What do Joseph Kpator Jallah, Galakpai Kortimai, Sumo Kupee, Mariamu Fofana and George Beyan Samah, all contestants in Lofa’s by-electiion, have in common?
By Dewaladou Korboi, Contributing Writer
They all have a strangely nightmarish disposition about Momo Tarnukollie Cyrus’s defiant presence in the race to fill Lofa’s by-election, following months of propaganda that he wouldn’t contest.But why so?
Cyrus’s campaign message of emphasis on track-record, integrity, and leadership rather than on party, tribe or regionality, which has so far proven to resonate at a massive scale with the electorates for a new candidate his kind is in stark contrast to the way politics has been done in Lofa.
For years, tribalism, geo-politicking and propaganda of sheer deceit and besmearing have been the chokehold of elective politics in Lofa.
We have been told for years that tribes, the regions we come from and the political party we belong to are the only things that matter.
The result is years of failed leadership waiting only to be changed by frustrated electorates growing increasingly impatient to right the wrong of their previous ballot cast.
But must we have to usually wait whole six (6) to nine (9) years to change the next failed representative or senator when we could have easily avoided it at the ballot in the first place?
Yes, we can, by not yielding our rigorous scrutiny of contestants on the questions of track-record, integrity and leadership as Cyrus is imploring rather than on tribe, religion, party, or region as they would want to have us do.
And by the signs of the writings on the wall, if Momo Cyrus wins the ensuing election, this will be the end of an era and mark of the emergence of a new system of politicking in Lofa in which questions of leadership, integrity and track-records will take center stage in conversations around contestants vying for leadership of the county.
That’s going to raise the stakes high and make the process of ascendency to leadership much rigorous. And that’s not good news for Cyrus’s opponents, so they’re trying but fruitless to drag him to the mud.
We Don’t Expect the Lies From Cyrus’s Opponents to Stop Soon Months canvassing into Lofa’s prolonged by-election has shown yet again that Momo Cyrus’s opponents have no message, that even if they try to create one, their very own track-record of leadership in the county will soon show up to starkly contradict them.
Let’s Deal with their tow major lies….
Lie No. 1: Momo Cyus is supported by CDC government. This lie is the official line of the Galakpa Kortimai Camp in this byelection and supported by the other opponents.
It carries that the finances Cyrus is spending on development interventions, that the fleet of vehicle he has during this campaign were all provided by the CDC.
This is one of biggest side-cracking jokes of the 21st century but first let’s set the records strict about our accuser’s background. Galakpa Kortimai is still a card-bearing member of the Congress For Democratic Change (CDC), a party on whose ticket he contested for Senator in 2014 and suffered a lethal defeat just after having served the county as superintendent for a little over 10 years, finishing 4th place in that election.
It was just on August 12, 2021, that Kortimai had a press conference announcing his informal disassociation with the CDC party. But even as that, guess what, sources have revealed this man is still having serious discussions with key officials of the CDC regime.
He comes out as a robust critic of the regime in the day, but goes as a bedfellow to provide professional massaging services of the same regime at night. When will this two-facedness end?
Why will Kortimai and his team be pointing one accusing finger at Cyrus of being associated with the CDC why the remaining four point strict back to their faces?For the records, Momo Cyrus has no backing from CDC or any political party for that matter. He’s running as an independent candidate. In fact, he’s the only candidate on records for calling on electorates not to vote a CDC- or Unity Party backed candidate in this by-election as such would further derail reconciliation in a county already heavily divided.
As to the fleet of vehicles Hon. Cyrus has on his campaign trail and the development interventions he is financing, who would believe such baseless and outright fallacy that such is the support of CDC?
Was it the CDC that gave Cyrus the over US $15K he used to purchase the four-door cabin pickup for the Bondi Women of Voinjama way back in 2012, was it the CDC that gave him the over US$ 22K of medical equipment, fuel, food and non-food items he donated to the county during the heat of the Ebola back in 2014, which he doubled in 2020 during the height of COVID-19?
Was it the CDC that gave Cyrus the over US$ 20K he has expended to support the establishment of the Criminal Justice Department of the Free Pentecostal College that’s benefit tons of young people today and his awarding all of its first graduates full scholarships for further studies?
The brand-new pick-up costing more than 15K for the same department? Was it the CDC that gave Momo Cyrus the over US$ 100K he personally expended on the county football and kickball teams over a period of three years since he assumed the position of steering committee chair for the national county sports meet for Lofa?We don’t mean to brag but if this is not the simplest way to lay bare the folly of our friends from the other sides, then I don’t know how?
The ball is in Imran Khan's Court
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