MONROVIA – What was expected to be a standard goodwill address at the Congress for Democratic Change’s 22nd Anniversary celebration in Zwedru became one of the most substantively charged speeches of the entire occasion when Musa Hassan Bility, Political Leader of the Citizens Movement for Change, took the podium. Rather than offering congratulatory pleasantries, Bility issued a blunt warning to the CDC and the broader opposition: coalitions built for the purpose of seizing power, without guiding principles or capable legislators, are destined to repeat Liberia’s history of broken alliances. His speech ignited fresh debate that has continued in Monrovia’s political corridors since. THE ANALYST reports.
The 22nd Anniversary celebration of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, produced one of the most publicly discussed speeches of the occasion when Musa Hassan Bility, Political Leader of the Citizens Movement for Change (CMC) and Representative for Nimba County, used his allotted time not for congratulatory remarks but for a pointed, historically grounded critique of Liberia’s political culture of unprincipled coalition-building.
Speaking before a packed gathering that included CDC National Chairman Atty. Janga Augustus Kowo, ANC Political Leader Alexander B. Cummings, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh, and thousands of CDC partisans, Bility delivered what political observers described as a sobering departure from the celebratory atmosphere that had dominated the day’s program. Rather than offering the back-slapping optimism that anniversary occasions typically invite, the CMC leader injected a dose of hard political reality into a gathering that had been saturated with calls for immediate opposition unity.
Power Grab Is Not Unity
Bility opened his substantive critique with a declaration that set the tone for everything that followed. “If you put the opposition together for the purpose of grabbing power, that is not opposition unity. That is a power grab,” he stated.
“We cannot unite based on a power grab. This time around, the unification of the opposition must be based around a guiding principle.” The remark drew a mixture of applause and visible reaction from the hall, as it cut directly against the grain of the mass chanting for a quick fix to the nation’s leadership that had preceded his address.
Bility urged voters to stop pressuring political leaders into empty agreements and argued that the lack of foundational principles had ruined past political transitions, including the historic 2017 election that brought the CDC to power.
He told the audience that 90 days after Weah’s election, many of the same people who celebrated his victory were already saying they did not want him.
“A six-year campaign took place — but the opposition sat and said nothing about the principles we were going to run the country with,” he stated. Political analysts present at the event noted that Bility’s reflections struck at the very heart of Liberia’s recurring democratic dilemma: the tendency for coalitions to dissolve into internal warfare the moment victory is achieved.
The CPP Collapse: A Warning Revisited
Bility drew on the history of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) — the multi-party opposition alliance that coalesced ahead of the 2020 midterm senatorial elections and later fractured before the 2023 general elections — as a cautionary tale that he insisted must not be repeated.
He recalled that under the leadership of Alexander Cummings during the 2020 midterm senatorial elections, the opposition had effectively controlled the outcome before breaking their own internal rules and fracturing.
He lamented that the collapse of the CPP effectively disenfranchised voters who had believed a sustainable alternative had finally arrived.
“That mistake that was made in 2023, the CMC will not be a part of it again,” Bility vowed. The statement was received with applause by sections of the audience and with silence by others, reflecting the sensitivity of the reference in a gathering hosted by a party that is a principal figure in the events he was describing.
Rejecting Yama Yama Lawmakers
Bility’s most vivid and widely quoted passage concerned the quality of candidates that opposition coalitions send to the National Legislature.
He insisted that the next coalition must carefully filter candidates to avoid electing incompetent leaders who prioritize personal gain over national development.
“Let us stop putting all kinds of yama yama people and putting them in the House of Representatives and the Senate,” Bility stated, using popular Liberian parlance for substandard or unfit individuals in a phrase that drew a sharp mix of gasps and applause from the crowd.
He elaborated on what he meant by legislative quality. “We need a representative who will stand and tell the president, ‘You cannot do this.’ We need a senator who will tell the president, ‘The minister you appointed is not qualified, send the person back,'” he said.
The critique resonated strongly with a Liberian public increasingly cynical about the independence and backbone of Capitol Hill. Bility argued that a weak, compromised legislature was the direct byproduct of rushed coalitions that distributed legislative tickets as political favors rather than vetting candidates for their integrity, intellectual depth, and willingness to check executive overreach.
The Honor Is on the CDC
Despite the unsparing nature of his critique, Bility did not conclude on a note of rejection. He explicitly extended a hand of collaboration to the host party, recognizing the CDC’s dominant position within the current opposition landscape and its responsibility to lead by example in whatever alliance architecture emerges ahead of 2029.
“Today, you are the doyen of the opposition. The honor is on you. We are prepared to work together,” Bility stated. However, he reinforced his central condition in the same breath: “But this time around, it has to be on the slate of respectability, on the slate of guiding principles — to put Liberia on a new roadmap.”
Debate Ignited in Monrovia
The speech immediately ignited debate in Monrovia’s political corridors and on social media platforms, with observers divided on whether Bility’s intervention was a constructive challenge to the terms of opposition cooperation or a public airing of grievances that risked fracturing fragile goodwill at a politically sensitive moment.
Supporters of his position argued that Bility had said what many political actors privately acknowledge but rarely state publicly — that coalition-building in Liberia has historically been driven by ego and electoral convenience rather than governance philosophy.
Critics countered that the anniversary of an allied opposition party was not the appropriate occasion for such pointed warnings.
Political observers are now watching closely to see whether other opposition stalwarts — particularly Cummings and MPC Political Leader Simeon Freeman — will publicly respond to Bility’s call to put policy blueprints ahead of power-sharing formulas as the opposition begins to more formally organize ahead of the 2029 general elections.
The CMC leader’s Zwedru address has, at minimum, established a public standard against which any future opposition alliance will now be measured.