–A Formidable Opposition Awaits
By Elwood Dennis
By mid-January next, Liberians and the world will focus of Monrovia, as President-elect Joseph Nyuma Boakai and Vice President-elect Jeremiah Koung take the oath office as President and Vice President of Liberia, respectively. The pomp and pageantry will signal the emergency of new regime, but political connoisseurs suggest that Boakai is being handed a deeply divided country.
President George Manneh Weah conceded defeat on November 17, 2023, three days after the Elections Commission announced the provisional results of the presidential run-off. Boakai was leading Weah 1.16 percent when the latter placed a call to Mr. Boakai to concede defeat. The final tally ended with Boakai clinching 814,481 votes, constituting 50.64%, and Weah collecting 793,914 votes constituting 49.36%. Boakai won with 20,567, constituting 1.28%.
Although Boakai is yet to take his seat in the highest office of the land, sources inside the Unity Party are hinting that the UP will vigorously go after former corrupt officials of the Weah regime. But just as the UP is projecting a tough administration, elements of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) are bracing themselves to receive political bullets from the Boakai regime.
In his recent message to the in-coming government, outgoing President and Political leader of the youth-studded political movement, George M Weah has vowed that his party will hold the Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s government feet to the fire in checkmating its activities. He emphasized that the Unity Party government should be ready and willing to provide protesters with food and water like in the case of the CDC government.
Pres. Weah noted that it was upon the shoulders of Boakai to sustain the peace that former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the United Nations troops maintained for 12 years, while he (Weah) promoted it without the international troops for six years in the face of tension and multiple protests.
Another CDC stalwart who is upbeat of rallying supporters of CDCians and Liberians in their masses, is Representative Dixon Seeboe of the overly populated of slum communities District #16 of Montserrado. Rep. Seeboe says the UP government will make a great mistake if they use police brutality to engage peaceful citizens who may want to exercise their rights under the Liberian constitution to express their dissatisfaction.
Rep. Seeboe indicated that the CDC as a former government in the opposition understands the issues well and would engage the in-coming government on those issues that would affect Liberians, noting that the CDC will not base its advocacies on falsehoods like in the case of the Unity Party which he claims spewed lies to regain state power.
Another CDCian, Montserrado County District #9 lawmaker, Frank Saah Foko has vowed to be more vocal in the legislature and lead the fight in the interest of the people. He called on CDC and likeminded lawmakers in the House of Representative to stand firm in protecting the interest of the common people.
For his part, former District #8 lawmaker Acarous Moses Gray has become taking the debate to the door stairs of the Unity Party and president-elect Joseph N Boakai, calling for an audit of the present and past legislature, including the offices of the former vice president and president-elect Joseph Boakai.
Hon Gray, who is planning to lead a major protest in January on the day of inauguration for the establishment of a war crime court in Liberia, is being supported by Margibi County Senator-elect, former Minister of State and former chair of the CDC Nathenial McGil. McGill is on records to indicating that his first bill will be on the setting up of a war and economic crime court to prosecute people who have allegedly caused economic harm and committed war crimes in Liberia.
