By Sidiki Fofana | Truth in Ink
When the numbers soared on Spoon that fateful night, it was not because the discussion was profound. It was because two of the CDC’s most recognizable sons, Hon. Saah Joseph and Hon. Acarus Gray, had collided in full public view. What should have been a private squabble about loyalty and legacy was thrown into the open, provoked by Gray’s constant chest-beating, amplified by Stanton Witherspoon’s hunger for ratings, and unrestrained by Joseph’s insistence on “clarification.”
In that instant, Saah Joseph, a founding son of the CDC became an “enemy” of the party. In our party, that word is almost a curse. It means you are to be forgotten, denounced, erased. No public display of pictures with him, nor any positive mention of past roles. But politics in Liberia has never worked that way.
Some understandably angry partisans rushed to dismiss him. “CDC made Saah! He is politically finished without us,” one declared on social media. But even the CDC’s own chairman pushed back. He reminded us that pragmatism, not pride, must guide strategy.
Now that the noise is over and perhaps tempers have been quieter, we must analyze the truth, which is Saah Joseph is not insignificant. His record tells the story. Three consecutive victories at the polls, Representative, then Senator, culminating in one of the highest votes counts in Montserrado’s history.
Those votes were not just CDC votes; they were the votes of mothers, students, petty traders, and market women who saw Saah in their darkest hours.
Ask the woman who recalled how Joseph carried Ebola patients when others fled. “He used to take people to the hospital free. Gray can talk plenty, but Saah saved lives,” she told Truth in Ink in Red Light.
That is not insignificance. That is political capital.
From the ashes of this fallout comes the People’s Action Party (PAP), a new vehicle for Joseph’s ambitions. And whether one likes him or not, PAP could change the equation.
Joseph sits in the Senate until 2031. He can contest for the presidency in 2029 with nothing to lose. In politics, that makes him dangerous. Liberian history is littered with men underestimated until the runoff revealed their true power. Prince Johnson proved it in Nimba. Saah Joseph could prove it in Montserrado.
As political analyst Tiawan Gaye observed: “In a runoff between UP and CDC, Saah could tip the balance. His PAP will be courted by both sides.”
But PAP’s impact is not only presidential. Even a handful of legislative seats could shift the power struggle for Speaker and Pro Tempore, the third and fourth most powerful positions in our republic.
Civil society voices are already warning: “We keep underestimating small parties, but they hold the knife and the yam when the House is divided. PAP could play that role.”
The CDC now faces a critical choice. Do we brand Saah a traitor and drive him further into opposition? Or do we recognize that bridges are sometimes more powerful than barricades?
As one motorcyclist in Paynesville put it: “Today enemy, tomorrow friend. If CDC push Saah away, tomorrow they will beg him. Better to hold him close now.”
To ignore such wisdom is not strategy, it is arrogance.
The dealing and ultimate fall out with PYJ supports this strategy. And provide a compelling reason to rethink. Many may dare say this not because they are loyal but because they are not hungry enough to win.
Saah Joseph matters because his story is not just about one man. It is about how service, loyalty, and risk intersect to produce power in Liberia’s fragile democracy. His PAP may not win the crown in its first attempt, but it could decide who wears it.
For the CDC, the lesson is simple, keep dismissing Saah Joseph is not only premature. It is suicidal.
And in the unforgiving arena of Liberian politics, where today’s adversary is tomorrow’s kingmaker, the real question is not whether Saah Joseph matters. It is whether the CDC is wise enough to ensure whoever is the king’s maker is in its corner, regardless if the kingmaker was Saah Joseph and his PAP.
