By our Reporter
Ahead of the November 7 runoff presidential election, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) candidate, George Mannah Weah says “that no amount of fear tactics and intimidation will stop the Liberian people from realizing the change they truly desire.”
Senator Weah made the statement in a prepared speech delivered upon his return home on Wednesday from Nigeria, where he and the man who came fourth in the October 10 first round election, Prince Johnson had met with top Nigerian televangelist TB Joshua.
The meeting with Prophet Joshua in Lagos was said to have been arranged by the CDC leader in order to ask the Nigerian Christian cleric (spiritual father of the former Liberian warlord) to endorse Weah in the second round of voting, so that voters in his Nimba County stronghold can cast their ballots for the CDC candidate on November 7.
“CDC government will not engage in witch hunt, divisiveness or tribalism,”” he told his many supporters who had earlier converged on the country’s Roberts International Airport.
“Our country has suffered too long and it is time for a leader that will unite our people to move on. We want to build on whatever progress we have made as a country over the last 12 years and correct whatever mistakes or shortcomings that took place,” the one time Africa World Footballer of the year added.
Weah also denied information circulating in Liberia that certain international powers won’t work with a CDC government if it wins the upcoming polls saying, it “is false, misleading and dishonest. I have met with all our international partners and regional leaders and assured them that our government will play by the rules and seek the interest of the Liberian people who have suffered for so long.”
The CDC leader then dismissed widespread reports that the recent merger between his party and detained former President Charles Taylor ‘s National Patriotic Party (NPP) meant that a CDC government would carry out the Taylor agenda.
“Instead of telling you about how they will make your lives better after being in power for 12 years, my opponent and his people are lying to you that Charles Taylor will influence me when you make me your President. I want you to know that the case with Charles Taylor is already settled in international court and we fully respect that decision and there is no way he can run Liberia from there,” Weah assured.
To the National Elections Commission, the footballer-turned politician said:
I caution NEC strongly that history has asked you to perform a very important job that will see our country experience for the first time since 1944 the peaceful transfer of power from one living president to another living President-elect. Our people have been waiting for this moment for a very long time. It is therefore mandatory that you perform this job responsibly without fear or favor.
He further urged the national electoral body that “The continued peace and prosperity of this country depend on how you will conduct these elections.”
Weah went all out to clarified mounting reports that his CDC is being supported by incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf saying such report is not true.
But he instead hailed Sirleaf for presiding over a transition that is expected to eventually lead to the first peaceful transfer of power
one elected president to another elected president for the first time since 1944.
“Let me also thank President Ellen Jonson Sirleaf for demonstrating to Africa and the World that we have leaders on the Continent who are ready to turn over power when their term expires,” Weah told Liberian citizens.