So, most of you, Liberian reading public, know that the former ruling Unity Party (UP) held its National Convention in Gbarnga, Bong County. A number of decisions emerged from that event, which lasted for at most three days.
Those days were not short of entertainments, but dramatic as well manipulative.
Some of the famous faces that most people in the nation’s political circle have come to be accustomed to be associated with UP, were erased from it; howbeit, controversially.
Among many things, the UP partisans had gathered in Gbarnga from across the nation to do a lot of things, including rebranding the party, so that it becomes marketable ahead of any national election, especially for October 2023 when the entire voting population of Liberians is going to head to the polls to elect new sets of leaders in the House of Representatives, the Senate and for the Executive Mansion.
This rebranding became very necessary following what UP’s critics, including its major rivals in the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and some in the opposition bloc, have described as a big offset for the party when it lost the Lofa County Senate race to CDC-backed candidate, Counselor Joseph Jallah. Lofa County, home of UP Standard Bearer and former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, was said to be the “very stronghold” of UP because of the Octogenarian Boakai and because of the county people’s strong tradition of not opposing their “uncle”.
Not only did the Lofa defeat expose some of the unnecessary complacencies within UP, it also showed that some of its hierarchies or senior members have “long hands;” the same “cat hands” they have not left behind or dropped, and have maintained them even after being out of power five years now.
The party hasn’t contested and or denied the rumors that thousands of United States that was carried up to Lofa to pay its poll watchers, were stolen among themselves. To date, and to this authoritative newspaper’s knowledge, no one has been held liable for such massive graft and no report of an internal investigation. Everything seems to be just the usual “Liberian story:” on, on we go. Sad!
One very important part of that UP Lofa story is that a very considerable amount of the money that the party used in its campaign in Lofa, was provided by its former Chairman, businessman Amin Modad.
Inarguably, Modad, who is among Liberia’s wealthy businessmen, had singlehandedly bankrolled the party for the last 20 months of his chairmanship. He was again in the race for the party’s chairmanship post; unfortunately for him, he “lost” to Reverend Luther Tarpeh. Rev. Tarpeh is an educator. He owns and operates a vibrant high school — Best Brains Academy — just opposite President George Weah’s Jamaica Lodge in the Baptist Seminary Community, along the Roberts International Airport Road.
Outsiders and some insiders of the party, have said a lot about the process and others that happened at the Gbarnga Convention of the UP.
Some have said that Amin and another gentleman, the former Secretary General, Mo (Mohammed) Ali weren’t fairly defeated but their defeats were engineered controversially and so they ended up losing their posts that they had sat in for the last 20 months most of which were some of the very turbulent times for the party.
When the news of new names and faces began to surface on social media, a famous lawmaker, who gravitates from one party to another and “hangs his clothes where the sun shines” because of his insatiable greed, posted a taunt on Facebook saying that he had heard that the party had only voted the “choices” of its Standard Bearer, former VP Boakai.
Whatever the processes were that to led to the removal of Mr. Modad, we think the party made a serious mistake just 15 months to a major elections that will require the UP to have millions of United States dollars in its account to counter Millionaires George Weah and Alex Cummings.
Because of those results, which have been downplayed in the public glare by Modad and Ali, there are reports now of serious infighting within the executives of UP.
This rigmarole might lead to the party being uprooted from their present party headquarters on Snapper Hill, Broad Street. The building the party now occupies is said to be owned by Amin’s brother, Sam Modad.
