MONROVIA – Former Chairman of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) Cyril Allen has joined the bandwagon of ethnic divide proponents who fueled diatribe that occasioned the protracted civil war which plunged Liberia into an abyss of anarchy.
Cyril Allen has always been a controversial figure in contemporary Liberian politics. As former Chairman of jailed ex-Liberian leader Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Party (NPP), “Chief” Allen was said to have been the mastermind behind the marriage of convenience that transformed George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change to the Coalition for Democratic Change few months before the 2017 presidential elections that saw the former Montserrado County senator clinching the top seat in Liberia’s democratic governance process. Purportedly riding on a ticket of inclusiveness, Allen’s NPP brokered a deal with Weah’s CDC and Alex Tyler’s LPDP that apparently foresaw a consolidation the country’s myriad ethnic divide.
Speaking to an array of journalists during the week, Mr. Allen, while addressing a range of contemporary political issues, skidded a slippery slope by stating emphatically that Liberians will no longer settle for any national leadership that promotes the hegemony of the former settlers.
Mr. Allen’s reference to his own new political paradigm shift came as a result of questions posed regarding the in-roads that the new opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) was making to seal a victory at the polls in 2020 and 2023 over the governing CDC.
“It’s the wrong time to think you would bring an Americo-Liberian to become President of Liberia. It’s an anachronism,” said Allen, who himself gained political and economic capital during the egregious rule of Americo-Liberian rebel-turned president Charles Ghankay Taylor.
Public Reactions to Allen’s Country-Native Divide Rhetoric
Mr. Allen’s comment promoting ethic division and possibly another round of civil upheaval has however elicited strong reactions from the public, with many saying Cyril Allen has no right to discuss electoral matters, as he is not even a Liberian citizen.
“Cyril Allen is a buccaneer from Nigeria, just like his colleague Nwabudike. A bandit promoted by former president Charles Taylor; who in fact threatened members of the diplomatic corps for expulsion from Liberia if they continued to interfere in the country’s body politics,” says Justin Cephas, a former employee of the Liberian government during the reign of the Taylor regime.
“Absolute nonsense! Are you saying that those running our country into the ground today are Congau or Americo-Liberians? This Congau-country nonsense no longer applies. Only stupid people can follow that. Foolish argument,” maintains Kormah Korvah.
“The generation of Cyril Allen is the worst and most destructive generation of Liberia, that’s why he and others are bent on ill-advising President George Weah just as he did with former President Charles Taylor for which he is now in a maximum security prison for war crimes. Mr. Allen has no moral values and following to decide who becomes the next President of Liberia,” averred exiled former student leader Martin K.N. Kollie.
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