An Executive of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), who served both as ministers of Foreign Affairs and Information, Lewis Brown, has endorsed the presidential bid of Alexander B. Cummings, Standard Bearer of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP).
In a statement issued September 10, 2022, Brown, who also served as Ambassador to the United Nations, said Liberia’s cherished peace is under stress, and that the 2023 general elections will be a critical determining factor whether the country will retrogress into its dark days or progress as a nation.
“The decisions we make in 2023 about who will lead us will also decide, at least for a generation, if our nation will rise or fall or if we will move backward or forward,” Brown said.
Brown, a signatory to the 2003 Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended 14 years of brutal civil war 19 years ago, cautioned Liberians that 2023 will be a critical turning point in the country’s 175 years, “with absolutely no excuses for our mistakes—if we elect the wrong leaders.
“Who we choose to lead us in 2023 will decide the condition of the hospitals, the quality of the educational system, our personal securities, as well as decide the prices of food, salaries of workers, and whether there will be jobs for the thousands of unemployed Liberians,” Brown said.
He warned that 2023 elections will not be the time or place to gamble the lives of Liberians and fate of the nation, but rather “required sober reflection to rescue Liberia and reset how we must live with each other”.
He said after six years of President Weah’s leadership without progress, “Liberians cannot afford to put the country’s progress, our lives and those of our children on standby and false hopes.”
The NPP Executive said he endorses Cummings, because he “has the right character, temperament, integrity and leadership credentials to move Liberia into the future we all seek and desire for ourselves and children”.
According to Brown, the CPP Standard Bearer, Cummings, is an inspiration for a new mindset to reject wrongs, and a motivational force for Liberians to set new standards, aimed at making Liberia a better place for all.
“I stand with Cummings because of his boldness of vision, freshness of ideas, the courage to continue fighting when it seems easier to surrender and the quality of leadership experience he has achieved to get things done,” Brown said.
The former Information Minister said it is imperative that Liberians commit to changing the dysfunctional and discredited system of governance by electing a leader to be President, rather than to re-elect a President “we hope might become a leader in 2023”.
Brown described the power of the President as extremely impactful in determining how the government performs and what it is capable of becoming and achieving, noting that it is critical who becomes President, senator and representative in 2023.
Although, he said, he is a member of the NPP, which is part of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), his choice of Cummings is in the supreme interest of genuine change, which all Liberians must embrace for the realization of a better Liberia.
Brown pleaded with Liberians of all persuasions, disregarding tribal, political and religious affiliation, to sacrifice individually and collectively to join ranks and change the direction of Liberia.