The Dust Settled? –As Weah, Jewel Compare Notes Again

By Alex Yomah
Supporters and sympathizers of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), were overly thrilled and animated ahead of the national retreat scheduled for next month when they witnessed a scene where their standard bearer and Vice standard bearer were once again seen in a happy mood.
President George Weah and his Deputy, Jewel Howard Taylor who had displayed signs of ‘internal rift’ for nearly 9-months showed the contrary.
The action by the leaders with the highest seats in the land occurred during the ground breaking ceremony of the expansion, pavement and Reconstruction of the [Dural Carriageway] of the RIA-ELWA Junction Highway road project in Margibi County on Thursday.
Our reporter who observed the scene narrated that both leaders of the ruling CDC were seen happily comparing notes with infinite smile after lingering reports of internal fracas.
Onlookers who described the move as “Settled Dust” indicated that it was a welcoming move for both the country and the ruling party.
What was seen as an intriguing moment was when VP Taylor was seen happily clapping whenever any speaker talked good things about her boss[ Weah] and the party, even to the extent that VP Taylor was happily seen walking behind the President where a group dubbed “ MUSICAL MADRID” was showering praises on President Weah with a token of US$50.OO.
January of this year, when President visited the Legislature to deliver his annual constitutional message to the Legislature, Vice President Taylor entered the hall with a pair of dark eye glasses frowning her face even to the extent that she could not clap whenever the President said something welcoming-thus demonstrating her discontent.
But her action and inaction at the ground breaking ceremony depicted that the dust is now settled between the two Liberian leaders.
President George Weah was so excited over the RIA-ELWA road project turnout and apparently due to exchanges between his Deputy in the full view of the Liberians, the first time, sought VP Taylor’s permission so that together both leaders can applaud the Public Works Minister Vlah Mobotu Nyanpan for his outstanding performance in driving the Pro-poor Agenda across Liberia.
A week to this event, reports say, the Ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) was at the verge of serious collapse due to reports of disenchantments over what they termed as consistent violation of the agreement that propelled the political marriage barely three years in the 6years constitutional years given the coalition by the people of Liberia.
The ruling Coalition is comprised of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) of President George Manneh; the National Patriotic Party (NPP) founded by former President Charles Taylor and Liberia’s People Democratic Party (LPDP) of former House Speaker, J. Alex Tyler.
A highly placed source within the Coalition informed the Inquirer that two members of the Collaborating parties namely, the NPP and LDPL reportedly signed a resolution to back-off from the Coalition.
According to our sources, the Congress for Democratic Change’s Standard Bearer George Weah is not relating to LDPL in terms of employment as every recommendations made by the party are often ignored by those having access to the presidency.
“The most recent one is the news of the National Retreat which was recently postponed due to gas shortage. If we are sincerely anticipating to having a national retreat to reconcile our differences as being indicated in the media, don’t you think every member of the Coalition should have been part of the planning process? Unfortunately, it would be strange to hear that we are not in the know,” an official who begged for anonymity confided.
Our source also disclosed that one of the reasons that led to their disengagement from the political marriage is the issue of the constant disrespect shown to the NPP’s Standard Bearer and Vice President by a media institution owned and operated by a member of the Executive without a word of condemnation from the Executive.
“Not only that, you read the Vice President’s notes expressing her disappointment due to government’s failure to pay her constitutional benefit that should be given her as Vice President of the Republic of Liberia, a reason prompting her action to boycott the opening of the 3rd session of the 54th session of the Legislature,” another source said.
According to the aggrieved members, President George Weah and his CDC’s officials have no regards for the marriage.
One of the advisors to the ruling Coalition who also begged for anonymity warned members of the Coalition to see the outcry from some aggrieved members as an early warning sign in helping to curb the ongoing impasse.