The Editor,
The political landscape in Liberia ahead of the up-coming national presidential election slated for October 2023 is getting very interesting, and the plot by Weah’s CDC to deny Boakai and the opposing block is getting glaringly clearer. A few days ago, the political leader of MDR, Sen. Prince Johnson supposedly relinquished his role as the Standard Bearer of his party, paving the way for Nimba County Junior Senator, Jerimiah Koung to take over the party. Obviously, those of us who have previously worked with Sen. Johnson and his political party are aware that this is just a cleaver political move by Sen. Johnson to shift public attention from him. Soon after this staged event, it was rumored that Sen. Jerimiah Koung will be contesting for the Presidency of Liberia this year. The critical question we must ask PYJ and political God-Son, Mr. Koung is, when did Jerimiah and his political God-Father decided that he Jerry should contest for the presidency of Liberia?
Barely a week later, George Weah’s Minister of State without portfolio, Dr. Clarence Monibah is gearing up to contest for the Presidency. What a coincident! As a student of politics and a long time observer of Liberian politics, my take on these two political events is that these are plots by the CDC’s strategic team to win at all cost. And so, they have devised the “divide and rule method.” First, while PJY is trying to hide his face from the public due to the US sanction against him, his latest move to push Sen Koung as face of his party is an attempt to go into new negotiation and collaboration with the CDC for the second team of George Weah. And therefore, Jerimiah Koung’s interest to contest for the Presidency is only a cleaver plot by PYJ and CDC to reduce Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe’s support in vote rich Nimba County.
On the other hand, the CDC is strategically positioning Dr. Monibah in Lofa County to draw votes from VP Boakai in an effort to reduce his chances to hang onto his strong-hold, Lofa County. It’s clear that Dr. Monibah and Sen. Koung are not formattable candidates for the presidency and have no chance of winning a significant votes from other political subdivisions in the country. However, the strategy for CDC to perpetuate themselves in power is to defuse and divide vote rich counties where formidable candidates hailed, in an effort to reduce their numerical strengths in those areas. This is clearly because the opposition appears to be divided and if those considered front-runners from the opposing blocks do not consolidate, put their acts together and present a winnable team to the Liberian people, CDC’s political strategy will eventually prevailed.
I strongly believe that the CDC is definitely afraid to go into a presidential race against the likes of Boakai, Tiawan and Cummings united and so, they have long devise a political strategy to weaken the opposition block. Based on my interaction with a good segment of the Liberian society during my one month visit to Liberia, I will strongly suggest that VP Boakai and Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe team up to present a winnable Team to the Liberian electorates. These two names seem to resonate with Liberians very well especially given their unique clean records on corruption and age gap. Interestingly, many Liberians told me that a Boakai-Gongloe Ticket will present a first round victory for the opposition.
Tony Leewaye is a student of politics and he has previously served as Political Strategist and Chairman of NUDP-MDR, USA. He can be reached at [email protected], on messenger and WhatsApp as Tony Leewaye.
Tony Leewaye
