In the days ahead when the entire electoral process shall have been concluded, attention will be shifted to who among lawmakers, both incoming and those re-elected, will emerge to occupy the principal offices including the speaker and the deputy to pilot the affairs of the 55th national legislature just as names are popping up of those who intend to contest some of these positions.
As the wave of speculations continue to fly around in the political space, The Analyst was able to scoop from competent sources that Madam Prescilla Abram Cooper, the newly elected representative of District #5 Montserrado County has told her close associates that she will be gunning for the Speakership of the House of Representatives in the next dispensation which is expected to be inaugurated in January, 2024.
While her possible candidature is yet to be confirmed, some political pundits have been weighing in on her chances against the background of how the position has been occupied often through some arrangements that in most cases involved both the cooperation and lobbying of the executive branch of government. They are however of the strong opinion that situations and circumstances have evolved that now make the case of a more liberal, result-oriented and strong managerial skills candidate covering prudent management of human and material resources.
“It is our hope that the 55th national legislature will focus on having a leadership structure that will be focused on policy issues with emphasis on the economy with an eye on picking someone who has garnered experience managing human capital and materials to grow sectors or entities and in the process creating wealth and happiness for the people”, a retired civil servant, who sometime ago set up a think tank to address development issues in the country, said recently when the discussion on who should play key roles in the next legislature came up.
According to some of those who have heard about the rumored decision of Madam Cooper, the upward mobile corporate executive has all what it take to head the House of Representatives, stating that while there could be some misgivings about gender issue which could be a minus given the fact that the national legislature is a male-dominated environment, others see it as a plus because “a woman’s ability to control resources and people in a household is at the same time an exercise in public power”.
So, who is this Precellia Abram Cooper? Background information available to The Analyst has it that the Montserrado County representative-elect could be described as one of the rare examples of youths growing up without the basic necessities and luxury others had enjoyed; but that she, coming from a good family upbringing despite challenges and strong determination, rose to positions of prominence that served as source of inspiration to many others.
She started her life as a young woman seeing her mother struggling to create opportunities to help sustain the family, and as a teenage; she joined her mother to sell a variety of businesses in the Red Light Market environment and its surroundings.
Despite all of these challenges, she mustered the courage and took on the challenge and got involved with hair braiding, selling of fish which helped her to acquire high school education at the College of West Africa (CWA).
Upon graduation from CWA, she matriculated at the AME Zion University where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in business Administration and is currently pursuing Master’s degree studies at the University of Liberia.
In her struggling years she made a vow to correct some of the challenges she passed through at the end of her struggle; and true to that commitment, she has been a source of help to so many people, especially young women to create a smooth space for their children to acquire quality education, abstain from drugs abuse, and have access to good health care, sanitation, among others.
With her 25 years of service in the private sector, specifically in the telecommunications sector where she has been able to work at Lonestar & Cellcom (Orange), she was able to build a strong transition by establishing businesses in Montserrado County District #5 and other parts of Monrovia.
During her time at the entities that she served and businesses she established, Precillia employed over 3,000 individuals, some of whom are residents of District #5, Montserrado County.
She has an astute professional and business life some of which include but not limited to being the General Manager/Co-Owner of the Executive Inn, Thinkers Village, Paynesville; Executive Assistant, Cellcom Telecommunications Inc, Capitol Bypass; and County Affairs Coordinator, Office of the Senator of River Gee County, the Liberian Senate.
Others are Customer Care Coordinator-Lone-Star Cell Communications, Congo Town-Monrovia-Liberia; Senior Customer Care Officer- Lone-Star Cell Communication, Congo Town-Monrovia-Liberia; Customer Care Officer – Lone-Star Cell Communications, Congo Town, Monrovia-Liberia; Executive Officer – Prevailing World Mission Int’l, Paynesville 72nd – Liberia; and Expeditor -Ministry of State, Executive Mansion- Monrovia- Liberia.
As regards her political experience, young Precillia is a very calculative and analytical person who has been meticulous in how she aligns with and conducts herself in a society where politics is viewed by many as a game in which personal interest supersedes group interest.
Since her entry into partisan politics in 2005 as an ardent adherent of the Liberty Party whose philosophy is centered on the four R’s: Reconciliation, Reform, Recovery and Rebuilding, she has been of the unbending conviction that although politics is sometimes defined in terms of who gets what, when, how and where, contemporary Liberian politics must present a human face.
This, to her, entails going beyond defining politics in the often-narrow view of “what is her ultimate interest?” Owing to this view, she continued to work along with her political party in projecting what is known as the utilitarian value of politics: the greater good for the greater number of people, with no inclination of pursuing politics in the context of “what can one get out of it personally” and disregarding the overall interest of the political environment in which one live.
She has been in the trenches for the Liberty Party since 2005 and came through the ranks working with several auxiliaries such as Brumskine Women Movement, the Friends of Brumskine, among others in projecting the four pillars of the Liberty Party platform to the public.
During the 2017 Presidential and Representative elections, she featured prominently in the political auxiliary called Charlie Angels, a group which was active in the mobilization and recruitment of scores of partisans and supporters for the presidential bid of the late Political Leader, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine, whose vision for a better Liberia attracted support from different shades of political persuasions.
With her endurance and active participation in the running of a major political institution like Liberty Party, she attained one of the significant standards of trust needed in Liberia’s quest for effective public sector reform drive, still holding up to those values she has moved on and joined the Unity Party, whose standard bearer holds all those same principles.
Her recent massive victory at the polls, the first major contest to the house of representative, is a testimony to the extent she has matured in politics and decision making and as such, she is in a better position to take on any leadership at the height of the house of representatives.
Political watchers are of the opinion that her candidature if considered will be a source of rallying point for like minds who are serious to do things differently from what the so-called rubberstamp stature that the legislature has been reduced to.