PHOTO: Prof. Alaric K. Tokpa, NDC National Chairman
Contributed by Fatoumata Njei
MONROVIA – The National Chairman of the National Democratic Coalition (NDC) has said that, “the domestic policy of the Liberian government is based on Stealing and its foreign policy based on Begging.” Professor Alaric Tokpa made the statement during his weekly podcast series recently to draw attention to the high level of corruption and mismanagement of state resources by the Weah government as well as its strategy to weaken the opposition by using paid agents.
The professor averred that, “part of the cause of the problems we face in Liberia is the government that is wicked, that is insensitive, that is roguish and uses stolen money to buy individuals in the opposition to create confusion in the opposition.”
He further stated that, “sometimes when we see conflicting situations [in or among political parties], there is the tendencies to pay attention to the symptoms and neglect to give adequate attention to the root causes.”
The NDC Chair was referencing problems in the opposition political parties which are now revamping to create a unified force in the coming 2023 elections.
Political observers have opined that the Liberty Party, one of Liberia’s main opposition parties founded by the late Counsellor Charles Brumskine, has fallen into chaos due to the work of paid government agents whose mission was to disrupt the normalcy of the party. The LP is now divided between the party’s chairman and its political leader as reported by numerous local dailies.
Sensing similar problems in February this year, another political union, the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), expelled its Secretary General, Abraham Mitchell, for “dishonesty” and “misconduct,” and “betrayal of the party’s commitment to the people as well as working as a government operative.”
“The Liberian opposition has come under attack and the state is involved and paid-agents of the state are infiltrating political parties and using state resources to create confusion,” said Tokpa, the NDC Chairman.
Tokpa continued: “The government has used this stolen money to buy individuals in the opposition to create confusion in the opposition. It is giving people money and persuading them to behave wrongly in those opposition institutions in order to create the impression that the opposition is incapable of holding together.”
He said that, “our task is to pull ourselves together and rearrange ourselves in the opposition to ensure that the decadent government [of George Weah] is defeated in the first round of elections in 2023. I insist that the way the people of Liberia mean business and want their country to be improved is to give Mr. Weah a red ballot and make him a one-term president by voting him out in 2023.”
“Part of the cause of the problems we face in Liberia is the government that is wicked, that is insensitive, that is roguish and is an administration that uses stealing as domestic policy and begging as foreign policy,” the NDC Chairman, Tokpa, concluded.