Liberty Party, Take Seize of the Opportunity
THERE IS NO denying the fact that the opposition Liberty Party, since entering the democratic space in 2005 by fielding candidates in the 2005 elections, has made indelible mark on the country’s body polity by not only remaining at the top tier among serious political parties contesting the presidency, but the party has also been successful in capturing important seats in the National Legislature over the years. This enviable record notwithstanding, the Liberty Party which many believe had scored so many political victories in the past by remaining significant in the political arena, is today a shadow of the party that Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine birthed and natured.
FOR NEARLY TWO years now, the Liberty Party has been wracked by internal wrangling over constitutional issues bordering on power play between two opposing camps – Political Leader Senator Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence and Chairman Musa Hassan Bility. The crisis has not only split the Liberty Party into two, but has seriously impacted on Liberia’s biggest opposition coalition, the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) that vowed to unseat President George Manneh Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) from power through the ballot box in 2023.
THE LP CRISIS has been further compounded by the both sides throwing their respective support behind Unity Party’s Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Alternative National Congress’ Alexander B. Cummings for the Collaborating Political Parties standard-bearer slot.
UNDOUBTEDLY, THE DECISION by the two Liberty Party power brokers to openly support two of the CPP potential standard bearer candidates, even before the CPP has held its primary and VPS, is seen by political pundits as the main crux of the CPP disintegration. As things stand, the Unity Party of Joseph N Boakai and the All Liberia Party of Benoni Urey have officially left the CPP to be run by Alexander Cummings and Liberty Party’s Musa Bility, while LP Standard Bearer Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence and her LP have thrown their lot with Ambassador Joseph Boakai.
With the recent Supreme Court intervention to resolve the deepening LP crisis, Liberians, who pinned their hopes on the opposition ascending to power in 2023, but were left disappointed by the unending legal squabbles, have again seen reason to smile.
WE ARE EQUALLY elated as well, just as many ordinary Liberians, that the two opposing sides of the LP have seen reason to sit and harmonize their differences like civilized human beings, instead of continuously engaging one another in diatribe, innuendoes and vitriol as if they are not seasoned politicians but Water Side Market street hawkers.
IT GOES WITHOUT saying that the Liberian people are tired of these shenanigans from the Liberty Party which Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine birthed, nurtured and utilized to groom men and women of outstanding repute. We wonder how Cllr. Brumskine would feel knowing that his baby is being torn apart because of contending egos, power and conceited ambitions.
WE CAN STILL recall vividly when the Liberty Party seemed lost during and after the 2017 presidential and general elections, when key executives jumped ship and deserted the party for greener pastures. It was the rock solid fortitude of Cllr. Charles Brumskine that steered the Liberty Party from the tempests to harbor.
LIBERTY PARTY MEMBERS, supporters, sympathizers and well-wishers expect nothing less than a unified party. This is what Senator Lawrence and Chairman Bility owe the party and its teeming supporters and by extension the Liberian people who have a larger stake in our polity. Senator Lawrence and Chairman Bility should further understand that the survival of the entire opposition camp far supersedes constituent party interests and individual political ambitions.
WE ARE HOWEVER of the strong conviction that now that the Supreme Court has made the determination that individual parties are free either to remain or leave the CPP, some of the external struggles the party was faced with will be cut off, and that the LP will use this period do serious reflections on how to rebuild the party and heal the deep-seated wounds.
A UNITED LIBERTY PARTY not only serves the interests of the CPP, but the general populace.
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