Monrovia – Strong political ally of Musa Bility, Representative Edwin Snowe, has described Bility’s recent move to cross over from the Unity Party to join the Brumskine’s Liberty Party as an “unfortunate decision”.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway – [email protected]
Vividly disappointed, Snowe failed to elaborate on his comment but said though he welcomed and respects Bility’s decision, he least expected Bility who had been his long-standing friend to make such a move.
Snowe and Bility were strong campaigners of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Unity Party in the 2011 elections.
“You heard recently that Bility was saying on a talk-show that he will carry me over to the Liberty Party.
I heard him say if he doesn’t carry me to the Liberty Party, hair will grow in his palms, but I think Mr. Bility was joking about that. I have no plan whatsoever to join any other party other than the Unity Party,” Snowe strongly asserted.
Representative Snowe made the statement during an exclusive interview with a team of journalists over the Weekend in Bomi County.
The Biggest Political Move
Bility’s move to the Liberty Party has been described by many political actors as the biggest political cross carpet ahead of the 2017 elections.
This comes just 11 months to Liberia’s Presidential and legislative elections in 2017.
Bility served as the Unity Party’s campaign chairman for Montserrado County during the 2011 elections.
“It was a pleasure to have worked and served over the years and to have worked and served over the years and to have been a proud member of the teams that elected the leadership of this country in two successive elections,” Bility wrote in his resignation letter to UP’s Chairman Wilmot Paye.
Bility said he had joined the LP to assist the party build up on the gains made by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the areas of freedom of speech and democracy.
According to him, he was happy living in a country “where today someone of my stature in business and in politics is free to make a decision to leave the ruling party and join the incoming ruling party.”
He said he was joining Cllr. Brumskine because he had shown great leadership for more than a decade as an opposition politician.
“As a person, when I make a political decision, I do not make it because I have one vote or because I love the person,” Bility said.
“I am a stakeholder. I employed several hundred Liberians. Over the last five years, I have invested over US$50 million into our economy.
And therefore I have a stake into what happens to the country. I have come to know Cllr. Brumskine; his quality has impressed me.”
He said each of the two times Cllr. Brumskine had lost the elections; the LP political leader had called him up for discussion.
“I have come with this decision knowing the person I want to trust, the person that I believe that you have trusted for this decade.
“As a people, we all reflect, we come along and we make political decisions, but today my decision to join the Liberty Party—it will surprise you to note—is not because I believe that Liberty Party is the party that is going to win.
It is because I believe that the Liberty Party has the leadership that is fit to run this country.
“The winning is our job; that is what I am here for.”
Bility praised Cllr. Brumskine for being the only politician in Liberia who for the past decade and more has not been involved in a controversy or scandal.
Lobbying Within Unity Party
Despite Bility’s confidence in Brumskine, Snowe says was lobbying within the Unity Party to be selected as campaign chairman of Joseph Boakai during the 2017 elections.
Snowe joined the Unity Party in 2011 after he was elected as Representative of Montserrdo County District #6 as an independent candidate.
“Many say I am inconsistent, but that is not true. If I make any political decision I stand by it.”
“I have no plans leaving the Unity Party, in fact, I am currently lobbying to be the campaign manager for the election of Vice President Joseph Boakai,” he told FrontPageAfrica.
Switching Constituency
Switching from Montserrado to Bomi, Snowe said he would officially respond to the petition made by citizens and residents of Sinje District who called on him to contest the legislative seat in the district.
His petition to contest a seat in the county has been strongly rejected by top Bomi leaders including former Speaker Alex Tyler, Senators Morris Saytumah and Sando Johnson who claimed Snowe had mingling in the political affairs of the county.
However, Snowe disclosed that he would organize a huge gathering to official respond to the request made by thousands of Senjeh District citizens.
But Snowe said he had officially informed the National Elections Commission about his residency in the county.
According to Snowe, life in Bomi County was very appalling and the people residing in the county are totally disconnected from the county’s leadership.
Former Speaker fair share
Representative Edwin Snowe says dethroned House speaker Alex Tyler was having a fair share of the lack of systems to protect the welfare of past leaders of the House of Representatives.
As removed Speaker, Representative Tyler had been given a small office on the ground floor of the Capitol.
According to Snowe, the leadership cannot help the situation, as the only office available was the one next to a rest room on the ground floor.
Snowe said the office given Tyler is better than the one Tyler and others offered him when he was removed as Speaker.
“If you are a hunchback man and another hunchback man is being buried, you should look at the casket of that hunchback man so you can know how you will be buried, too.”
“The office that Honorable Alex Tyler has been given today is better than the office I was given when I resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
“It is not a payback but it tells you that in our system we have not put mechanism in place for former leaders,” he noted.
Snowe said the current leadership of the House headed by Speaker Nuquay has nothing against former speaker Tyler.