Seasoned Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe, Jr., is making a strategy twist in his political sojourn here. He announced his return to the grassroots National Patriotic Party (NPP) earlier than expected in what pundits say is positioning early eyes on the Presidency for 2029.
The chair of the ECOWAS Parliamentary Committee on Political Affairs, Peace, Security, and African Peer Review Mechanism broke his silence on Thursday, May 15, 2024, that he is returning to the revolutionary NPP.
Senator Snowe, who left the NPP following the departure of former President Charles Ghankay Taylor, says his move is a quest to unify the party that was born out of the defunct rebel force, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), led by Mr. Taylor. The NPP was a springboard that propelled Mr. Taylor to the Presidency in 1997.
Over the years, the party has experienced huge division among partisans. One faction loyal to former Vice President Chief Dr. Jewel Howard Taylor joined a coalition with former President George Weah. 's Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), which eventually became the Coalition for Democratic Change, while the other faction, led by now Senator James Biney of Maryland County, went their separate ways.
But Senator Snowe, who once headed the National Patriotic Youth Council (NPYC), the party's youth wing, said he is coming back to mend the broken pieces when he spoke at a program marking the official opening of the NPP's refurbished headquarters in Tarr Town, Old Road, Congo Town.
Snowe is perhaps ending a triangular political journey that he began with the NPP and moved on to support former Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party (UP) and George Manneh Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
He was seen as being groomed by the Weah administration for 2029, but Mr. Weah's unbelievable defeat at the poll in 2023 may have crumbled all dreams on that path, so the man dubbed by many as the Maradona of Liberian politics is recalibrating as early as now, five years away.
Senator Snowe's exact words on Ok Conversation: "I would vie for the Presidency in 2029 since others are boasting of 40 years' experience; I think by 2029, I will be ready with better knowledge of the post."
This declaration has since sent an early signal about his intention that he buttressed last week when he announced his plan to regularize his membership with the NPP, not only as an ordinary member but as a significant step to unifying the party and being part of key decision-making and the direction it should take for 2029.
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"No matter who you are, where you go, there's a place you come from, so over the years, my mind has been troubled - that there's one party called NPP who got you to where you are today, and turning away from the NPP is always troubling.
So, no matter where you go, you will always be an outsider. So I have come today to answer presence to my name, and I have returned home because in order to have a successful political career, you must have a home, so the NPP is where I have come from and have returned home," Senator Snowe says.
He maintains that his purpose is to unify the NPP and make it a formidable force in future elections, while rallying partisans to come together and embrace unity in order to forge ahead.
Former NPP Chairman Senator James P. Biney says he is excited about Snowe's return, which he notes is an added advantage to the party. He also notes that his (Snowe's) political alignments were never based on grudges but on achieving his political interests.
Senator Biney assures that the NPP will always remain open for anyone whose interest is about democracy, as the party's strength has always been a tendency of democracy. Editing by Jonathan Browne
