*We will unite our people once again
*How we plan to develop Liberia

Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Coalition, NDC, of Liberia, Professor Ambassador Dew Tuan Wreh Mayson, stands accused of being too committed to the Liberian cause. He should.
As one of those who worked for the victory of the incumbent, President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson, he expresses disappointment at the turn of events in his country.  Prof. Mayson today is the presidential candidate of the opposition coalition comprising eight political parties and the figures continue to swell. Whereas it is early days yet, regarding the weight the opposition is capable of pulling in its bid to unseat Johnson, Prof. Mayson and the opposition politicians believe that “What would keep the coalition together is exactly what brought it together – the need to come together in order to win and the need to stay together in order to help raise the standard of living of our people. In our manifesto, these things are stated clearly and the points refer to some of the basic things our people need and it binds us together. Yes, there are varying ideologies in the parties but there is one consuming ideology and which is to see a better Liberia for our people by voting out this government”. He insists that October’s presidential election in the country would be a golden opportunity for the people to define a new path to greatness and unity.
Professor Mayson has also stated that an administration led by him would ensure that Nigeria begins to reap the dividends of her contribution to the enthronement of peace and stability in Liberia.
 “The present administration led by President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson promised so much in words but delivered so little to the people of Liberia in the area of reconciliation and unity”, Professor Mayson explained, stressing that the regime of disillusionment that is being foisted on the innocent people of Liberia “is the driving spirit behind the massive angst and rejection of the President and her Unity Party”.
The opposition is also promising a national conference.  Mayson says this has become very important because our people need to be united in order to focus on the work of development.
EXCERPTS:

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor

What led to the opposition coalition in Liberia?
It’s very simple. We’re running against an incumbent.  We in the opposition posed two questions: The first question was, do you want to win?  And invariably they’ll say yes we want to win. The second question was, do you think you can win alone?  And they said no.  So, if you want to win since you can not win alone, the strength of the logic is that we must come together and defeat this incumbent.

Some political parties are not involved in the coalition against the incumbent; don’t you think the opposition against the incumbent may likely suffer a discount on account of this, since they, too, would win some votes?
Well, every day we get new additions to the coalition. It is an unwritten agreement that the opposition parties are going to support one another and there is an unwritten agreement.  If there is the need for a second round, all the opposition parties will support the opposition candidate.

The average observer would want to find out why the other political parties are ganging up against the incumbent?

It is because the incumbent has not delivered on most of its promises.

Like?
The present government came in as a government of reconciliation and the major problem in our country is the disunity which led us to 14 years of civil strife. We said to ourselves that the policies of this administration can not lead us to the reconciliation that we seek.

Reconciliation is more in words than in deed and we’ve decided that if we are to avoid another civil war, we need a government that would pursue the reconciliation of our people as a priority.

There’s one thing I’ve always told our people.  We went to war not because we didn’t have roads in Liberia; in fact we had more roads before the war than we have now.

Prof. Dew Mayson.

We went to war not because we didn’t have good schools; in fact the schools we had then were more and better than what we have today. We went to war because the fundamental problem since 1821 has been the division between those who came in to settle down and the inhabitants of the land.

Every country suffers from one form of division or the other.  What is the peculiar nature of the division in Liberia?

Can you imagine that in 2011, the national motto of Liberia continues to be, “The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here” – this refers to the group of people who came to settle in Liberia.

The declaration of national independence in 2011 continues to read, “we the people of the Republic of Liberia were originally inhabitants of the United States”.

These are all symbols of the attitudes of the policies that the elites like to follow and because of some of this it has become very important that we do things in the best interest of all of us. Recently, transparency international noted Liberia as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Even above Nigeria?

Yes!  Even above Nigeria. …

Read the full interview in tomorrow’s edition of Sunday Vanguard.