Pressure is said to be mounting for Professor Alhaji G.V. Kromah to stand as a senatorial candidate for the ensuing November by-election in Montserrado County. Sources close to the former Presidential Candidate said there is however a debate among his supporters on whether he should stand.

One group of Kromah supporters says he would be politically demoting himself as a former presidential candidate by running for the senate, while others say Senator Cletus Wotorson of Grand Kru County is a good example of a former presidential candidate securing a senatorial seat after bidding for the Presidency.

The second group said Kromah would be a useful addition to the National Legislature with his vast experience as a politician, a technocrat, an academician and a sports administrator. They said that with the national elections less than two years away, the Legislature would be involved with critical national decisions.

Kromah’s Spokesman, Festus Logan, says the potential senatorial candidate has heavy constituencies, including the University itself and several electoral Districts in urban and rural Montserrado County. His Party, ALCOP, joined forces with George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change in the 2005 presidential run-off election. Sources in the CDC say a good number of CDC and partisans from other political parties may go with Kromah as a compromise candidate, if he decides to stand.

Prof. Kromah was the first to publicly extend sympathy to the CDC and the Hannah Brent Family when the Senator passed away last month. Kromah said the Senator was a childhood friend and related to everyone as a senator without reference to political affiliation.

Logan however indicated that the Professor is still carrying on consultations and has asked those preparing petitions to give him a little more time. The spokesman said registered voters are asking Executives of Kromah’s All Liberian Coalition Party for him to run as an Independent Candidate if he decides to stand.

He said this would allow the Professor to develop an across-the-board political candidacy for the Montserrado County Senatorial seat if he enters the race. A family source said, Kromah, who originates from Lofa County paternally and Bomi maternally, was born in Monrovia where he grew up and went to school, and is currently residing.

His maternal great-grandparents established the then Koboi Town in the vicinity of Clay Ashland, Montserrado County in the 1930’s. The town no longer exists. Kromah speaks or understands five of Liberia’s 16 major languages.

Since the 2005 elections when he ran for the Presidency, Kromah has been involved with community projects, including the rehabilitation of the Gulinda River Bridge, which is a major link between Montserrado County and the Bomi-Gbapolu Highway.

He is also undertaking a 14-Room community clinic on the Montserrado/Bomi County border, expected to cater to nearly 40,000 residents in the two counties. The Analyst Newspaper declared Kromah as Politician of the Year 2007. The Paper indicated that it was taking the decision due to the engagement of the political figure in activities that were benefiting grassroots people and this conduct was unique and special in Liberia’s political profile. 

Kromah, who holds five university degrees plus a doctoral candidacy in law, is a professor at the College of Social Sciences and the IBB Graduate School of International Affairs, both at the University of Liberia, where he has been teaching for more than two decades. He once served as Minister of Information, as well as Vice Chairman of the erstwhile Council of State, among numerous government and international positions. 

Posted by: M.H.Konneh

Source: The Analyst Newspaper