28/09/2026
CMC Political Leader Musa Bility writes an open letter to George Weah's CDC 👇👇
"AN OPEN LETTER TO MY FRIENDS IN THE CDC
Opposition Is Not the Property of Any One Political Party
To the leaders, officials, partisans, and supporters of the CDC:
On a personal level, many of my closest friends are members of the CDC. We share much in common, and I have stood with the CDC at decisive moments in Liberia’s political history.
The truth is that the CDC has never been my first choice in the first round of a presidential election. However, on the two occasions when the second-round choice was between the CDC and the Unity Party, led by Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai, I chose the CDC. I made that decision twice, and I have no regrets.
That is why I find the hostility now being directed toward me deeply troubling.
The CDC governed Liberia for six years and lost the 2023 presidential election. Yet there appears to be no serious internal reckoning over the failures that contributed to that defeat. There has been no comprehensive evaluation of what went wrong, no honest discussion about what should have been done differently, and no willingness to acknowledge mistakes or apologize to the Liberian people where an apology may be warranted.
Instead, we are being told that to be considered opposition, one must support the CDC. According to this thinking, opposition is no longer a political position or a commitment to holding the government accountable. It has become an identity owned and controlled by one political party.
I reject that definition completely.
I am the Political Leader of the Citizens Movement for Change. My party believes that Liberia is heading in the wrong direction under the Unity Party government. But we also believe that the only alternative to the Unity Party cannot automatically be a return to the CDC.
There are many Liberians who believe that neither the Unity Party nor the CDC presently represents the transformation our country requires. They have every right to seek a new political direction. The CMC has every right to present its vision to the Liberian people, and I have every constitutional and democratic right to aspire to the presidency of Liberia.
That aspiration is not a crime. It is not a betrayal. It does not make me an ally of the Unity Party.
If my CDC friends truly regard me as a friend, they should be prepared to listen when I raise difficult questions. Friendship cannot mean that I must abandon my convictions, surrender my political ambition, or remain silent about the failures of the past.
Before we can speak seriously about opposition unity, we must be willing to discuss the record of the former government and the conduct of the opposition since 2024.
The CDC made consequential decisions while in power. A sitting Associate Justice of the Supreme Court was removed under circumstances that remain deeply controversial. Does the CDC now believe that decision was wrong? Would it act differently if confronted with a similar situation in the future? Is it prepared to acknowledge the injury caused and apologize where necessary?
These questions matter because a party seeking to return to power must tell the Liberian people whether it has learned from the exercise and loss of power. Refusing to discuss them creates the impression that everything the CDC did was correct and that its intention is merely to return to power and continue from where it stopped.
I am sorry, but I cannot be part of such an arrangement.
There must also be an honest discussion about what happened in the Legislature.
The 2023 elections produced an important democratic balance. The Unity Party won the Executive Branch, while opposition lawmakers held sufficient strength to lead and provide meaningful checks within the Legislature. In the Senate, opposition senators had the numbers but lacked the unity and discipline to elect their own leadership.
In the House of Representatives, the opposition succeeded in electing a Speaker. Yet senior figures within the CDC later joined forces with the Unity Party’s political machinery to remove Speaker J. Fonati Koffa.
That decision helped destroy the balance of power created by the Liberian electorate. It weakened the opposition, compromised legislative independence, and strengthened the Unity Party’s control over the state.
Today, the consequences are before us. Legislative oversight has been weakened. The Legislature remains unaudited. Serious concerns about drugs, financial mismanagement, public accountability, and alleged misappropriation across government are met with insufficient scrutiny. The Executive faces no effective institutional check.
The unchecked power the Unity Party enjoys today did not emerge on its own. It was made possible, in part, by the acquiescence and participation of influential people within the CDC.
How, then, can we sit together to discuss an opposition strategy while declaring these matters forbidden from discussion?
Opposition unity cannot be built upon selective memory. It cannot demand loyalty from others while refusing accountability for its own actions. It cannot ask Liberians to forget yesterday merely because it wants to reclaim power tomorrow.
My support for Speaker Koffa became the dividing line between me and the Unity Party government. Because of the position I took, my business suffered enormously. Nearly sixty percent of it was taken away. I was insulted, called a criminal, and subjected to every imaginable accusation.
As an organization, the CDC did not stand up for me. I mention this not because the CDC owed me anything, but to place the present hostility in its proper context. I stood on principle when it was costly. I took the attacks and accepted the consequences. Yet today, some of the same people whose interests were defended now treat me as an enemy simply because I refuse to surrender my own political vision.
Some CDC supporters have called me a collaborator of the government. That accusation is false. I have never declared support for the Unity Party, and I have absolutely no intention of doing so.
Ironically, it is some within the CDC who have cooperated with the Unity Party when it suited their political interests, including in the removal of the Speaker. Yet they now question the opposition credentials of anyone who refuses to submit to the CDC.
Being in opposition does not mean supporting the CDC.
Opposition is not ownership. It is not a private title held by one party. It is a democratic responsibility shared by all citizens and institutions prepared to challenge the government, defend accountability, and offer the country a credible alternative.
Where does the CDC stand on auditing the Legislature? Where does it stand on genuine financial transparency? Where does it stand on legislative independence? Where does it stand on the mistakes of its six years in power? What has it learned? What does it regret? What will it do differently if entrusted with power again?
These are not insults. They are legitimate questions that every serious political party seeking another opportunity to govern must be prepared to answer.
I remain proud of the position taken by the Citizens Movement for Change.
The CMC’s fight is not simply against the Unity Party or the CDC. Our fight is against bad governance, corruption, abuse of power, institutional weakness, and the culture of impunity, regardless of who commits it.
We will oppose these practices when they come from the Unity Party. We will oppose them when they come from the CDC. We will oppose them even within our own ranks because our commitment must be to Liberia, not to the colors, symbols, or personalities of any political organization.
Across the country, many Liberians are prepared to join this fight. They believe, as we do, that neither the Unity Party nor the CDC, in their present forms, can lead Liberia toward the new beginning our people deserve.
That is a legitimate political philosophy and a growing national conviction.
We are not asking anyone for permission to believe it. We are not asking anyone for permission to organize around it. And we will not apologize for presenting the Liberian people with a new political alternative.
To my friends in the CDC, political disagreement does not have to destroy personal relationships. But friendship cannot require submission. Cooperation cannot demand silence. Unity cannot mean surrendering our convictions or abandoning our vision.
If my decision to seek the presidency and offer Liberia a different path means that the CDC has chosen to enter into a political war with me, then I am prepared for that political fire.
If you consider our political philosophy a threat and have decided to fight it, then welcome to the game.
We are here.
We are prepared.
I have endured insults, intimidation, economic pressure, and political isolation before. I will not abandon my convictions because some believe that the presidency is the exclusive inheritance of two parties or two individuals.
The Liberian people will ultimately decide which vision offers them the best path forward. That decision will be made through ideas, policies, records, character, and the sovereign power of the ballot box, not through insults, intimidation, or attempts to monopolize the opposition.
And to those who believe they can hunt down every independent voice, remember this:
The jungle also contains those who hunt the hunter.
We will meet on the democratic battlefront, the battlefield of ideas, leadership, character, and the sovereign votes of the Liberian people.
Hon. Musa Hassan Bility
Political Leader
Citizens Movement for Change"
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