A stalwart and critical voice of the former ruling Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has accused outgoing President George Manneh Weah of using the party as a vehicle to amass untold wealth for himself, his Jamaican family and cronies while the impoverished partisans and the country suffered economic degradation.
“All of your family affiliates, people who are not even Liberians, are all multimillionaires from our country’s resources while our people remain impoverished; while for our partisans there is no glimpse of hope. The change you brought was to transform Jamaica, and your in-laws who were all tragically broke, but are today multimillionaires. Leave in peace. We will rebrand the party, Weah, but I can assure you, never again in the party’s history a George Weah will run on this party’s ticket. It will never happen,” a visibly infuriated Lester Tenny blasted during a recent podcast where he provided a post mortem of the November 14 presidential runoff election that saw Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai and his opposition Unity Party Alliance slightly edging out incumbent Weah and his ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) with a little over 20,000 votes.
“We have lost this election to a statesman. We can only hope that President Boakai will not repeat the tragic mistake that we all made. I never participated in the 2023 election because I never had confidence in Weah. Let me state this for the record. Weah used all of us in 2017, for one major purpose: to replenish his lost assets. The enthusiasm that has characterized the CDC during 2005, 2011 and 2017 elections plummeted when Weah’s only desire was to amass wealth for him, his family and a few cronies of his,” Professor Tenny lamented bitterly.
Continuing, he said President Weah did not only lose the 2023 presidential election, but left the party’s members in pawn. “You left the Executive Committee of the Congress for Democratic Change and its Coalition member, the NPP, in pawn. Do you really think we don’t know what you did? But we allowed it to go because technically, you did the right thing for the country – to leave the stage of this presidency.
“Honestly, in my opinion, you are the worst president this country ever had. You rode on the blood and sweat of CDCians for your selfish reasons, and then you are here stating that there was insincerity on the part of the party’s leadership? Are you brave to even utter that word?
“On the eve of a runoff you had a very strategic meeting with Brownie Samukai in your Forky Klon Church. Do you think we don’t know what happened? You never give power because you want to give power or concede defeat.
“You never had the ambition to become president again. You were fooling the CDCians because your greatest fear was the party. You feared that the party would run after you; that’s why you pretended like you wanted to run in these elections. You left our young brothers and sisters in pawn knowing very well the implications of a defeat. Hundreds of our members will be jobless because of their participation identifying with you. You left them in pawn.
“Not every one of our partisans will have the ability and skills that we have to survive in the private sector. You left them in pawn. Who does that? Twenty thousand marginal votes, without even allowing NEC to complete their process of counting, you conceded. Thank God you conceded, because Liberia would have sunk into an abyss had you won.
“People voted because of the love of the party, not because of you, Weah. You are a tragic failure, and then you’re blaming the party’s leadership for being insincere? Who is more insincere in this political game? Who amassed untold wealth unto themselves and their families? Who? Which one of the party’s executive committee members amassed wealth, which one of them? Then you are talking about insincerity?” Tenny remarked, in obvious reference to recent remarks proffered by President Weah during a Sunday worship service where he accused some higher-ups of the CDC of encouraging him not to concede the winner Boakai.
“I have chosen to not bother, because I don’t see your existence as relevant; but don’t push us to the wall, because if you think the opposition is your problem, CDC will be your problem. Don’t come and disrespect people of the party as being insincere. Who are you? You put a criminally sanctioned candidate in the race at the disagreement of the party. Do you think the party is a vehicle where few of you chose to ride to untold wealth? But your day will come. As a matter of fact, don’t worry about yourself. People say a president has immunity, but I know your weakness: you can’t keep money. In a few years, you will get broke again, and then you will act like the party is your private ownership. That’s where the fight will start from. You will never ever run on this party ticket, Weah. Quote me; you will never be the standard bearer of the CDC. You are a phony. You robbed the interest of the masses for personal aggrandizement, and then you come here and brave to utter work like insincerity.
“I am a professor, so I remained quiet. These elections people were asking me why I wasn’t visible. I made a great mistake by running your campaign in 2017. Do I look like I would continue to be stupid to make a Weah president in this country again, so foreign nationals, transnational criminals can hold our diplomatic passports? Don’t infuriate us. We accept defeat as a party. We will consolidate, we will look at the errors, and you are one of the errors, and we will rebrand the party.
“You talking about you will not sacrifice the country, what are you trying to insinuate, that members of the party wanted to plunge this country into chaos? Are you out of your mind? You are ingrate, Weah. You pawned the partisans of the party. And don’t even think you will use the party against the incoming government. It will never happen. We will have a smooth six years, unless they too decide to do things like you, then we will have to checkmate them.
“If Ambassador Boakai governs well, the party will appreciate, because as we created the ambiance for the transfer of power under a conducive atmosphere, so will 2029 be. We are not going to generate chaos here because few people think they are smarter than the others. And worse of all, the person who even didn’t know anything wants to pretend to be smart. How possible is that? Then you come and want to insult members of the party, that they are being insincere, after amassing untold wealth. All of your family affiliates, people who are not even Liberians, are all multimillionaires from our country’s resources while our people remain impoverished; while for our partisans there is no glimpse of hope. The change you brought was a change to transform Jamaica, and your in-laws who were all tragically broke, but are today multimillionaires. Leave in peace. We will rebrand the party, Weah, but I can assure you, never again in the party’s history a George Weah will run on this party’s ticket. It will never happen.
“You’d better start finding old, old cars where some of us will be killed and put in with some gronna girls, then they say we were having sex on Broad Street. You’d better start that plan. You are a wicked man, Weah. You only think about your few cronies who stole for you, but their day will come in court. They will answer for their improprieties committed against the state. They will answer for it. And this is why we at the level of the party will be very generous to embrace audit, only that the audit will not be partial.
“All of those who gang raped this economy and the state; they all must face the full weight of the law. That is the only way true peace and reconciliation will prevail in this land. You talk about the party being insincere. I don’t blame you; I blame the likes of myself who should have known better than to run 1 2017 campaign for you. See what you have done to this country. Or is it because we are members of the party and we don’t want to talk at all? But we will rebrand the CDC. The party’s Executive Committee, that leadership will remain. We will give the full support of the current leadership. If we even have the means, we will remove your name from any document that has to do with the party. You are a sellout. You sold the partisans because you could not govern this country for another six years. You put all of those men and women in pawn. But we allowed you to go because we wanted our peace, then you want to claim victory as if you brought the peace; that you’re the vehicle that delivered this country from chaos. See your trouble! In 2029, you will see who are the real gbanna men in this country. Do you think that nonsense you did to ride on the sweat of our partisans will happen again?
“You brought in a criminal to run in Margibi, the criminal refused to bring back the people who he trucked, then you say the partisans were not sincere. First of all, was that criminal a member of the party? Was it not 2011 when the criminal and that faggot came to the party? Don’t make us talk about some things that we shouldn’t talk about. Don’t infuriate us. Don’t play on the intelligence of the CDCians.
“Boakai won these elections; let him enjoy his presidency. Don’t agonize us that when we begin our trouble here, it will spill out into the governance of Ambassador Boakai. Don’t do that. Let the man govern his country. Let him do the right thing, and we will prepare ourselves for 2029. We will go back to the political battle. The people will give us their mandate, or they will retain the current mandate. Whatever the case is, Liberia wins. But no more CDC will be used as a vehicle to drive egotistic people to wealth accumulation. No more.
“You were suffering when you came on the party ticket as if you were a patriot. You amassed untold wealth, wealth that you never saw in your lifetime, at the expense of our impoverished partisans and country. You brought in foreigners, Jamaicans who had zero bank balances. They are multimillionaires from the resources of this country; then you talk about insincerity and dishonesty. Who do you think you are? I don’t blame you. You brought those funny girls all over the place, thinking that they could secure victory for you; those common commercial agents on Lebanese people swimming pools, those are the people you called mobilizers to bring in the votes? Do you think our partisans are stupid?
“You never ran in this election with the hope of winning. Why did you form a campaign team that you never even gave credence to the party structure? Why? Or is it because we don’t want to talk; because we want to let go of everything?
“You are a ruling party, but look at the campaign time. Even when we were in opposition, our party headquarters was even more lively than now, because you undermined the support of the partisans, and they fought because they wanted to restore the image of the party, not you,” Tenny concluded.
