-Nyonblee explains her refusal for Cummings VP slot
Opposition Liberty Party (LP) embattled political leader Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence has been explaining why she refused to be Alexander B. Cummings' running mate, accusing him of supporting her party's division.
On Sunday, 14 May 2023, Senator Karnga-Lawrence endorsed Liberia's opposition leader Amb. Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Senator Jeremiah Koung's presidential ticket, a boost for the Unity Party campaign.
Delivering her endorsement speech at the Fairground in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Senator Karnga-Lawrence said she can't be sitting on a presidential ticket with Mr. Cummings in light of his unending support to a man whose desire is to render LP "useless, politically paralyzed and divided."
"In Liberty Party's specific case, it would be a deviation and indeed a betrayal of the trust and confidence of our thousands of partisans to unwittingly find the Political Leader sitting on the ticket with Mr. Cummings," she said.
The Liberty Party is divided into factions between Madam Karnga-Lawrence and party chairman Musa Bility. Bility and his faction of the LP support Mr. Cummings' presidential bid, while Karnga-Lawrence and her LP faction support Amb. Boakai.
Nyonblee's endorsement of the Boakai-Koung ticket Sunday, 14 May 2023 came as a breakthrough for the former ruling Unity Party (UP) which nearly lost major political allies since the former Liberian vice president picked his running mate on 28 April.
A Grand Bassa Senator, Nyonblee and her kinsman, Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon, were rumored to have nearly concluded an arrangement to switch their loyalties to Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) leader Alexander B. Cummings before they made a U-turn.
The two officials felt let down by Boakai's decision to pick Mr. Koung instead of Senator Karnga-Lawrence as running mate.
She added that her decision followed two weeks of consultations with a broad spectrum of the membership of her party, stakeholders, and sympathizers at home and abroad.
Senator Karnga-Lawrence said her decision to endorse the Boakai-Koung ticket is to secure a better and prosperous Liberia.
The Grand Bassa first female senator disclosed that she didn't see it necessary to form political alliance with Mr. Cummings, head of the CPP and Alternative National Congress (ANC).
She pointed out that she believes that actors on the national political stage must have a deeper self-examination of trending political events that could lend themselves to political collaboration or the reverse thereof.
"As a matter of fact, Mr. Bility is recalcitrant that he does not recognize the authority of the Political Leadership of the Liberty Party, something that the ANC, through its actions and inactions, tacitly supported and concretized all along," said Nyonblee.
"What is even more disturbing and unconscionable is the fact that the ANC folks are inclined to believe that the only way we could gain control of LP is to accept the running mate slot, and every other thing will fall into place."
But she said to accept such an offer will demonstrate sheer greed for power on her part, and this will be the less honorable path to tread.
Madam Kangar-Lawrence disclosed that in essence, to form a presidential ticket with individuals who conspired with a compromised system to rob them of deserved justice would only be interpreted as approving the same system that she is endeavoring to change.
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Senator Kangar-Lawrence asserted that even more, it would be a demonstration of desperation for political power when forming an alliance with Mr. Cummings, adding that they could never and will never fall into such a trap.
In reference to the Liberian People's Party of Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe, Senator Karnga-Lawrence said she recognized the presidential hopeful's endless fight for social justice and economic opportunities for the people.
In both public and private life, she said he has demonstrated, like her LP's founding father Cllr. Charles W. Brumskine, commitment to reforms in the society.
"However, the overwhelming feedback from consultations with our partisans and supporters both at home and abroad did not favor our pairing with Cllr. Gongloe at this time," she said.
