A Patriot’s Diary with Ekena Wesley
There is absolutely no doubt that retired soccer legend-turned politician, George Manneh Weah commands considerable popularity. That popularity could not deliver the presidency in the first round in 2005.
Amid an attempt in 2005 that culminated in a second round, Weah lost to Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In 2011, Weah took the back seat following a deal with Cllr. Winston Tubman, who also lost to former President Sirleaf. But Tubman withdrew from the second round even though he was on the ballot. In 2017, Weah forged an alliance, thus leading to the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC). George Weah’s CDC emerged as the ultimate winner in a second round – defeating former Vice President, Joseph Nyuma Boakai.
The victor in the 2017 second round comprised Weah-led Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Party (NPP), and disgraced former House Speaker Alex J. Tyler’s Liberia People’s Democratic Party (LPDP). After the locus shift in power, George Weah failed to live up to the letter and spirit of the framework deal that brought the three parties together.
Weah flatly ignored and shunned the NPP and LPDP in terms of job allocation. Did they really matter? From the unrepentant posture of President Weah, the NPP and LPDP really didn’t matter. And so, President Weah formed a government made predominantly of the Congress for Democratic Change faction in the Coalition.
But the election was already won and Weah was inaugurated as President. Weah’s ears deafened to anything next to creating a balanced power-sharing government. Of the three political parties in the Coalition, Alex Tyler’s LPDP received the worst surprise. Tyler should be reeling from the scars of nonchalance.
Perhaps Weah’s reckoning was aligned with his so-called popularity that the NPP and LPDP sought to ride on. Why didn’t Weah go solo after all? Ironically, it took a second round to produce a winner.
Whether we choose to accept it or not, George Weah’s popularity has largely been rooted in the slum communities of urban Montserrado County. A candid reflection of the numbers across the country would give a crystal clear appreciation of Weah’s standing nationwide. The ratio between 2005 and 2011 saw a dwindling slide. In 2005, Weah’s CDC made an incredible showing in the Lower House with a majority of the 17 districts in Montserrado while clenching the county’s senatorial seats.
However, 2017 witnessed new actors including Taylor’s NPP and Tyler’s LPDP. The NPP’s strength is entrenched in grassroots mobilization in Bong, Nimba, and Margibi counties. Essentially, NPP joined the Coalition from the position of strength. While that strength was a critical factor in the 2017 victory of the Coalition, the outcome in terms of who gets what was negligible. Moving forward, the NPP holds the conviction that lessons learned should be the basis for future collaboration as it were.
Political parties, like human institutions, are not exempt from internal wrangling. Yesterday it was the now fractured CPP, today the ruling Coalition is tucked in the ambit of brouhaha. The National Patriotic Party had converged on the City of Paynesville to hold the party’s convention. The aim was to elect new corps of executives for the party.
What should have been a civil political gathering descended into pandemonium, leaving one ex-commando dead and a couple of partisans wounded. A fracas ensued when Vice President, Jewel Howard-Taylor and James Biney’s factions became embroiled in a web of acrimony. Comically, Jewel Howard-Taylor and James Biney’s wing separately announced an array of newly elected party executives.
No word has so far come from Dr. Dr. George Manneh Weah since the acrimonious outcome of a member of the ruling Coalition’s political instability. Maybe the next time George Weah mounts the pulpit at his Forkay Kloh church, he might have some word for the embattled factions of the NPP. Why would Weah select to be docile when a key member of his Coalition government is in disarray? Why is the president seemingly unconcerned? Doesn’t that bother him in any way? The garage attached to Weah’s house is on fire. Why shouldn’t the president be concerned? He should be commonsensical!
Surely, President Weah understands and knows why there is disintegration within the NPP. He is a party to the disenchantment if you may. His deliberate action to treat the NPP unfairly following the victory of 2017 is responsible for the discord. The administration is in its fifth year. Next year, Liberians go to the polls to elect new leaders. A disintegrated Coalition for Democratic Change does not augur well for the ruling government. For now, while President Weah might appear unbothered, the bubble on the horizon might likely capsize the already clueless administration that has become a bundle of frustration and nightmare for millions of Liberians that remain hopeless.
