MONROVIA – It was a moment of celebration and accomplishment on Monday, January 8 at the Unity Party’s national headquarters in Monrovia when scores of partisans and supporters gathered for a colorful welcome ceremony in honor of officials of the party’s USA-Canada Chapter led by Chairman Kerper Dwanyen.
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh – [email protected]
The USA-Canada chapter is one of the most formidable and reliable support arms of the Unity Party. The chapter played a pivotal role in rendering both financial and moral support to the party in securing victory in the November 2023 presidential runoff election.
Addressing jubilant supporters, Mr. Dwanyen thanked the Unity Party Alliance’s supporters who stood by the party and ensure victory was secured. He said for the UP, after losing power in 2017, to return six years later, was a historic milestone, a feat that has not happened in Liberia since 1869.
“There has not been a political party in this country since 1869… to lose power as a ruling party and come back. We are the only political party in this country to be become an opposition party and to come back to power [since 1869]. So, we learn that lesson and we now understand why we lost power in the first place.”
Continuing, he said: “To take power from an incumbent government is no small job, especially in Africa. So, I am standing up here now to applaud you. The words thank you are not enough. What we remain committed to doing is to invest more into this partnership because we didn’t just come to make a president and go home. We want our children to go to better school. We want better roads, we want hospitals that can treat us, we want safety and security when we get out in the streets. We want criminals to be held accountable, we want to see roads that we can travel on when we’re campaigning.”
Mr. Dwanyen said that although the election of the Unity Party Alliance’s standard bearer and vice standard bearer was a difficult task, the tougher task now is ensuring that the promises on which the party was elected are fulfilled.
He noted that the ability to lead in the midst of unexpected crisis defines a good leader. “When you have to make decisions on things you plan to change; when people you are counting on are not there, when the good plans disappear, when bad things out of sudden happens, and you have to adjust, these are the things that define a good leader.”
He expressed confident that President-elect Joseph Nyumah Boakai will live up to the expectation of the Liberian people.
Earlier UP spokesperson Lansana P. Fofana said the UP was up to a task of introducing a governing system based on true democratic principles that will resonate well with Liberians, something he said will make it difficult to defeat the party at the ballot box. This, he said will make the UP popular and formidable as the African National Congress of South Africa.
Mr. Dwanyen agreed with Fofana’s assertions and said that the UP has learned lessons that will make the Boakai-Koung administration to deliver for the Liberian people.
Mr. Dwanyen was accompanied by top officials of the UP Alliance USA-Canada team including Mr. George S.S. Wuo, Chairman of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), USA chapter and Madam Garmai Tokpah, UP Ambassador. He thanked the UP Women and Youth Wings for organizing the colorful ceremony in honor of his delegation.
Speaking further, he said what drives most of the diaspora Liberians’ support to the Unity Party, is the astute leadership role that is being played by Amb. Boakai as political leader of the UP. Quoting Amb. Boakai, he said the UP is the only Liberian party that is not owned by an individual, and as such every partisan will contribute to ensure the party is stronger to support the upcoming UP-led administration.
Fofana thanked Chairman Dwanyen and the delegation for their tireless support, both financially and morally to the UP. He said the UP victory did not just come on a silver platter, it came as the result of the sacrifice and tenacity of all partisans, both in Liberia and the diaspora; and as such, he was glad to receive the delegation to form part of the upcoming inauguration ceremony. On behalf of the Chairman and party’s officials, most of whom he said could not attend the ceremony owing to their engagements with the transitional team, Fofana welcomed the delegation and said there were plans for a meeting in their honor.