Buchanan, Grand Bassa County – Deliberately or coincidentally, two of Liberia’s leading opposition politicians on Saturday, June 18 held separate political events in the Port City of Buchanan with hundreds of supporters from both sides parading the main streets of the vote-rich county.
Liberty Party’s Charles Walker Brumskine and the political leader of the newly-formed Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE) are expected to be key actors in the ensuing 2017 presidential race. On Saturday they both embarked on a play to solidify their respective popularity.
For Cllr. Brumskine, it was a homecoming when the Liberty Party officially opened its new office in Buchanan while the former Central Bank Governor is looking to strength his support base in a county were hundreds of marketers benefited from the CBL micro loan scheme.
Grand Bassa is often trumpeted as the LP terrain owing to vote results from past election since 2005 and the party has recently intensified its ‘Bassa Presidency Quest’ by entrenching its concept amongst Liberians in the Bassa-speaking county. The party has succeeded in claiming most of the legislative seats in recent elections making it very influential in the body politics of the county.
But the emergence of MOVEE with its support amongst Buchanan’s business community, some political observers say, will intensify the scramble for political success in the county ahead of 2017. Some have already rated the supporters’ turnout on Saturday as 60/40 with Liberty Party enjoying the better share of the massive crowd.
‘Now is the Time’, Says Brumskine
The Liberty Party political leader told supporters that the time is right for the party to claim state power while revealing a political platform of reconciliation, reformation, reconstruction, and rebuilding the education system of the country, which he dubbed the 4Rs of the party.
“I’ve travelled throughout this country, my friends; one of the most touching stories is meeting an old lady after an old lady in the villages of this country who have not married or who husbands have predeceased them and she has no children and that old lady goes to bed hungry every night,” Cllr Brumskine emotionally told supporters.
“How can a country like this that claim to be God’s country be unable to take care of its old (people)?”
Brumskine claims that an LP led government will ensure that no one will go to bed hungry regardless their employment is public or private. He also stressed the importance a LP led government attaching importance to the improvement of the country’s education saying education will be completely free for Liberian children. “We are not a poor country; we are a rich country,” he said. “We are poor people because corruption has taken all of our money. We will begin by tackling the issue of corruption, saving money that we can use for our old people and our young children.”
Earlier, the LP standard bearer enthused his members by saying it is good to be home and thanked the LP’s Bassa chapter for their support and at the same time pleaded for forgiveness from his kinsmen. “To whom I have wrong I say sorry because it’s time for you to come home; to all those who have wronged me have forgiven you.”
Ready to justify Loan – Dr. Jones
Dr. Jones, who has been riding on the reported success of the CBL’s micro loan which hundreds of marketers have benefited across the country, despite some slamming from critics who have accused him of politicizing the loan scheme to give his candidacy a boost, told his supporters he’s fully prepared to justify to the Liberian people and his critics.
Addressing members of the village saving and loan program in Buchanan Saturday, Dr. Jones thanked marketers for working to lift themselves out of poverty and said Liberians now know that they can trust themselves by working to lift themselves out of poverty. He called on Liberians to work hard to make the change that they want.
“We do not have to wait for somebody to do for us what we can do for ourselves…; we’ve been an independent country but we look like and we look all around us what do we see: poverty and underdevelopment,” said the MOVEE political leader.
Dr. Jones continued: “It is because we have not been doing the right thing all these long years that is the problem. The first job that a government has to do is to look after its people that’s why we come together and say we are a nation…, to care for the poor, to care for the children, to care for those who do not have education, to care for the old people.
Dr. Jones asserted that if all the right things were done years ago, Liberia would have been in a better position. He added that there are always detractors of life-changing ideas for Liberians.
“When somebody got good ideas to put on the table, say let’s do this to raise the people up, you got few people there (saying) we got to put them down,” he explained. “They don’t want you to have your own money in your pocket because if you do when they say move so, you will say why.”
Recalling his time at the CBL and his micro loan initiative, Dr. Jones questioned critics of the loan scheme by asking what should had been done instead of what he opted for. “Tell me what we should be doing if not to take care of our people and this is not free money, people are supposed to pay this money. If that’s the charge they have against me, I plead guilty to that and I will do it again.”
He added that he’s waiting to debate the reason for the CBL micro loan scheme for marketers and other Liberian businesses. “We will stand up and face each other and discuss this country future; we don’t intent to get in the gutter.”
Jones Slams Poor Leadership
He intimated that Liberians are looking for a new government, new policies but the country will not get it by maintaining the status quo.
‘You are not going to get it (change) from the same old people who have been there all along. You are not going to get change, if you look to them for change than blame your elf for they have been there since 2005, been there 2011 and they have shown their faces again for 2017. What do they know in 2017 that did not know in 2005 or 2011,” he said.
The MOVEE political leader criticized politicians using geopolitics and tribal politics, saying politicians of sort have nothing to deliver to the Liberian people and are seeking political popularity. He inferred that his massive welcome verifies that the people of Grand Bassa are not driven by tribal and divisive politics.
Dr. Jones said he will compete on the basis of ideas and politics and not tribal politics.