CDC, UP OR THE 3RD LANE?
There are divided school of thoughts or views among Liberians. There is one group of Liberians who believe that the CDC should not be given the opportunity to return to power because, at least, she has tasted state power and had played power. Her role within the six year-term did not impress majority of the citizens. unfortunately, she did not see her defeat coming towards her while in power. According to them, CDC did not do much when it comes to governance, and their frustration was manifested in the 2023 election result.
Another group of Liberians strongly believe the CDC has done well and therefore should be given the second chance come 2029 are strong to their views.
When it comes to the Unity Party, most Liberians believe that Unity Party must never be given the opportunity to succeed herself because the corruption is at the pick and campaign promises are not meant especially as it relates to the bread-and-butter issue, including lack of job creation, security, and the influx of drugs in country. Therefore, Unity Party must park off and leave come 2029. Yet, contrary to the views against the UP, there are others who believe that UP must stay because she is doing better.
All of these arguments are intended to provide answer for the search for the third-lane.
The question is who do we have to replace these two parties with in national leadership?
In an attempt to answer these inquiries, Liberians are in search for a third lane presidency. Some are contemplating using Alexander Cummings or Musa Bility as the would-be better candidates for the third-lane, but the question is how would this happen when the tow individual politicians are unpopular?
In an attempt to answer to these inquiries, Musa Bility has already procured his vehicle that would ride him to the presidency, the Citizen Movement for Change (CMC) and Mr. Cummings vehicle is the Alternative national Congress, a brain child to the CDC.
Most Liberians are looking at these two because they are the ones seen forceful and standing in opposition, because most of the political parties that joined the governing Unity Party during the runner-off in 2023 elections have compromised their independence as opposition political parties and can’t be considered opposition any longer. The are part of the ruling party.
The fight for the third lane has begun, with every party fighting to justify its preparedness and competence to national leadership. The CMC is standing alone, while the ANC is part of the CDC – opposition alliance.
Mr. Musa Hassan Bility, the political leader of the CMC writes an open letter to his CDC counterparts in which he has raised several national issues that have the propensity to bring sense to the discourse. He said, opposition blog must take cue and begin to develop a self-evaluation platform that will help give direction to the foreword match of the opposition community in preparation for the 2029 national contestation.
He said “Opposition Is Not a Property of Any One Political Party". That which is true, and I agreed with him, that opposition is not a property of any one, but one thing Mr. Bility has forgotten is, when political alliances are been discussed in preparation for elections, one thing is key, and that is the number a party brings to the table for discussion, because election is a number game. That is the advantage the CDC has for which every political leader would want to do business with her.
My qualm with Mr. Bility is, now that you are making these fine assertions about what to do as opposition political parties, the question is why did you walk out of the most recent opposition alliance? I believe you would remain in there to make your case.
Another point he strokes that I agreed with in his communication directed to the leaders, officials, partisans, and supporters of the CDC is that the CDC governed Liberia for six years and lost the 2023 presidential election. Yet there appears to be no serious internal reckoning over the failures that contributed to that defeat. There has been no comprehensive evaluation of what went wrong, no honest discussion about what should have been done differently, and no willingness to acknowledge mistakes or apologize to the Liberian people where an apology may be warranted. These are all salient argument, but you need an alliance.
He pointed out that CDC has never been his first choice in the first round of a presidential election. However, on the two occasions when the second-round choice was between the CDC and the Unity Party, led by Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai, he has chosen the CDC. He made that decision twice, and he have no regrets, according to him.
Since you made such decision, there is a need to continue pushing until the goal of giving Liberians the desired presidency is meant through a collective approach.
