“That explanation, however, is unlikely to quiet the biggest question hanging over the initiative, who will lead the coalition, who will become its presidential candidate, and who will accept the vice-presidential slot,” –
an observer.
Former President George Weah’s Jamaica Resort opposition meeting has ended with another pledge of “political cooperation.”
Many Liberians believe that headship trust, and the distribution of power, have already threatened to overshadow the latest attempt to unite the “opposition.”
The Sunday, September 6, gathering, led by Mr. Weah in his capacity as political leader of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), brought together several figures, who agreed to develop a framework for the proposed collaboration.
The committee is expected to define the structure, principles, scope, and operational mechanisms of the new arrangement.
Organizers insist that the initiative is not yet an electoral alliance, and does not amount to an agreement on a presidential candidate for the 2029 elections.
That explanation, however, is unlikely to quiet the biggest question hanging over the initiative, who will lead the coalition, who will become its presidential candidate, and who will accept the vice-presidential slot?
For ordinary Liberians, such questions are not new, the country has witnessed several opposition alliances launched with promises of unity, only for them to collapse when political ambitions, leadership disputes, presidential nominations, and competing interests came to the surface.
The Jamaica Resort initiative therefore, faces a credibility test from the beginning.
A Steering Committee may be easy to establish, but deciding who ultimately controls the political machinery, could prove much more difficult.
Among those participating was Alternative National Congress (ANC) Political Leader Alexander Cummings, Citizens Movement for Change (CMC) of Musa Hassan Bility, Movement for Progressive Change (MPC) Simeon Freeman.
Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE) of Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, and representatives of the All Liberian Party (ALP), led by businessman Benoni Urey.
Senior CDC figures, including former House Speaker Bhofal Chambers, also attended.
Yet concerns raised around the meeting reportedly exposed the same political fault lines that have historically made opposition coalitions difficult to sustain.
Bility, for example, had questioned the structure, and leadership of the proposed gathering.
He warned against arrangements that could appear to give one political party predetermined authority over the others.
That concern strikes at the heart of the new coalition experiment. If the initiative becomes widely perceived as a CDC-led project designed primarily to revive Weah’s political machinery ahead of 2029, other parties could eventually ask whether they are joining an equal partnership, or simply helping to rebuild the former president’s political base.
The absence of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) further demonstrates the difficulty of achieving broad opposition unity. While CDC Secretary-General, Jefferson Koijee, reportedly dismissed the NPP’s position as political grandstanding, and questioned.
Whether the party had been formally invited, NPP Chairman George Mulbah maintained that his party would boycott the gathering, “because of unresolved differences with the CDC.”
The disagreement is a reminder that opposition unity cannot be manufactured through meetings, photographs, and declarations.
It requires political trust among leaders, who have competed against one another and, in some cases, abandoned previous alliances when their interests diverged.
The history of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP) remains the clearest warning.
Established in 2018 by the UP, ALP, ANC, and Liberty Party, the CPP initially appeared to have the political strength to challenge the Weah administration.
The coalition signed a framework agreement, and sought to produce a single presidential candidate for the 2023 elections.
But internal disagreements eventually weakened the arrangement, The ALP, and UP withdrew in 2022, followed by a major faction of the Liberty Party, and the CPP was formally dissolved in 2024.
The collapse demonstrated that political parties can agree on removing a government while remaining deeply divided over what comes next.
The 2023 election ultimately showed the consequences of that fragmentation, with the UP emerging independently, and Joseph Nyuma Boakai eventually winning the presidency.
The Jamaica Resort initiative now faces a potentially similar dilemma, the opposition parties may agree that the country needs a political alternative, but agreement on the alternative’s leadership could become the real battle.
One particularly sensitive issue is the future presidential, and vice-presidential ticket.
Political observers have already questioned whether some party leaders would be willing to surrender their ambitions for the sake of a coalition.
Speculation has also emerged over whether Alexander Cummings would accept Senator Samuel Kogar of Nimba County as a potential vice-presidential candidate under a coalition arrangement.
Such discussions remain speculative, but they highlight the difficult negotiations that could emerge if the alliance moves from broad political cooperation to actual electoral calculations.
There are also questions surrounding Bility, and whether other opposition leaders would be prepared to place significant political responsibility in his hands.
Critics have questioned his level of trustworthiness within a possible coalition, while supporters could argue that such criticism reflects the intense competition already developing within the opposition camp.
A document can establish rules, but it cannot automatically create trust between political leaders with different electoral bases, financial networks, and presidential ambitions.
