PHOTO: (L-R) Amb. Lewis Brown, CPP executive and Mayor Jeff Koijee, CDC new Sec. General
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
The new Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) headed by the leader of the opposition Alternative National Congress (ANC) Alexander Cummings has confirmed the holding of a massive peaceful protest on December 17, 2022, in an effort to send a message to the government about the sufferings by Liberian citizens.
The Chairman of the Cummings Campaign Team, Louis Brown said the Liberian government has been fully informed about the decision by the CPP to use the outside the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex for the “we tired suffering rally”.
But the Youth and Sports Ministry earlier announced on radio that the SKD Stadium would be closed to political rallies.
Addressing a major press conference in Monrovia on Thursday, Ambassador Brown disclosed that the Ministry of Justice has also been informed about the planned peaceful demonstration.
On Tuesday, the Secretary General of the ruling Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), Jefferson Koijee, who is also the Mayor of the Monrovia City Corporation, disclosed that his party’s secretariat has obtained intelligence that Lewis Brown has chaired a secret meeting aim at inciting a nationwide protest code named “We Are Tired Suffering.”
Mr. Koijee warned the ANC against allowing Lewis Brown using their party as a spring board for lunching the protest similar like the 1979 rice riot against the government of the late William R. Tolbert.
According to Mr. Koijee, if the Liberian people are suffering they will demonstrate it through their vote asking: “when Mr. Brown did become the spokesman of the Liberian people?”
But Mr. Brown, former Liberian Ambassador to the United Nations, challenged anyone to dear stop and to disrupt the CPP peaceful demonstration because they will not bow to threats and intimidation from some officials of the government.
According to him, the planned demonstration is not secret because it is the constitutional rights of the Liberian people who are experiencing the sufferings to tell their government about the prevailing downward trend of the socio-economic and security situation in the country.
According to Mr. Brown, a steering committee of the December 17, ‘We Tire Suffering’ rally comprising 34 names of individuals and organizations has been set up to implement and execute the demonstration.
“President George Weah continues to insult the intelligence of the Liberian people with lies,” he said; adding: “the shameful truth is that Mr. Weah and some of his officials are actually on safari and having good time, at the expense of the suffering Liberian people.”
“While they are jolly-jollying, many Liberians are becoming increasingly hopeless and going to beg hungry at night- many parents cannot pay school fees, many qualified people are being forced to beg because they cannot find work to do.”
“Those who are lucky to be working cannot pay hospital bills and cannot care for their families because the pay is wickedly ‘harmonized”
“More than five years after President Weah took over the leadership of our country and promised ‘Change for Hope’, Ambassador Brown went on, “for Liberians , the only change has been from hope to hopelessness as dreams are fading , prisons are overcrowded with young people, mysterious death and unsolved murders are leaving grieving families with no closures for deseeded loved ones”
“The cost of living is rising as income falls and lawlessness and insecurity abound because the common ringing tone for most Liberians when they say that God mining us.”
“People are suffering the worsening living conditions now than they did before as our streets and communities are unsafe and mostly unhealthy; because, the Weah administration is corrupt, more abusive of power and increasingly desperate to lead by threats of violence , fear and intimidation of perceived opponents and other Liberians.
“By the bad example, President Weah himself has invited his administration to be indiscipline and wasteful of the country’s resources because the hard truth is that President Weah is unfit to lead.”
According to Mr. Brown, Weah was not a leader, he will never be a leader and his one-term presidency is a failure as many in the ruling coalition are coming to terms with the truth about him as the country continues to be embarrassed by it.
Ambassador Brown continued: “The unsettled truth is that President Weah is using our country to care for himself and live a dreamed life of a celebrity as he continues to do so without caring about how his desire to be a celebrity at the expense of poor Liberians actually affects Liberia and its people.”
The former Information Minister added that President Weah continues to live his bubble of pretenses ranging from a pastor to musician and slum communities are even more economically depressed.
“Rising tides and rains are sweeping our country’s coastline threatening homes, people’s health and livelihoods as President Weah lives in his bubble of pretenses; nothing seems to be working in the country- systems of good democratic governance as all breaking down and sycophancy has replaced competency.”
The former Liberian Ambassador to the United States claimed that Liberia is leaderless while President Weah continues to live in his make believe world and the ship of state is increasingly rudderless.
“Liberia is like an airplane that is on autopilot –flying itself and worse of all of the mechanical devices are malfunctioning. “
“Based on this background,” he added, “the December 17 ‘We Tire Suffering’ rally will offer the Liberian people a chance to peacefully speak out.”
“It is a democratic rights and constitutional guarantee that they be afforded the chance to do so, even if to an unresponsive government.”
The rally led by the CPP is bringing together parties, groups and individuals from all walks and station of Liberian life seeking as expression for the suffering people of Liberia.