Liberia: Weah an ‘Irresponsible Leader’, Boakai a ‘Grandfather,’ Cumming Says

President George Weah is an "irresponsible leader" while  Joseph Boakai, his main challenger for the presidency, is a grandfather who is not capable of running the country, says Alexander Cummings of the opposition Collaborating Political Parties. 

Cummings' criticism of Weah and Boakai comes as he pitches himself to the electorate as the most capable presidential candidate who has what it takes to fix the economy and fight corruption, which remains a  serious problem in the country.

“A wise Oldman told me that when hunger is taking over a village, to give the only cutlass to one’s grandfather and the oldest man in the village, to go make the farm, because he has experience in making farms, is to agree to let the village people die from starvation,” Cummings noted while indirectly questioning Boakai's ability to lead. 

“We have to do better, my people. And to do better, we have to make tough choices and hard decisions in the October Elections. For things to really change in our country, we must not just change ruling parties, we must change ruling principles. We need to stop treating our country like it is elephant meat that we can take terms “to cut our own.” 

Cummings' indirect critique of Boakai came less than two weeks after he had told potential voters in New Kru Town that he plans on endorsing the former Vice President if he does not make it to the run-off after the October 10 poll. 

The rare disclosures then came amidst strained relations with Boakai, his key opposition rival for the presidency. The pair's relationship has been muddy since failing to unite in a coalition of four opposition political parties to defeat President George Weah. 

However, Cummings' criticism of Boakai yesterday is the strongest yet and comes just a few days after Boakai announced Senator Jeremiah Koung of vote-rich Nimba County as his running mate. 

Cummings, a former Coca-Cola executive, is also one of the leading opposition candidates with a strong chance of unseating Weah. 

After questioning Boakai's leadership ability, Cummings accused Weah of running Liberia like an “irresponsible father” who spends his pay on liquor only to beg his neighbors to feed his family, and pay his rent and children's school fees.

The Americans, according to Cummings, are spending around US$60 million a year on healthcare in Liberia, and another US$23 million on education, while Weah and other leaders “are stealing, partying and traveling abroad to bluff with the country’s wealth they have stolen.” 

“Leadership matters, my people. This is why a wasteful and irresponsible leader cannot be expected to run a responsible government,” says Cummings.  “The same is true that a divisive leader cannot unite a nation just as a weak and indecisive person who will compromise principles only to win must not be allowed to lead us.”

“We will not get out of our difficulty by compromising values and looking for easy wins and shortcuts,” he added. “Doing the same things over and over will only give us the same bad results!  The truth is that Liberia is not poor. We are blessed to have a lot of natural resources.”

“But our people are living in these bad and neglected conditions because our leaders are mostly irresponsible, careless, divisive, and wicked. They care only about what they think is their chance to steal too.”

Cummings' latest criticism of Weah is not strange as he has been a thorn in the flesh of the President, but this one seems to have been fueled by a recent statement from US Ambassador Michael McCarthy, who questioned the priorities of the government, as public hospitals operate without receiving any of the US$100,000 appropriated in the 2022 budget.

McCarthy noted that the blocking of resources to hospitals is “so complete” — indicating an “existence of a syndicate involving players at the legislature, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.”  

The US envoy's statement, Cummings says,  will not move the President because fish rots from the head. Therefore, for the “government to be rotten, the head must, first, be rotten.”

“When someone's ‘hay’ (head) burns, don’t ask about his beard. We all know by now, that President Weah will do nothing about what the American Ambassador has said and reported from what he saw. For our people's lives to get better, it is not going to be enough to just change individuals in October.”

“We must elect people with a different mindset about what government is supposed to do and what leaders are supposed to be. Government is not a stealing business, and leaders do not have to be hustlers,” Cummings said. 

Government, he added, is to help make people's lives better and leaders are supposed to set and live by higher standards and, without this new mindset, “no matter who we change, things will remain the same.”

Meanwhile, Cummings says his quest for the Liberian presidency is not to look for a political job but to change the corrupt system that continues “to see us mismanage our God-given wealth only to keep our people poor.”

Change is coming, and the long night of darkness is about to end, Cumming said as he argued that a new daydawn is coming and Liberia deserves better. 

“My people, we who believe in change must stand together, and with each other. We who want to move our country forward and not backward must work together for the change our country so desperately needs. We can, and together, should chart a new path not just to win the election, but more importantly, to fix our country.”

“Today, as always, I open my arms and the CPP to everyone looking to work for real change in our country. Together, let us write a new chapter for our country’s future,” Cummings said.  “Under Cummings leadership, the hopelessness you see today will change to hopefulness in a new Liberia. The neglected Liberians you see today will be the empowered Liberians of tomorrow. The suffering you see today will be the tale of what we had to overcome for a prosperous tomorrow.”

According to Cummings, the next 6 years are not for play-play, as Liberians  must not just change ruling parties, but change ruling principles and  stop treating the  country “like it is elephant meat that we can take terms to cut our own.”