Gbarnga, Bong County – Human Rights activist Samuel Kofi Woods has admonished the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) to ensure George Weah becomes a one-term president and send him packing in 2023, and called on political leaders of the four opposition parties to subordinate and negotiate interests and ambitions ahead of the 2023 presidential elections.
Woods, who made the remarks in Gbarnga on Sunday, January 24, 2021 when he served as guest speaker at the induction of new executive members of Liberty Party – a constituent party of CPP – said the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government has demonstrated that it lacks the political will to embark upon or undertake radical changes needed to transform Liberia.
The Weah-led government , Woods said, has deployed old and poor habits of governance, suppression, glaring incompetence and lack of integrity since it assumed power three years ago, adding that “we have also seen the minimum of reforms undertaken in the past reversed or undermined”.
Woods, who served as minister of Labor and Public Works under former president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said greed, wanton and pervasive corruption, injustices, violations of the constitution, and violations of all elementary norms of human decency are making up the record of the Wead-led government. “The CDC government shamelessly defends against honest criticisms and justify their mistakes by pointing to the previous government as if their measure of performance is what they perceived as the missteps of the last government,” Woods said. “The so-called wrongs of the last government can’t be your right. If it was wrong then, its wrong now.”
Woods said Liberia will be further damaged if another six-year term is offered to this CDC-led Administration. “Liberians will become the real zombies rather than the musical zombies used to mock the citizens of this country by none other than this President,” Woods said.
Results of mi-term elections glaring testimony
Woods said the results of the December 8, 2020 in which the candidates of the opposition won 10 seats ofar from the mistaken out of 15 and the results of the National Referendum, both events, Woods argues, the government invested hugely is a testimony to the wisdom of the Liberian electorates. “Far from the mistaken belief that they are complacent and complicit, the citizens have debunked these assertions and delivered a rebuke to the CDC misadventures of governing the country,” Woods said.
During the elections, Woods said, Liberians voted against mediocrity, disdain and arrogance in leadership, adding that Liberians are not “Zombies”.
Woods admonished the CPP to be complacent about the outcome of the results of the mid-term election and forget about the real tasks ahead. “Leadership comes with responsibility and must be taken seriously. It is not a job to nurse childhood fantasies. It is about sacrifices that must be made even if it makes one to lose friends, associates and family in pursuit of the common good. Most of us want to be President, but never plan to be a President. We become President and never recover 5 from the shock of becoming President until our Presidency is over. This is a disservice to our country. Against this background, and in the context of doing things differently and collectively to build on the message of the electorates, the CPP must now, and as a matter of urgency, organize a retreat to discuss the way forward,” he said.
