Editorial: The Boakai-Cummings Fiasco, The Diminished Opposition Scenario
LIBERIANS ARE BECOMING furious by the day that the opposition itself is not helping the leadership situation in the country, instead, making matter worse in its inability to forge a united front that will send George Weah and his poodles packing through the exit door of the presidency.
THE REASON FOR THIS unacceptable response is that the generality of Liberians has concluded that a Boakai-Cummings ticket is the most effective and strategic political formula to end the unpopular George Weah presidency in 2023, an election that is said to be the most critical and definable presidential election for the nation’s recent political and democratic history.
Both Boakai and Cummings camps have been trading blames for the appalling disintegration of the CPP, much to the displeasure of the Liberian people. Some have been peddling the view that Boakai as an elderly and experienced statesman has not done enough to convince Cummings to stand down and join the ranks as vice running mate to him.
EVEN LIBERIANS ON the other side of the political divide, including the ranks and file of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), have conceded in private that a Boakai-Cummings would no doubt generate the political stamina to convincingly crush the CDC on the first round of the much-talked-about 2023 general and presidential elections. This view is principally solidified by two reasons: firstly, Joe Boakai is extremely popular and possesses the integrity befitting of the highest office, whereas Alexander Cummings, a rising political star, has sufficiently established and consolidated himself in the politics of Liberia and has the financial prowess and international connections to facilitate or bankroll a campaign that will match incumbent George Weah proportionally; secondly, political pundits and commentators are of the view that the popularity of Weah and his government have excessively diminished due to bad governance, rampant corruption, increased economic hardship plaguing the citizenry, zero investment, lack of jobs, insecurity, gross ineptitude, constant scandals, and a potential eminent split that may rock the CDC downward spiral, amongst others.
IT HAS RELIABLY gathered that in mid-2021 the Unity Party Standard Bearer, Joseph N. Boakai, invited his ANC counterpart, Alexander Cummings, to his home and asked him to run with him as his Vice Presidential candidate. The meeting, according to unimpeachable sources, lasted for three hours with both men locked in the room alone. Boakai, after the meeting, called a few of his confidants in his study where the meeting was held and in a rather disappointing mood divulged to them that Cummings had turned down his offer to go as running mate to him. The question raised here is whether this has diminished or dashed the hope of the opposition to replace incumbent President George Manneh Weah.