MONROVIA – The former Chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), George Solo, has alarmed that the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government’s agenda to emancipate Liberia and its citizens from under-development and extreme poverty has been allegedly overshadowed by corruption among public officials.
The Congress for Democratic Change is one of the political parties that make up the governing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC). The remaining parties that form part of the ruling CDC include the ex-governing National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Liberian People Democratic Party (LPDP).
Mr. Solo maintained that since the inception of CDC led-government of President George Manneh Weah, the government has not been able to improve the country’s economy for the benefit of the citizenry.
He made these comments over the weekend when he participated on Spoon Talk on Spoon FM 107.5 from the United States of America.
He maintained that the pro-poor agenda proffered by the Weah-government was intended to help redeem the country and alleviate citizens from poverty, but on the contrary, the agenda has only been able to enrich some public officials, who he did not name.
“From the origin of CDC and from my involvement, it was a revolution to emancipate our people. The real question is, what has that revolution transitioned to? How do current or former CDCians see the party? I am not talking about me who left. I am talking about the people who were in the vanguard”?
“Liberia is in a very critical state. Economically, things are difficult. The agenda to emancipate the people and change the nation has been overshadowed by corruption and theft. Basically, it’s a deeper state of disappointment now when you continue to hear these things on a consistent basis. The conceptualization of the pro-poor ideology is in the reverse. The pro-poor agenda is supposed to be about the people and not officials accumulating”.
Mr. Solo observed that the party’s revolution fought for by many partisans and supporters have been devalued as evidenced by the decision taken by President Weah to focus on his personal priorities, including the building of duplexes, and accumulating wealth rather than focusing on the actualization of the ruling party’s agenda for the country and its citizens.
No one man show
He emphasized that as a leader, President Weah must be cognizant of the fact that his plans and priorities for the nation and its people must come to fruition.
Mr. Solo added that the Liberian Chief Executive should also have in mind that he cannot continue to single-handedly steer the affairs of the country, noting that, the true essence of the party’s revolution should be reconsidered in a bid to reduce the high level of disappointment among some past and present partisans and supporters of the CDC.
He noted that to help reduce the high level of disappointment among his supporters, President Weah needs to retrospect and take a sober reflection on the manner and form in which things are going on in Liberia for the sake of die-hard partisans and supporters of the CDC and those who lost their lives as a result of the revolution, by incorporating capable and competent officials in his government.
“Whatever is working in his brain-as a leader – has to be manifested into implementation. When people are not seeing implementations, maybe you have not change, but your priorities are different. The President alone does not run a nation. You need an able Cabinet, Advisors and people around you who can be realistic with you and give you a sense of what is happening outside”.
Speaking further, Mr. Solo recounted a split within the Congress for Democratic Change between friends of President Weah who were deemed more powerful as compare to those who headed the CDC at the time.
“People associated with George Weah made more decisions than even people who had positions in the party. That’s how it used to be”.
Mr. Solo, who was a strong confidante and bed mate of President Weah, became one of the fiercest critics of his one-time close friend after he was expelled as Chairman of the CDC on August 3, 2014 by the National Executive Committee.
He was controversially removed as Chairman for what the NEC termed as being a “a promoter, expediter, and lobbyist for the Robert Sirleaf-for-Senate campaigns, against the party Standard-bearer George Weah”.
“It has been established that Mr. George G. Solo being a promoter, expediter, Mr. Solo was also accused being after financial rewards at the expense of the party, a move that is totally against his function as administrative head of the party”.
“We, members of the National executive committee of the Congress for Democratic Change, meeting under a full quorum at its headquarters in Congo Town, Monrovia-Liberia, hereby vote to declare a vote-of-no-confidence in the Chairmanship of George G. Solo, thereby relieving him of his position with immediate effect”.
The CDC accused Mr. Solo of being an internal operative within the party, where his mission of divisive propaganda, rancor, appetite for dissonance, unsettling policy misdirection, and engineered institutional collapse have come to reflect the disruptive agenda of his hirers.
But Mr. Solo denied the accusations, and blamed his friend-President Weah- of orchestrated the ploy after he allegedly received money given to him by Mr. Robert Alvin Sirleaf-the beloved son of ex-Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf- to back off from the Senatorial race for Montserrado County in 2014.
The happening stirred a sour relationship between Mr. Solo and President Weah at the time and brought a split within the CDC.
Mr. Solo departed Liberia for the United States shortly after his former best friend was inaugurated as President of Liberia.
Both men have not reportedly seen eye-to-eye or spoken since the saga.