Liberia: "Cummings Desires the Best for CPP"

The Alternative National Congress has rejected accusations from the Unity Party and its factions in the Collaborating Political Parties that the ANC is responsible for the pending breakup of the Collaborating Political Parties.

The ANC and its political leader Alexander Cummings are accused by sources from the Unity Party and its supporting faction within the fragile alliance of tampering with the CPP framework agreement. 

The ANC was earlier this year accused by Benoni Urey, political leader of the All Liberian Party (ALP), of altering the CPP framework document without the consent of his colleagues in the CPP.

However, lawyers of the CPP confirmed that they (lawyers) were the ones who altered the structure and content of the framework document, which the ANC and its leader have been accused of.

Yet, the lawyers’ letter does not state whether the revised document is the same — structurally and content-wise — as the one filed by the ANC and Cummings at the National Elections Commission.

The UP sources also point fingers at the ANC leader’s support for Musa Bility, the ‘ousted’ chairman of the LP, as one of the several reasons for them leaving the CPP. 

But for the ANC, the accusations are not only false but an attempt by the Unity Party to cover up the failure of the CPP’s current chairman, former Vice President Joseph Boakai, to unite the CPP. 

The ANC, via Isaac Vah Tukpah, Chief of Staff to Mr. Cummings said while it has been heard that UP and the ALP want to leave the CPP, and those parties’ executive committees have voted as such, the ANC cannot tell “if it is factual”.

“Mr. Cummings has made no such demand for an apology. All he wants is for the CPP to do the right thing and for the sitting chairman to lead,” Tukpah added. 

“For example, when Mr. Boakai became CPP Chair, he pledged to the Liberian people and the world on BBC that he would resolve the differences within the CPP and that he would not allow the CPP to collapse under his watch.

However, Tukpah noted that under the watch of the former VP, the CPP is disintegrating with no resolution on the Framework Document, something that ANC standard-bearer Cummings wants resolved “so we all know what our guiding document is.”

“The Liberty Party is split under his leadership, partly due to his bias towards [Senator Karnga Lawrence] rather than respecting the LP Executive Committee. He’s recognizing two factions of LP rather than applying the NEC ruling and there are no discussions on the Voters Perception Survey, yet we are going into a new year. "

Mr. Tukpah further said that under the UP and its leader's watch, there are no CPP responses to the budget or the ArcelorMittal deal or commentary on national issues. He said Mr. Cummings wants the best for all opposition but it seems as though some in the opposition are content with the status quo.

Earlier this month, sources within the Unity Party informed the Daily Observer that executives of the ANC and secretariat have refused to attend meetings called by the former Vice President.

“Cummings is demanding that his counterparts apologize to him before he can sit on the same table with them to discuss anything but the question is that who determines who wronged him? It can’t be him. An investigation was conducted and the report from the investigation proves that he altered our Framework document. He brought about this entire noise. He should have been the one regretting his unorthodox action now and apologize to his colleagues instead of running around pretending to be good,” one of the sources said.

He added that the time has come to call it quits, knowing that the current ongoing internal conflict within the CPP may never be resolved.

“We at the Unity Party have the biggest to lose. We are being distracted, we are being stalled. The Unity Party has a potential President. The election in 2023 is going to be between JNB and George Weah. We cannot sit down, misuse the time we are supposed to be working and continue to go on making palaver with people who are supposed to be our allies,” the source who sought anonymity disclosed.

According to the source, the former ruling UP did not get into the collaboration to fight, but to work for the single important goal of proving to the Liberian people that the opposition bloc has the right alternative to unseat President George Weah through the ballot box in 2023.