Monrovia – The chairman of the Collaboration Political Parties (CPP), Alexander Cummings says though the conglomeration of opposition political parties cannot suggest that all the problems faced by Liberia today were caused by the George Weah-led administration, incompetence, lack of vision, extortion, and appeals to division and lawlessness has quadrupled the problems they inherited.
Mr. Alexander Cummings made the statement Wednesday when he addressed the nation on topical issues and his violent attack on his recent trip to the Southeast.
“In the CPP, we are worried about our young people, and deeply concerned about the future of our country. Thanks to the lack of leadership of Mr. Weah, our young people, who are the future of our country, are being wrongly impressed that education is not important; that without taking personal responsibility, and making sacrifices for a greater cause, somehow their circumstances, and the conditions of our country, will miraculously improve.”
– Alexander B. Cummings, Chairman, Collaborating Political Parties
“Where it was bad, they have succeeded to make worse, and where it was good, they have effectively destroyed. They have reversed the gains our country struggled to make, and for which we were recently considered a good example of a developing post-conflict nation,” he said while addressing hundreds of partisans at the headquarters of the Alternative National Congress (ANC).
According to Cummings, the Weah-led administration has taken similar paths like past leaders and has “carelessly and selfishly abandoned Liberians, and Liberia.”
Mr. Cummings who along with the Representative of Montserrado County District 9 were violently attacked and chased out of Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County where they were scheduled to meet some leaders of the CPP alleged that the government is militarizing the youth rather than investing in them to make them productive citizens.
Cummings: “In the CPP, we are worried about our young people, and deeply concerned about the future of our country. Thanks to the lack of leadership of Mr. Weah, our young people, who are the future of our country, are being wrongly impressed that education is not important; that without taking personal responsibility, and making sacrifices for a greater cause, somehow their circumstances, and the conditions of our country, will miraculously improve.”
Liberia’s Backwardness
The ANC political leader who travelled from Montserrado to Margibi, Grand Bassa to Rivercess, Sinoe to Grand Kru, Maryland to Rivergee, Grand Gedeh to Nimba, Bong Counties for the celebration of Liberia’s 173rd Independence said he realized that citizens in these leeward counties had absolutely nothing to celebrate.
Cummings: “173 years later, rather than being independent, we are increasingly dependent on other nations for the most basic things, including to feed ourselves, and to pay the meager, and now harmonized salaries of civil servants. How can anyone really celebrate when we have managed ourselves so poorly? Why should anyone celebrate seeing that the hope we once inspired is now fading, the lone shining star is dimmed, and the dream is becoming a nightmare?
“173 years later, our country ranks amongst the poorest and most corrupt in the world. By every socio-economic and development indicator, many of the countries whose independence we helped to inspire, or which experienced conflicts like we did, have left us behind. While these countries are speeding up ahead with their developments shamelessly, our leaders are continuing to show more interests in doing the wrong things for short-term personal gains rather than doing the right things for long term national benefits.
“173 years later, where we should be an example of a thriving democracy, politically stable and economically prosperous, our government is still holding out its hands begging for crumbs, celebrating mediocrity, and basking in incompetence. Where the leadership of our nation should unite, it divides. Where it should see, it is blind. Where it should take responsibility, it is irresponsible. Where its perspective should be national, it settles for the personal. And where it should care, it cares less.
“173 years later, the quality of education offered to our children and the healthcare we provide to our people are unacceptably poor. Our budgetary investments in basic social services such as education and health undercut our need for human capacity development. Our children, the future of our nation, are failing and falling behind other children in the region, and the world. Pregnant women, especially in rural communities, are without easy access to the medical help they need as maternal and infant mortality are increasing unconscionably, including in urban areas.”