in Nimba County last week, said his tour is intended to meet and listen to citizens about their concerns, which he plans to include in his manifesto for the 2023 president election. “When I contested in 2017 the issues people had with me was though I am competent for the presidency, but I had come too late to contest,’’ he said. “There were many people who did not know me. Now, I want to renew my friendship and have a conversation with citizens about what we want our country to be, if I am elected in 2023.’’
Citizens who attended Cummings’ town hall meetings expressed the frustration about the lack of clinics, schools and bad roads.
For example, some of the 10,000 residents in Gbenequelleh, have to take a 15-minute bike ride to get to the nearest clinic, in Samay Town.
Residents said they expressed their concerns to President Weah when he campaigned in 2017, but so far he has done nothing. The citizens talked about how a former senator’s convoy hit a crawling children and the family had to drive an hour to take the child to the hospital in Gbarnga.
Peter D. Patricks, youth leader of the town, said: “We had the faith that the president would have made the construction of a clinic in our town one of his priorities for the fact that his convoy hit one of our elders’ son, but three years into his presidency nothing has been done. We are disappointed.’’
Patricks said on many occasions they have been misled by politicians during electioneering process. He said he hopes Mr. Cummings will not mislead them. He hailed Cummings for making an unannounced visit to the town to talk to them and hear their concerns. “This demonstrates the character of a true leader,’’ Patricks said.
Peter Flomo, an elder of Gbenequelleh, also praised Cummings for his visit. “What you have started will go a long way in the history of our town,’’ he said. ‘’Others are waiting for 2023 presidential elections to come visit us but we have learned our lesson now. No politician will fool us in 2023.”
Martha Warmah, leader of the women’s group in Samay, Jorquelleh District Two, said the town has a building for a clinic, but there are no medicines and other health amenities to care for the town’s 4,000 residents.
“If you go in that building, nothing you will see but empty rooms,’’ she said. There is nothing there to tell you that the area is a clinic. We walk to the next town Tamayta which is 45 minutes on foot to seek medication.’’