2023 BLUES: Shaking CDC’s Tables -Former Weah Confidants Spilling Beans -Outline Reasons Why Liberians Must Reject Weah Reelection -CDC Chief Rescuer Enters Fray, But…

MONROVIA – The National Elections Commission (NEC) of Liberia has not even officially cracked the gun to signal the commencement of campaign for the 2023 presidential and general elections, yet contenders for the presidency are not waiting for any NEC signal. Lately, President George Manneh Weah and some of his close lieutenants have been traversing the country preaching for Weah’s reelection in 2023. However, while Weah and his people are fighting hard to sell him for 2023, some hardcore elements of Weah’s former inner, circle dating way back from 1998 to 2005, are cautioning the voters to outrightly reject President Weah’s second term bid, because according to them, the Liberian leader is absolutely clueless about governance and policy issues, and has already sold out to his associates who are bent on enriching themselves at the detriment of the poor people who took unquantifiable risks to ensure the former soccer icon’s ascendency to power in 2017.

Busting the rotten chicken egg last Friday on one of Liberia’s trendiest online and radio talk shows, the former Chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), now the Coalition for Democratic Change, Mr. George Solo, says President Weah sold out against the political philosophy that birthed the CDC, a situation that is accelerating Liberia’s downward spiral, while Weah and his newfound friends in government continue to amass ill-gotten wealth for themselves at the detriment of ordinary Liberians.

Speaking last Friday on Spoon TV Live, former CDC Chairman George Solo said President Weah has surrounded himself with sycophants and bootlickers who don’t care to tell him the truth; who don’t care to tell him to stop stealing from the Liberian people whose primary concern is mainly about the bread-and-butter issues of their woeful existence.

Addressing one of the Spoon co-hosts in person of Mr. Keff Hassan whose pro-CDC stance has often landed in him trouble with his co-host, guests and audiences, Mr. Solo lamented that Keff Hassan is one of the many enablers that continues to lead President Weah down the wrong path; disclosing further that he (Solo) often placed himself on the firing line to engage Weah especially when the President decided to enter politics.

“Weah is reacting to those enablers. What enablers do to athletes, celebrities and people who have this entitled mindset is to let them know that everything is okay. Why are we considered the wicked guys, the trouble makers? It is because we are the ones who will always say: ‘this is wrong, you don’t tell a woman to shut up, you don’t steal government funds.’

“When you activate that mentality around these people, that’s what kept us there,” Solo said, adding, ‘foolery is great, but only when the circus is on; nobody needs a clown on a normal day when we’re thinking about moving forward; holding governments accountable’.

“I would never be around George Weah and look at him wearing a blue suit and a white pair of shoes and go on to salute on our national day like that. I would have told him to change that outfit, that it’s not appropriate for the occasion. This is why people were uncomfortable with people like us. You wouldn’t be around us and build these houses when you are looking at the economy.

“George Weah is now under pressure to perform at his highest. Because he’s an athlete; psychologically, if he’s not under pressure, he will make music and dance ‘bugga’. If all of us were like Keff Hassan, Weah would be making reggae music, because in his mind, there is no sense of urgency. At this time, it is accepted psychologically. But the circumstance is, when you are around him and you are pointing out these issues, it depends on the individual who is pointing them out. If you’re ready to face him and point them out, he will take it; if you’re not, he will not,” Weah’s former party Chairman said.

Mr. Solo said on numerous occasions he had to respond to Mr. Weah’s anti-social attitude, and because he was forceful, Weah agreed with him. But he further disclosed that there were many occasions when he battled his then-CDC standard bearer on decisions taken that affected the hierarchy of the party.

“So, when you tell me, let’s eat Robert Sirleaf’s money and he comes back, we will tell him anything, no; I am not telling him anything because tomorrow, it will be George Solo who took it. On what basis is that being taken?” the former CDC party Chairman wondered, in reference to allegations that he (Solo) had received money from former President Sirleaf’s son Robert in 2014 to convince Weah to forgo his Montserrado County senatorial ambition at the time.

Solo further intimated that Mr. George Weah had met Robert Sirleaf in Paris in 2014 and they had a conversation, which was brought to his attention as Cchairman of the CDC.

“When I resisted that conversation, it was brought back to me as: ‘don’t put Grand Gedeh in this thing. But I said: you want to take people’s money and pretend like you’re not going to run? And I disagreed with that!” Solo averred.

Speaking further on the problems that he went through to ensure that Mr. Weah remained committed to presenting himself as a political figure ready for the Liberian presidency, former Chairman Solo said the former global soccer star is someone who needs 24 hours monitoring.

“When you leave him for one minute, he will tell the people that he wants to become senator for Monrovia. While you are trying to defend that statement, the man’s naked picture comes outside from Milan. While you are defending that one, he has fathered two more children in Ghana,” Solo remarked frustratingly.

Acknowledging Weah’s alleged warring faction connection

Also appearing on the platform, one of President Weah’s reported childhood friends, Abraham Ellis, aka “Markalord”, said he is totally disappointed how the country is being run, because he and the core group of Weah’s associates from the “Old School” days did not expect that their idol would today remain silent in the face of the explained deaths of auditors, widespread corruption, among other societal ills.

 Markalord said if given the chance to advise the electorates whether or not to reelect the former soccer star, he will tell the Liberia people upfront to think twice before mortgaging their fate in 2023.

The former President of Junior Professionals, Weah’s soccer team during his heyday, said his proximity to the former soccer star caused rumors to make the rounds that they had an intimate affair; but quashed such thoughts. “No, I never knew Weah to engage in such, except if someone tells me he’s doing it now,” Weah’s former confidant said.

However, when queried as to whether he had any information that his childhood friend had links with former warring factions in Liberia, Markalord cryptically remarked that Liberians should never doubt the statements from Representative Yekeh Kolubah, to the effect that Weah supported warring factions during the civil wars years to dislodge former President Charles Taylor.

“I can’t say much on this platform, but I will tell you never to discredit what Yekeh said. Everything will be in my book,” remarked Mr. Ellis (Markalord), in allusion to a book he promised to publish as soon as possible.

“DTweah” Interjects

In an apparent attempt to come to the rescue of the only openly CDC-supporting cohost on the Spoon TV Talk Show, Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, who was constantly by the moniker “D Tweah”, made a phone-in interjection to quash statements from Messrs. George Solo and Markalord, and to apparently defend Mr. Hassan.

DTweah lamented, why would the Spoon moderators reduce the program to personality clashes against his boss President Weah without speaking on the core policy and governance issues that the CDC government has been working hard to address since its inception in 2018.

Minister Tweah furthered that Liberia is making significant strides when it comes to the country-specific economic outlook projected by international financial institutions, and wondered why the Spoon TV panelists would allow people with personal frustrations to belittle the governance conversations and showcase petty squabbles only because they have nothing substantive to offer.

 DTweah further intoned that the former CDC chairman was constitutionally booted out because of his gangster behavior, citing an incident where he alleged that George Solo ordered the flogging of controversial radio talk show host Henry Pedro Costa.

But in an attempt to bring the finance minister down to earth, Alternative National Congress stalwart Moriah Yeakula, as guest of Spoon TV Live, queried Minister Tweah on the level of achievement Liberia has made regarding fulfilment of the Millennium Compact Challenge (MCC) benchmarks since assuming power in 2018.

Following a rigorous back and forth interaction, it was finally established that Liberia has not passed the MCC benchmarks which qualify the postwar, socioeconomically challenged nation to benefit from the cornucopia of opportunities outlined by its traditional ally, the United States of America under the development framework.

However, Minister Tweah promised that Liberia is expected to make headway in the upcoming MCC 2022 review.