-The Case of Sinoe Sen., Crayton Duncan

Formerly a senior staff of the Central Bank of Liberia, CBL, during the regime of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Crayton Duncan, little known in Liberia’s body politics at the time, rose to prominence in 2023 when over twenty thousand citizens of the Southeastern County of Sinoe, voted him to the National Legislature on the ticket of main opposition and former ruling Congress for Democratic Change, CDC, of soccer legend, George Manneh Weah.

Senator was in the vanguard and played a critical role in the 2018 presidential elections that catapulted the opposition CDC’s standard bearer, Weah, then a member of the Liberian Senate, to the Executive Mansion as President of the Republic of Liberia.

 His latest outburst against the ex-president does not only baffle his fellow citizens of Sinoe County, but also many other Liberians, particularly partisans and supporters of the CDC over why he has turned a vicious critic of the former president.

For Senator Duncan himself, he thinks former President Weah and the CDC dashed the hopes of the Liberian people, who, Duncan said had thought would have developed the Country, create job opportunities and improve their lives.

The Sinoe Senator, who, unconfirmed reports say may throw in his hat in the 2029 presidential elections as a presidential candidate, recently reiterated similar criticisms of former President Weah during an interaction with Liberians in Rwanda (courtesy of Verity News online) informing them that in the first here of his administration, Weah constructed for himself 44 condominiums and transformed his once dilapidated 9th Street house in Monrovia into a mansion.

 It was the same Senator Crayton Duncan, who once said there was nothing wrong with the accumulation of wealth by officials and former officials of governent.

His recent anti-George Weah statement in Rwanda was not the first of its kind of his barrage of criticisms of the former Liberian President and soccer legend. During a recent radio appearance on the Prime FM Radio in Monrovia as guest of the popular late evening show, ‘Night Time Heat’, Senator Duncan referred to  Weah as an introvert, who only cares and wants everything for himself against the interest of a vast majority of indigent Liberians.

The Sinoe Senator has also alleged that the CDC political leader is a visionless politician, who he said failed to fight corruption and also failed to change the lives of ordinary Liberians, who felt he was one of their kind because he too came from a poverty-stricken background.

Duncan also fired shots at current President Joseph Boakai, who he alleged is not different from ex-president Weah in the governance of the State. The Sinoe Senator noted that like Weah, President Boakai is pursuing his individual interest.

Turning to his fellow members of the Liberian Legislature, the Sinoe Senator, accused them of being a puppet of the Executive Branch of the Government. At some point, Duncan said he felt uncomfortable being in the Senate because majority of his colleagues were compromised by the Executive.