By Alex Yomah
In a bid to democratically unseat the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in the pending General and Legislative Elections, there are reports of alignments and realignments amongst opposition political parties.
Already, with four Collaborating Political parties at the verge of being a useless group, sources within the Rainbow Alliance have informed that she is reportedly rocked with internal wrangling over where to direct the Rainbow Alliance during the 2023 ensuing elections.
This is because, the Rainbow Alliance (RA) has not decided to field a presidential candidate for the impending elections but vowed to endorse one of the formidable presidential candidates.
Rainbow Alliance comprises of seven political parties including, Movement for Economic Empowerment, (MOVEE), Redemption Democratic Change (RDP), True Whig Party, (TWP),Union of Liberia Democrats, (ULD)Victory for Change Party, (VCP) Vision for Liberia Transformation (VOLT) and Democratic Justice Party (DJP).
According to sources, out of seven Political parties that made of the Rainbow Alliance, Dr. Jeremiah Z. Wheapo of the Vision for Liberia Transformation (VOLT) has openly declared support for former Vice President Amb. Joseph Nyumah while the majority of the parties said to have settled for President George Manneh Weah’s Re-election bid.
This, according to sources, bulk of the political parties either personally or politically have alignments with President George Weah while some had harbored the belief that comes what may, President Weah will emerge as winner and will be prudent to be part of the winning part, so as to tighten rapport with the ruling party.
The report of internal squabbling was made known over the weekend when Dr. Wheapo and his entire political officials boycotted the National Retreat as well as a press statement made and signed by members to critique President George Weah’s State of the Nation Address.
But when contacted, Reginald Goodridge described the allegation as “nonsense,” noting that Dr. Wheapo is on board.
He said the Rainbow Alliance recently concluded its retreat where committees were formed to move the political institution forward.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Alliance has joined scores of opposition political parties’ critique of President George Weah’s 5th State of the Nation Address delivered on January 24, 2022.
Delivering a statement on behalf of the Rainbow Alliance, Acting Chairperson of the RA, Reginald Goodridge, he said a number of opposition parties have denounced the President’s address as mere repetition of unfulfilled promises and committing himself to a new set of promises.
“The Rainbow Alliance therefore has only one thing to say to President Weah and his government: The state of the Liberian nation is not okay. It is treking and begging for better leadership.
Under the economy, RA says, the President boasted in his annual message that the Liberian economy grew more than 3 percent in the past year. How many Liberians really believe this story when their lives have not been impacted by this so-called growth?
“There are more students outside of the classrooms than those in school.
Graduation exercises that should normally take place in November and December are now taking place in January and February because parents took more than three months to scratch and scrape in order to pay the graduation fees. College graduates by the thousands are walking the streets in despair due to the lack of job opportunities,” he said.
“This government is focusing all of its time on Monrovia, while 75 percent of our nation lives in despair as a result of low or no economic activity. The government’s key Pro-poor agenda of building roads is in disarray. Most of the counties cannot be easily reached thereby choking the economy as farmers and marketers hopelessly watch their goods rot by the roadside,” Mr. Goodridge said.
He stated further that getting to some parts of Lofa County is so difficult that Liberians have to cross the border into Sierra Leone in order to cross back into Liberia. “The interior of our country is dying slowly and the only thing that the President could promise the people of dynamic city of Plebo is to build for them a recording studio, which is rather unfortunate,” he added.
A month ago, the government pushed through the national legislature a FAKE BUDGET of more than 785 million United States dollars without explaining to the Liberian people how our broken economy will raise sufficient revenue to fulfill that budget.
“In a country that is business unfriendly, and where high taxes and government’s red tape have become the toughest experience on small businesses, the projection to raise $785 million in a foreign investment isolated economy like Liberia will have a negative effect on small businesses,” he stressed.