“BILITY IS RECALCITRANT” – NYONBLEE REVEALS WHY SHE REJECTED CUMMINGS’ RUNNING-MATE OFFER

By Olando Testimony Zeongar

BUCHANAN, GRAND BASSA COUNTY – Opposition Liberty Party (LP) embattled political leader, Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, has disclosed reasons why she turned down an offer to have served as vice presidential running-mate to Alexander B. Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), during Liberia’s impending elections slated for 10 October 2023.

At a ceremony intended for she and her faction of the segmented Liberty Party to endorse the candidature of Unity Party’s standard bearer, former Vice President Jospeh N. Boakai, Senator Karnga-Lawrence, at the weekend, disclosed that her decision to have declined to serve as vice standard bearer to Cummings, is among other things, due to the recalcitrant posture allegedly being exuded by LP’s legally recognized Chairman, Musa Hassan Bility, in recognizing her as political leader of the party.

Following a long-running legal battle occasioned by an unending leadership squabble that split the LP into two factions, with each being headed by Bility and Karnga-Lawrence, the Supreme Court recently ruled legitimizing the authority of the Bility faction, as the LP’s legally accepted leadership.

Immediately after the Court’s ruling, Bility, in a communication, reaffirmed a previous decision announcing the expulsion of Senator Karnga-Lawrence as political leader of the LP, and ordered that members of the public including politicians and political institutions refrain from conducting business pertaining to LP with the Bassa senator, nor anyone other than the Liberty Party’s National Executive Committee under his leadership, as chairman of the Party.

Howbeit, Karnga-Lawrence divulged at the well-attended endorsement ceremony that she and her team did not find it prudent to at this time, form political alliance with Cummings and the ANC, a decision which she believes were it to be made, would have been a deviation and a betrayal of the trust and confidence of thousands of LP partisans.

She noted that in light of Cummings’ unending support to Bility, who she referred to as the man whose desire is to render Liberty Party politically paralyzed and divided, for her to have been unwittingly found sitting on the same ticket with the ANC political leader, would have been a deviation and a betrayal of the trust and confidence of thousands of partisans of the LP.

She’s of the belief that actors on the country’s political stage must have a deeper self-examination of trending political events that could lend themselves to political collaboration or the reverse thereof, pointing out that as a matter of fact, Bility is recalcitrant that he does not recognize the authority of the political leadership of the LP.

She accused Cummings’ ANC based upon what she called the party’s actions and inaction, of all along, supporting and concretizing Bility’s recalcitrance not to recognize her as the political leader of Liberty Party.

“What is even more disturbing and unconscionable is the fact that the ANC folks are inclined to believe that the only way we could gain control of LP is to accept the running mate slot, and every other thing will fall into place,” said Karnga-Lawrence, who noted that to have accepted such an offer would have demonstrated sheer greed for power on her part.

Karnga-Lawrence, who maintained that turning down the offer to have served as vice standard bearer to Cummings was the right decision, noted that anything short of that would have been the less honorable path for her to have threaded.

“In essence, to form a presidential ticket with individuals who conspired with a compromised system to rob us of deserved justice, would only be interpreted as approving the same system that we are endeavoring to change,” she emphasized, adding, “Even more, it would be a demonstration of desperation for political power. We could never and will never fall in such trap.”

Karnga-Lawrence disclosed that the decision for she and her team to have rejected Cummings’ and the ANC’s vice presidential running-mater offer and rather endorsed Joe Boakai, who a fortnight ago, picked as running-mate to him, Nimba County Senator Jeremiah Koung over her, was taken based upon four considerations.

She named such considerations as the safeguarding of the political image of she and her team; the general direction of partisans and supporters of her faction of the LP; the prospects of forming a winning ticket at this time of the country’s electoral calendar; and the long-term best interest of Liberia.

Meanwhile, Karnga-Lawrence also disclosed that besides Cummings and the ANC, outstanding Liberian legal luminary and astute statesman, Tiawan Saye Gongloe, who is running for president on the ticket of the Liberian People’s Party (LPP), also had talks with her, seeking the approval of she and her team for her to serve as vice presidential running-mate to him – a request she also turned down.