The Standard Bearer of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), Alexander Cummings, has fired back at President George Weah, describing him as a misfit and a disgrace, undeserving of a second term.
In his reaction, Cummings uncovered Weah’s complicity and link with various armed groups in Liberia’s 14 years brutal civil war, which killed a quarter million of the population and displaced thousands of citizens into refugee camps.
Cummings said Weah’s five years of leadership is characterized by rampant corruption and broken promises and, reflecting also on his dubious role in the civil war, said Weah has hurt more Liberians, especially the poor and destitute, rather than helped them.
Cummings said credible reports revealed that Weah provided nearly US$200,000.00 to rent fishing boats, purchase arms and ammunition and food supplies for the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) and the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Development (LURD), two warring factions, which fought Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia in Sinoe County.
Cummings disputed the President’s claim that he is non-violent and peaceful, and said there are also credible proofs that he supported and facilitated MODEL rebels’ travel from Ivory Coast to Sinoe County to combat the NPFL, during which countless Liberians were killed and thousands displaced in refugee camps.
The CPP Standard Bearer said Weah’s visits to refugee camps in Ghana’s Buduburam camps were to foster his long-held ambition for the presidency, as was revealed by former President Charles Taylor, whose un-Constitutional removal he supported.
“After fueling the crisis, which led to massive refugees in Buduburam, were your visits to refugee camps really about the Liberian people or to paint yourself as savior, in furtherance of your political agenda?” Cummings’ letter to Weah said.
Cummings said it is unthinkable that the President or anyone who visited refugee shelters deserves to be rewarded over other Liberians or, in the case of the President, continue to rule in spite of glaring evidence of his failed leadership and broken promises to the Liberian people.
Cummings maintained that the President’s plea to Liberians to ignore his current failures and reflect on his kindness of yesteryears as the basis for his re-election amounts to a child who has miserably failed and asking the teacher to pass him.
“Asking the country to ignore your current failures and remember your kindness of yesteryears so that you can get undeservedly reelected is like a child asking the teacher to pass him, although his performance and grades do not allow it, only because few years ago he drew water for the teacher is absurb,” Cummings said.
He said President Weah does not deserve another six years due to his gross ineptitude and persistent violation of the sanctity of the presidency.
Cummings maintained that consistent U.S government reports of pervasive corruption and subsequent sanctions against three of President Weah’s key officials have ruined the country’s image and smeared the reputation of the presidency.
He said the President’s five-year administration is now branded as cabal of thieves which, according to him, is hurtful and disturbing to all well meaning Liberians, including the poor and destitute.
He said, instead of the President taking tougher action against the sanctioned officials to dissuade the impression by implication and perception that he is derelict or complicit, the President’s response is rather weak, inadequate and ineffective, and has implicated the presidency in the unacceptable perception of being corrupt.
According to Cummings, the President’s Constitutional appointing and dismissing power does not require the right to due process, as all cabinet and public officials serve at his will and pleasure.
Cummings reminded Weah that the presidency is amongst the most sacred and respected institutions, and that any act diminishing its esteemed status amounts to disgracing the Liberian nation.
Cummings said, as a global business leader and not a sports celebrity as the President, he believes in honesty discipline, accountability and hard work, which are missing from President Weah’s five years of leadership and has subjected the masses to extreme poverty.
In furtherance, Cummings said without bragging, but for the record, he has contributed immensely in the areas of education, health, safe drinking water, youth and women empowerment and entrepreneurship in the tune of over US$5 million.
The CPP standard bearer said while he respects and honor those in public service, he has not directly worked for any Liberian government, and that the angry undertone of the President’s reaction in his letter was filled with falsehoods and contradictions that are uncharacteristic of the presidency.
Cummings observed that he had only tried to draw attention to the seriousness of corruption and the attendance consequences by the U.S government to have sanctioned three key officials, and that the President’s response was weak, inadequate, and ineffective, which implicates the presidency.
Cummings said that the fight against corruption is not inadequate laws; rather, the lack of political will by acts of complicity or duplicity and the inability of the President to enforce and apply the law uniformly to all.
He cautioned the President against using the so-called past wrongs to justify even more egregious wrongs of his administration, noting that the President’s failure to audit the past administration is because it would have meant auditing his former offices as Peace Ambassador and Senator of Montserrado County.
“It is clear that a senator who is authorized by the Constitution to exercise legislative oversight on the Executive is equally culpable if an administration defaults and allegedly corruptly passed sixty-plus concession agreements,” Cummings said.
He said five years into the President’s leadership, it is within his authority to audit, seek punishment wherever necessary and direct a new course, rather than continue to use the so-called past wrongs to justify the wrongs of today.
Cummings said fighting corruption would required providing adequate resources to integrity institutions to do their work, and not overseeing the effective breakdown, politicization or compromise of their independence.
He said the government must lead by good example and higher standards, and where the law requires officials to declare their assets and act transparently and accountably the President should lead diligently and honestly.
Cummings reaffirmed his firm commitment to upholding the principle and tenets of good governance, if elected President, and accepted the challenge of the President at the ballot box, not because he hates him but rather to bring the desire real change that will improve the lives of the Liberian people.
