MONROVIA – In what is being seen as complete turnaround for opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), the former Executive Director of the National Investment Commission (NIC) and a stalwart of the opposition Unity Party, George G. Wisner, has rallied the youths of the Bassa Town Community in Chicken Soup Factory to join him in canvassing for the Standard Bearer of the CPP, Alexander B Cummings, ahead of the 2023 Presidential and Legislative Elections. Mr. Wisner informed the youth that living conditions in the country under President Weah have worsened; and that any attempt to give the CDC government another six would further reduce Liberians beyond destitution, while their country would regress into a pariah status among the comity of nations.
The former strategist of the UP and National Campaign Coordinator of the Unity Party in the 2011 Presidential and Legislative election made the pronouncement on Sunday, October 2, 2022, when he addressed about 300 youths, mainly women, at a mobilization event organized by the Concerned Youths & Women Organization to pledge their support to work with him to achieve the objective of the CPP.
“Our Country is at a crossroad. No one needs to explain to you that things have gotten so unbearable under President Weah. Many of our brothers and sisters are struggling and cannot enter school this semester because they cannot afford it. They cannot afford it because the Government of President Weah has made it difficult for them. They have deprived the citizens of their livelihood and main source of income without creating an alternative source for them,” Wisner stated.
The one-time student activist of the University of Liberia and former President of the Federation of Liberian Youth accused President Weah of being wicked to civil servants and vindictive because they (CDC) assumed many civil servants did not vote for the CDC in the last 2017 Presidential elections. Mr. Wisner explained that President Weah and his government have been very wicked, especially to Civil Servants who constitute a bulk of the workforce of the Country and form the main source of support for families across the Country.
“The Weah Government deliberately and unjustly reduced salaries of Civil Servants in order to accommodate some of their partisans out of spite and vengeance, because they believed many Civil Servants were not in their line,” Wisner averred.
George G. Wisner also accused the Government of gross incompetence, runaway corruption, and destroying Liberia’s international image.
“What we are experiencing in the country today is a combination of many evils. First, the President is not able to run the Country. It is too difficult for him so he had to leave it to the former Minister of State, Nathaniel McGail (the Prime Minister) and few others to run it for him while he goes jolly-jolly, making music in the studio and dancing buka. Second, the people the President has surrendered his Presidency to very greedy and insensitive individuals that have seized the opportunity to steal and steal and steal in broad daylight. They don’t care because, maybe, as some people say, they can give Preso his cut. So, they don’t even care for those who suffered to bring them to power on the false hope of Change, not talking about the rest of us who have never been members of CPP. They boast about stealing, some of them even built a house with air-conditioning for a dead body. Even Prezo built his own little Miami on Robertsfield Highway, 9th Street and other places so he doesn’t care. He now thinks life is fine with everybody in the Country and we all live in Miami. But we say no Mr. President, Liberia is not Miami, you are making life unbearable for us and we will get you out,” Wisner lamented.
Mr. Wisner, who also served as Assistant Foreign Minister for Afro-Asian Affairs from 2008-2012, continued: “because of their stealing, their bad governance, and the way they are running the Country, even the entire international community is tired of them. America has started putting sanctions on some of them. The bad thing is that if the international community is tired of you, that means foreign investment and big businesses will not come. If investment and big businesses don’t come, there will continue to be mass unemployment. The hard time will increase. The suffering will get worse. That is why we all need to work together to bring real change by making sure that Mr. Cummings and the CPP succeed at the polls next year.”
George G. Wisner, a founding member and Country Coordinator of the Liberian Renaissance Office Incorporated, a think-tank providing support to the CPP, says that his decision to support Mr. Cummings is based on Mr. Cummings’ demonstrated leadership capacity, his consistency and commitment to upholding the trust and confidence reposed in the CPP by the Liberian people, and his ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment, create jobs, and grow the economy. He assured the audience, many of who were UP Partisans, that it is in their interest to preserve the little gains made under the government of Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf by ensuring that someone with fresh ideas and who has the confidence and support of the international community, and the investment world, is elected President.
“Right now, amongst the corps of candidates running for President, Mr. Alexander B. Cummings fits the profile and has the pedigree,” Wisner said, while calling on other UPists and former CPP members to return and join him and others to stop the country from further retrogression, adding, “I assure you that you will not be marginalized as long as I remain a member of CPP. Like me, you don’t have to leave the Party. What is important now is the survival of the state and the renewal of the hope of our people. The CPP provides the surest way out of our current debacle.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Wisner has disclosed that he and his family have donated assorted stationery and office supplies worth about USD15, 000 to the CPP to support the campaign of Mr. Cummings. He said that it was his modest contribution and symbolic demonstration of the commitment of his family to the cause of the CPP. He termed the CPP objectives as a sacred mission and called on all former youth and student leaders to roll up their sleeves and join the effort to democratically dislodge President Weah and his Government next year, to give way for socio-economic transformation and democratic consolidation.
It can be recalled that Wisner publicly endorsed the Standard Bearer of the CPP, Alexander B. Cummings, when he addressed the Kukatonor Intellectual and Development Forum in Duala, Bushrod Island on Saturday September 24, 2022.
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