“Liberty Party Not Bassa Party” -LP SG; Speaks on Reconciliation, Cummings’ Running Mate

MONROVIA – Against the background of statements reportedly emanating from the recent visit of Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence in Grand Bassa where sentiments ran amok that the Liberty Party belongs to the Bassa tribe therefore the Bassa people must fight to reclaim their hegemony of Liberia’s second largest opposition political institution, the Secretary General of the Party, Mr. Martin Saye Kollah, has  categorically dismissed the insinuation, calling out those who are trading into such divisive politics as being unfair to the legacy of the founder, the late Cllr. Charles W. Brumskine. Kollah also stressed on the need to forge greater reconciliation within the party, as well as the direction that CPP Standard Bearer Alexander B. Cummings is taking to pick his running mate.

Speaking on the 50-50 live phone-in program on Monday, April 17, 2023, Kollah said that it was unfortunate that those who are confessing to espouse the virtue and legacy of the late Brumskine are bent on using ethnicity and divisive politics to tag LP as a “Bassa People” institution to take ownership of the party that was built fostering national unity, reconciliation and rule of law.

“It is not fair to the legacy of Cllr. Brumskine, when people begin to do this. Brumskine was a Bassa Man, yes, but he did not form the party to be a Bassa party. He was detribalized and embraced everyone, no matter where you come from.

“This is the President the Liberian people never had and will actually miss. He was never divisive in his party. The man in whose name they are trying to tribalize the party appointed Musa Bility in 2017 as the Chief Executive Officer of the party,” Mr. Kollah said.

Speaking further on the contradiction of those who according to him “followed Brumskine” yet are doing otherwise, Kollah said he could not fathom their tribalist leanings, especially against the backdrop of the late legal luminary begin fully clothed in the rule of law, while at the same time, others are now bent on disrespecting the judgment of the Supreme Court of Liberia.

“In 2017, Cllr. Brumskine took the National Elections Commission to court to challenge the irregularities in the election. When the Supreme Court ruled against him, though he did not agree with the judgment, he said he believed in the rule of law and therefore would accept and respect the court’s decision. That is Cllr. Brumskine.

“Now they are saying they believe in Brumskine, they are protecting his legacy; but how can you say that when you are not willing to accept the ruling from the Supreme Court. So, if you come to power tomorrow, how will you respect the rule of law in this country?”, Kollah wondered.

When asked to elaborate on the final ruling of the Supreme Court that went in favor of Musa Hassan Billity and him as National Chairman and Secretary General of LP respectively, Kollah said the apex court ruled in the affirmative that both he and Bility were legitimately elected to their respective positions at the special convention held in 2021 and that the court also decided in their favor that the constitution was properly filed with NEC.

“In the NEC regulation it was not clear on the type of instruments that should be filed from the convention, but it specifically called for the list of elected officials and not the constitution as opposed to Senator Nyonblee Lawrence’s claims that we were wrong to file the adopted 2021 constitution.

“The court said we were acting in our respective positions after the convention and we were inducted into office by Senator Lawrence, and those who were in charge at the time officially turned over everything to us, that is Steve Zargo and Jacob Smith”, he said.

While responding to a question regarding what was the next thing to do to bring all partisans back to the drawing board, Kollah said the leadership under Chairman Bility had initiated reconciliatory moves to everyone even before the final ruling from the court, and more efforts will be exerted to bring every aggrieved partisan back into the fold of the party.

He said contentions in political parties are not unique to the LP as it is the essence of democracy because there must be differences among partisans; but what is important is for contending parties to come together to bury their differences and work towards a common goal. He said the ruling will now provide an opportunity for everyone to sit down and work towards rebranding the party for the challenges ahead.

He said towards making that work, LP being a constituent member of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) will be holding a special convention in May, 2023 to decide on some major issues moving forward including the decision on who becomes the running mate to Standard Bearer Cummings.

“We are on top of everything concerning the running mate, and the person is a unifier, the person will bring unity among the opposition community. When the person is announced, it will shock everyone”, he said.

Speaking on the call for a Boakai-Cummings ticket as is being promoted by Senator John Ballout and others, Kollah said the group which called itself the Opposition Task force has to be honest in their approach and from what he has observed thus far, some of them are treading the path that may not help the opposition when they go in the second round. He stressed the role of the Vice President in the polity which he said the taskforce should carefully study before making any suggestion for a ticket.

“The role of the Vice President in our constitution is to assist the president and to perform tasks they are delegated to by the president. That means the person has to be trusted by the president who has to be assisted and who will delegate responsibility.

“I can remember that Saturday morning when former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took Cllr. Brumskine to meet Mr. Boakai on the possibility of a ticket and Mr. Boakai rejected the suggestion, saying, ‘When you picked me, did anyone impose me on you? Let me make my choice,”.

But Boakai is right on that decision and he is not under obligation to pick anyone that he is not comfortable with.

“The task force should get to Boakai and inform him about the ticket and Boakai should make that call to Mr. Cummings, otherwise it is a smear campaign by people to insinuate that Cummings is against opposition unity.

“Cummings made a proposal to Boakai that you have served this country, with 42 years of experience, it is something great, but please you should please raise my hand and find me a running mate that you will support. But up to now, Boakai has not responded to Cummings. He too has never ever made any proposal to Cummings about a ticket where Cummings will be his running mate,’” Kollah conjectured.

He said after the US presidential primaries in 2020, President Joe Biden reached out to Kamala Harris to serve as running mate, and it was even dramatized several times by the media and finally Biden did it. “We want to see Boakai doing similar things if the people are serious about a Boakai-Cummings ticket. Let Boakai show seriousness about it and that is what we want the taskforce to do, but then again the choice is Boakai to make”, he said.