Alexander Cummings says the Collaborating Parties’ mission will be to right the wrong, fix the broken and corrupt systems that continue to cause the deaths of too many children and loved ones, without fulfilling their dreams and potential.
He said “The presidency is responsible to fix the broken, corrupt and discredited system that continues to keep Liberians poor.”
Cummings who is now the Standard Bearer of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), promised to create a new future of hope for Liberians that provides access to modern medical facilities, better educational system, and thriving economy that will create massive jobs to alleviate extreme suffering.
With assurance, he said he will fix what the ruling CDC has destroyed, noting that Liberia is too rich for so many to be jobless, beggars and hopeless, and for too many families to go to bed hungry.
The CPP’s standard bearer said children who could run for President or become doctors, engineers, teachers, or lawyers are dying of preventable diseases because their parents cannot afford the cost of hospital registration to treat them.
He said while hospitals and schools lacked adequate funding, President Weah and his Vice President, President Pro-Temp, Speaker, and Deputy Speaker are giving unto themselves huge budgetary allocations.
Cummings said this is not just wrong, but sheer wickedness, which he will change upon his ascendancy as President come October 10.
He made the vow when he accepted his endorsement as CPP’s standard bearer at the National Convention held in Gompa City, Nimba County over the weekend.
He said Liberians are suffering and unable to feed ourselves, not because the country is poor, but because the leaders are corrupt, wicked, selfish, and lack vision.
According to Mr. Cummings, the presidency is not just powerful, but has a humble responsibility to set good examples, demand higher standards for stewardship, and deliver on promises to the people.
Cummings said the presidency also has a responsibility to unite and lead the people to a better, secured, peaceful, and more prosperous future, as well as restore the country’s lost respect and dignity amongst the comity of nations.
He said the play-play presidency of Mr. Weah has to stop, if the lives of Liberians will improve. He emphasized that while “it’s okay to have a President that sings and dances, but when you spend too much time singing and dancing, then we need to move you from the mansion to a studio where you actually belong.”
Cummings said the presidency is not an office for retirement, warning that to elect a president who will not work, amounts to putting Liberia on pause, which will deny the already suffering masses of the needed help to improve their living conditions. “Putting the country on pause will stop serious investors from coming to create high-paying jobs for Liberians and If we re-elect a play-play president or we choose to pause Liberia’s future, it will surely worsen the hardship,” Cummings warned.
He expressed optimism that upon his election in October, starting next January, he will work assiduously to institute real change through hard work, honesty, integrity and principled leadership.
“We will change store boys into store owners, to raise waiter markets to shops, transform shops to stores, graduate yana boys and yana girls to business leaders, and will give Liberian businesses, especially women businesses, the chance and resources needed to succeed,” Cummings said.
He promised to change the hopelessness and lawlessness of today into hopefulness and lawfulness, and significantly reduce the unprecedented high unemployment rate in Liberia.
Cummings wonders why will the CDC government cut and reduce civil servants salaries in the face of the worsening economic conditions and rising cost of living.
The CPP Standard Bearer promised to lead Liberia differently, accountably and honestly to a new future of equality and prosperity for all.
He said grieving over the difficult economic challenges will not change the hopelessness of the suffering masses, but rather, the grief must move Liberians to not just change mindsets, or political parties, but to also change the country’s governing principles.
“Anyone culpable of stealing public resources, irrespective of status or position, must face the full force of the law and consequences, without hesitation,” Cummings said.
He stated that unless there is a robust enforcement of the law, corruption and stealing of public resources will deprive and prevent public institutions, including hospitals, from effectively performing their statutory functions to the detriment of ordinary families who can’t afford to travel abroad for treatment.
While, thanking the CPP leadership and members for the confidence and trust reposed in him to lead the CPP, Cummings vowed not to disappoint Liberians or lower the standard and values of the CPP, assuring that together, “we will march to victory in October, and we will change Liberia for the better.”
Cummings said too many families are carrying unbearable burdens, while drugs and crimes have overtaken the streets and communities, and vast majority are jobless and in dire need of help.
According to the CPP Standard Bearer, Liberia’s current predicament did not happen by accident, but as a result of past corruption, marginalization, division and lack of responsible leadership, which got worse especially under the Weah-led administration.
Cummings said Liberians are living in the future built years ago, and warned that Liberians cannot continue to go backward pretending to ourselves that by doing so, “We will somehow arrive in a new and different future.”
He said it doesn’t matter how hopeful Liberians can be, but threading the same path every time, will only take the country to the same destination.
Cummings said he is not desperate for the Presidency, as claimed by his critics but rather he is desperate to change Liberia for the betterment of all Liberians irrespective of political or religious affiliations ethnicity and or status.
Meanwhile, the CPP Standard Bearer has promised that within two weeks, latest May 27, he will announced his running mate in the pending October 10 general and presidential elections this year.
At the ceremony 39, legislative aspirants were also endorsed while the standard bearer said he will name his preferred choice of Vice Standard Bearer in the County of origin.
The CPP First National Convention presided over by Liberty Party Chairperson, Musa Bility, brought together over 500 delegates from the 15 counties of Liberia, as well as the United States of America, Canada and other parts of the world.
Several CPP stalwarts including Nimba County Representative Larry Yonquoi, and Grand Bassa County Representative aspirant Charlene Brumskine made special remarks of affirmations of support to the objectives and goals including the Presidential bid of Mr. Alexander Cummings.
The convention was preceded by street parade in Gompa City, Nimba County, by thousands of partisans, supporters and sympathizers of the CPP compromising the Alternative National Congress, the Liberty Party and other political affiliates and interest groups.
