PHOTO: ANC leader, Alexander Cummings
By Our Staff Writer
Monrovia, Liberia-The opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) of Alexander Cummings has welcomed the Unity Party and its Political Leader, Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai, as incoming Chair of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) but has raised some serious questions.
A big ceremony is set to be held today, Friday, October 15, 2021 at Boakai’s Unity Party (UP) headquarters in Monrovia’s Congo Town suburb. ANC leader Alexander Cummings was recently accused of tampering with the CPP’s Framework document, a charge he has since denied.
Cummings, the former Coca Cola Africa executive Cummings, is aspiring to be the CPP Standard Bearer to challenge former Vice President Boakai of the former ruling Unity Party to run on the CPP’s ticket in the 2023 presidential election, something that has brought serious wrangling in the collaboration.
But in a press release on Thursday, October 14, 2021, while welcoming Boakai’s rise to the CPP’s chairmanship, the ANC announced it would boycott the program, while accusing Boakai and his supporters in the Liberty Party and All Liberian Party of “willfully” violating the established practices in the CPP.
“However, we regret to announce that the Executive Committee of the ANC has decided that the Party will not attend the CPP Turning over ceremony by Sen. Nyonblee Karnga- Lawrence on tomorrow, October 15, 2021,” the CPP’s press release said.
This decision borders on the exclusion of the ANC from the planning and organization of the Turnover Ceremony, contrary to the practices of the CPP. “We can no longer continue to tolerate a systematic pattern of conduct that willfully violates the established practices in the CPP,” says Daniel Naatehn, National Chairman of the ANC.
Another concrete indication of more rift in the CPP came yesterday when the Chairman of the Liberty Party, Musa Bility and his Secretary General questioned the legitimacy of a Boakai takeover of the CPP’s chairmanship at this time.
ANC has not said what its next move will be, but it has strongly criticized the current CPP Chairman Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence and made some serious accusations against she and her allies in its latest statement signed by the ANC’s Secretary General, Attorney Aloysius Toe.
“Furthermore, the ANC believes that the program is characterized by wrongful processes, illegal profiteering and sectarian politicization; all practices that are alien to the cherished values of the CPP.”
“The Political Leader, Mr. Alexander B. Cummings, has stated that, “the ANC will only participate in activities that are legalized within the Framework Document, which includes and binds all four parties, and will no longer be expected to ‘go along’ in good faith, as others are knee-deep in violations and bad faith actions,”.
“The ANC hopes that, unlike the outgoing Chair – Sen. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, the tenure of the incoming Chair will see the CPP reverse course and recommit to doing the right things the right way, as we promised the Liberian people.