Contrary to the belief of the ruling establishment that President George Manneh Weah have scored a political capital during his recent two-phase tour of some parts of the country, the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Mr. Alexander Cummings has disputed the truthfulness of such belief and said there was no impact of Weah’s leadership in the capital city just as it is in the rural areas where the people do not even feel any impact of the government in power.
Speaking to a panel of journalists on Truth FM on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 in Monrovia, Mr. Cummings said the much heralded nationwide tour to some of the counties only provided a temporary relief to the President and his government. He however indicated that with time, the reality will sink in where it will be realized that there was nothing spectacular about the tour as is being reported all around the place.
“Please don’t be carried away about the tour. It actually provided a temporary relief to the President and his group; but no sooner than now, the reality will begin to sink in that there was nothing special about the tour after all. The same hardship you find in Montserrado County where the President resides and rules is the same in the rural area; in fact it is even worse there than in Montserrado.
Cummings was taken aback when the President who should be telling the people how he will solve the nation’s problems since independence, he has taken the course of the past as the ordinary citizens complaining why and how the country is underdeveloped for the past 173.
Mr. Cummings asserted that in such scenario, Mr. Weah was demonstrating to the people that he has not understood the reason why the people elected him in the first place.
“The President’s tour was not about assuring or reassuring the people that there is hope that their plight can be addressed. He instead went there to complain the same way the rural people have been complaining, implying that they should not depend or rely on him to provide solutions to their predicament,” Mr. Cummings said.
When asked whether the President really got the message from the people during the tour, Mr. Cummings said the expectation from people about the visits was to solicit their views about their conditions and how solutions could be found; but the ANC leader indicated that the purpose of the tour turned out to be a jamboree where the President was keen on projecting himself instead of the government as well as scheming to incite the people against their local authority.
Mr. Cummings furthered that funding of the President’s visit was appropriated from the budget, using tax payers’ money while he went about dishing out money and gifts as if to say he was doing so from his pocket.
Responding to question why people came out in their multitude to welcome the President and party in the various counties, Mr. Cummings said most of the people who went out there to welcome the President were paid, some also went there to see something that looked like a carnival where a long convoy of expensive cars were coming their side for the first time since some of them were born.
He furthered said it was nothing like approval and appreciation of the President and so the government should not be deceived to liken the turnout of the people to a signal of approval that the people will elect him in 2023.
“The visits were in no way any sign of the rural people giving an approval to the President’s performance and so it should not be taken that they will vote for him in 2023. They will definitely reject him at the polls because nothing has changed in their lives. You still find civil servants in the rural areas not getting paid for months, the health centers there are completely nothing to talk about if they ever existed, the people still drink from the creeks, etc. So what has changed now that the people will be excited about?” Mr. Cummings wondered.
In apparent reference to the President’s outburst about the reported Presidential Guest house in River Gee which was actually a Guest house built through the initiative of a women group in the county, Mr. Cummings said the President didn’t know actually that his government has not done anything for the rural people as they did almost everything for themselves.
The Opposition leader therefore said the President should not have ended up to blasting the people of not doing anything for themselves, and should not have amounted to chiding the people for relying on the government to do those things they ought to do for themselves.
The CPP’s Presidential hopeful also took issue with the President’s assertion that most of the counties he visited have not been using their county development funds judiciously when the president knows very well that since his ascendency, there has not been any money provided in the budget for the counties to undertake projects.
Mr. Cummings was apparently making reference to the situation in Grand Cape Mount County where President Weah literally chided the officials and elites of the county for not doing much for the county, especially the county legislators for failing to adequately appropriate money from county development funds.
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