THE BATTLE FOR supremacy between Alexander B. Cummings and Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai and, by extension, the Alternative National Congress (ANC) and the Unity Party (UP), as to who heads the CPP is taking its political form—politicians going head to head and giving reasons why they are best suited to head the CPP come 2023.
BUT THIS INTELLECTUAL warfare, which might either break or strengthen the CPP at the end, seems rocky from the beginning, with the ANC projecting itself as the alternative for a new Liberia and, at the same time, defaming the UP by terming its 12 years in power a “misrule”.
THE ANC GLOBAL platform describes Liberia as a victim of a crisis of stunted national growth, lack of accountability and no new governance ideas because of the past actions and questionable judgments of some very major political players of the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration. The party observed that they will no longer allow Liberians to sustain failed models of governance, which have damaged the future of the Liberia people.
“TO THIS END, some hard and direct questions must be asked about the judgment of former Vice President Joseph Boakai when he served as leader of the Liberian Senate in the Sirleaf Administration’s National Oil Company (NOCAL) bribery allegations,” the ANC Global advanced.
“AT ISSUE IS an international indictment by the watchdog group, Global Witness, which, in a 2011 report, ‘Curse or Cure’, noted that, ‘…between September 2006 and April 2008 NOCAL staff paid US$120,400 in lobbying fees to the members and staff of the Liberian Legislature so that the Legislature would ratify oil contracts. These payments were not made to lobbyists as compensation for advocacy before a policy maker. These payments were made directly to representatives and staff within the Liberian Legislature so that those representatives and staff would undertake an official function: the ratification of oil production sharing contracts. Liberia’s General Auditing Commission has taken the view that NOCAL’s lobbying fees amount to bribes. According to Liberia’s Penal Law, paying a public servant so that he or she will undertake an official act is bribery and is illegal. It is also bribery for a public servant to receive payment in exchange for an official act. As such, Global Witness and the LOGI coalition support the position that the lobbying fees are bribes…’”
THE ANC CONTINUED, “Let’s be clear that no one is questioning, attacking or impugning the credibility or integrity of former VP Boakai in the NOCAL alleged bribery scheme of some members of the National Legislature between 2006—2011. As a public servant of over 40 years, his personal reputation is blameless.
“BUT AS PRESIDENT of the Senate at the time, why didn’t VP Boakai publicly register his opposition and strong condemnation of the alleged bribery scheme, even after the General Auditing Commission described ‘lobbying fees’ to members of the National Legislature for passage of oil contracts as bribery? The lapse of judgment of anyone in this matter has injured the wellbeing of Liberians in unimaginable ways.”