By Alfred Kollie, alfredkolliejr92@gmail.com
The endorsement of political parties and individual politicians has become a common business in body politics in Liberia, but the recent endorsement of the 2023 presidential bid of opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) leader Alexander Cummings by elements from the Grebo ethnic group has backfire.
Grebo is one of the sixteen ethnic groups in Liberia hailing mainly from Maryland County, where Alexander Cummings himself originates from. But many of the speakers during the program disputed this.
Political parties and individual politicians often give institutions, communities, youth, women, and men groupings cash to endorse and support their political activities something very common in Liberia.
Many believe that this endorsement of support is due to the poor living conditions of citizens and the abandonment by politicians whenever they are elected.
Again, these back, a group under the banner the Grebo Community in Montserrado including opinion and traditional leaders from four southeastern counties in Liberia endorsed and declared support for the 2023 presidential bid of the new opposition Collaborating Political Parties leader Alexander B. Cummings on November 19, 2022, in Clara Town.
But another group under the banner of the majority block of the Grebo Community has distanced itself from the recent endorsement to support Cummings presidential bid.
According to the “majority bloc”, the action by the Chairman of the Grebo Community to have endorsed Cummings is deceitful and for selfish motives only intended to cause division in the community.
Speaking Saturday, December 3, 2022, in Clara Town, the majority block spokesperson, Rev. Prof. Tehneseo P. Brohdonyen, Sr. of Grand Kru noted that they are currently in discussions on a plan to have Jeremiah Geeply Nimely Chairman of the Grebo Community removed from his post as chairman.
“We the vast majority of the Grebo people living here in Clara town do not endorse this decision we think this was deceit on the part of our chairman and for this reason, there are plans to have him removed as chairman,” Rev. Prof. Brohdonyen Sr. noted.
Rev. Brohdonyen maintained that Chairman Nimely is very much deceitful and that nothing the community should neutralize and support all parties.
He alleged that Chairman Nimely has become the coordinator for the ANC on behalf of the Grebo people something which did not meet our concerns of the leadership and the entire Grebo Community.
“You cannot be a chairman for a particular community while serving as coordinator for an opposition people, we see this as deceitful,” he noted.
The Liberian cleric narrated that the Nimely attitude has caused serious embarrassment for the entire community ahead of the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
“This we think is unfair, Jeremiah Geeply Nimely we see his actions as deceptive something he must be dethroned for,” Rev. Brohdonyen concluded.
The program was interspersed with speeches expressing their frustration from the action of various groups of Grebo people from the southeastern region of Liberia including Grebo people from Sinoe, River Gee, Grand Kru, and Maryland Counties respectively.