Liberia: Liberty Party Raises L$11M at L$20M Rally

The opposition Liberty Party, one of Liberia’s prominent opposition parties, has raised over eleven million Liberian Dollars out of a targeted twenty million Liberian Dollars in a rally held in the Port City of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.

The Liberty Party once again witnessed a huge turnout of partisans, sympathizers, and other well-wishers with the Unity Party headed by its Standard Bearer Joseph Boakai in full attendance at the Unification Pavilion in Buchanan. Making remarks before hundreds of supporters, Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence, the Liberty Party’s Political Leader said, it was time to reawaken the party ahead of the 2023 elections in which it will play a major part.  

Lawrence, who had made an initial contribution of nearly three million Liberian dollars, thanked Unity Party Standard Bearer Joseph Boakai and his partisans for their presence and noted that the Liberty Party has a very reliable partnership with the Unity Party. 

“We want to say thank you to Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai, Unity Party Standard Bearer and former Vice President of Liberia. We want to say thank you because the Liberty Party has a very reliable partnership with the Unity Party,” she said.  “We all know that the Liberty Party has been through some crisis, and our partisans are concerned. We again want to say thank you to the Unity Party for standing with us all through.” 

The Grand Bassa County Senator told members of the party that the Liberty Party is still the strongest second largest opposition party in Liberia. 

“The Liberty Party is here for two reasons. We are here to tell Liberians that the Liberty Party is still the strongest second largest opposition party in the country and we know our partisans have been keen to demonstrate that. So we decided that today we will start an event and that is to reawaken our party, to make Liberty Party to make the LP vibrant and ready for 2023.

“When we took on the leadership of the party, one of our major goals was to institutionalize our party.”

Lawrence mentioned that a political party as an institution should not be owned by one person. All members should own and support the institution and said there were thousands of partisans who are willing to support their institutions.  She said the reason why it is important to institutionalize the political institution is that when the present leaders of the political parties are no longer around, there are leaders who will take charge on grounds that there is already a vibrant institution that is able to run itself. 

“To achieve that, one of the things we need to do is to bring all of our partisans together and make sure that they support their party because you can put your hand to where your heart is so we said today we are launching a twenty million Liberian Dollars rally,” she said. 

“It is not about the money. It is meant to reawaken our party by bringing our people together to appreciate those partisans who are willing to come and say I am a diehard partisan and I have fifty dollars liberty I want to give.”

The Liberty Party Political Leader mentioned that the reason for which the fundraiser was important is to prepare the Liberty Party for the 2023 general and presidential elections slated for October. 

“2023 is the election. The day the election activities start is the time people win elections. You don’t wait for time to go vote. We have to restructure our various counties. We have to prepare our various teams to be ready for voter registration so when they register one person we are there to ensure the right thing is done because it is very key to the election,” The Liberty Party leader said.  

“The twenty million we want to raise is not to buy T-shirts, give loans or buy face caps, but to organize the various teams that will work in these counties to make sure that we are ready because we would have already done our groundwork.

“For my initial contribution, I made a deposit into the twenty million Liberian Dollars account one million forty-seven thousand Liberian dollars. “

She also announced that anonymous donors also provided hundreds of thousands of Liberian dollars as their contributions to the ongoing Liberty Party process. 

Unity Party

The Unity Party, at the gathering over the weekend, made a donation of two million Liberian Dollars in an effort to support the Liberty Party, with which it enjoys a strong bond since the disintegration of the Collaborating Political Parties. 

Making the pronouncement, Unity Party Standard Bearer and former Vice President Boakai thanked the Liberty Party for the farsightedness and mentioned that the two million Liberian dollars was his party’s contribution and not from individuals. The former Vice President mentioned that the current relationship between his party and the Liberty Party is the best way to go about collaborating and supporting one another.

“We want to thank the Liberty Party and we believe this is the way to go about collaborating and supporting one another. We do not have access to resources that other people have access to and we don’t care about that. What we want to do is work together, support one another, and achieve our goal,” Boakai said.

“Today if I were to ask you what your major problems are, you will tell me it is about the children’s school, we want to engage in businesses, we want investors to come. But I can tell you none of these will happen unless the political situation in this country is in place. 

He encouraged the Liberty Partisans and the people of Grand Bassa to continue to rally with the opposition community in order to achieve a great feat in the pending 2023 general and presidential elections.