- VP Taylor calls for NPP unity
G. Bennie Bravo Johnson is the author of this piece
Liberia’s Vice President and National Patriotic Party (NPP) standard bearer challenged NPP members to help repair the party’s fabrics, stressing that the party is not in the hands of a single person.
“The party is not in one person’s hands; as a standard bearer, I couldn’t say, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that,’ because that’s not how the NPP works.”
She stated during a steward meeting on Friday, March 31, 2022 at the NPP headquarters in Old Congo Town that if the party has an issue, it is preferable for everyone to come together, discuss it, respect one another’s viewpoints, and decide how the party will move ahead.
The NPP’s national convention was meant to take place in December 2021, however it was postponed owing to internal disagreements about the leadership’s decision to hold a convention. Some NPP members were forced to request intervention from the National Elections Commission (NEC), which suspended the national convention until the NEC’s rulings were finalized.
“There could be those folks who say, ‘Let’s wait for the board’s decision on commissioners,'” VP Taylor said. Whatever choice the board of commissioners makes, it does not disregard the fact that the party lacked proper leadership, and it is the steward’s job to provide that leadership.
Meanwhile, the board of commissioners of the NEC has taken a decision recommending intern leadership, which is headed by a prominent party member and former speaker of the 51st National Legislature, Hon. Yundweh Monkonmana. While Hon. Monkonma heads the convention nominating committee, members of the party are requested to appoint to said committee neutral individuals who shall take the party to convention as a means of resolving the conflict within the party.
At the same time, expressing her delight in the credibility of Hon. Monkonmana, Madam, Taylor said, “The person who is asked to lead this process is an elder, a person who will make one call and all of us will drop what we are doing because we respect him and honor him.” If they had given this task to someone else, maybe by now we would be all the way out making noise”.
According to VP Taylor, she went to the party headquarters as a standard bearer to kindly submit herself to the process.
Let’s try this one more time. All of us have the responsibility to listen and to give our suggestions, so I have come to give my fullest support, one hundred and ten percent, to this process. Because it’s important if you want peace, if you want unity, if you want to build a new NPP, all of us must be subjected. “
As a means of igniting the spirit of unity in the party, VP Taylor continued by calling on the county chairpersons to take the message of unity back to the counties, saying that there would be no misinformation and asserting that those who have not come only put themselves in a difficult position, as those in Maryland and other counties are waiting to hear how the new NPP will be built. They don’t want to hear what happened; they don’t want to hear who did what or who didn’t do what. What is important now is where we are. How do we build? How do we unify? How do we create a new structure that all of us will respect and how do we go back to the coalition of which we are prominent members so that the work we did in 2017 will not be “washed away”?
She also called on all the members of the NPP across the country to reawaken the spirit of the NPP. “I want to tell our party across the length and breadth of Liberia that the NPP will not die because the blood, sweat, and tears of those who struggled to make us who we are will remain a part of us.”
The Liberian female politician said, “If you don’t want to be a part of what we are doing, just get out of the way; there are plenty of political parties. For those who feel the NPP is nothing without them, no palaver, go join other political parties. ” She recalled how the National Patriotic Party had overcome many obstacles and survived because, she said, they kept their eyes on the bigger picture.
Mulbah Morlu, chairman of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), said the Congress of Democratic Change is willing to work with the NPP in the future, while also assuring the NPP that President Weah and the Congress have no plans to remove the NPP’s standard-bearer from the ticket in the 2023 general elections.
Chairman Morlu began his political career as the Youth Council Chairman of the National Patriotic Party during the 1997 elections, according to his political history.
“This is the Party that gave birth to my political life. I was the chairman of the National Patriotic Youth Council (NPYC) in red-light district # 9 and then became the chairman of the National NPYC in 1997,” Chairman Morlu historicized his political life.
