Monrovia – A lot has happened in the last six years. For the ruling Unity Party in Liberia, that could actually mean a lot.
Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Who would have thought that the likes of Lenn Eugene Nagbe, Minister of Information and former Secretary General of the ruling Unity Party and Tornorlah Varpillah, a former campaign manager in the 2011 elections would be denied entry into an Executive meeting of the UP,
This was the case Tuesday night at the Party’s headquarters in Congotown when both men, were told they were not privy to whatever discussions that were about to take place.
As a result, a displeased President Ellen Johnson-Silreaf, according to sources, was forced to go into the meeting, reportedly arranged to broker some sort of understanding of trust and peace between the incumbent President and the current Standard Bearer, Vice President Joseph Boakai, without two of her closest associates of the past six years.
Lingering Issues with Paye
To complicate matters, eyebrows were raised shortly before the President’s arrival when the party’s chair Wilmot Paye left the meeting.
While one source told FrontPageAfrica, that Paye’s absence was not a boycott, as inquired by FPA, but it may have been a mutual agreement that the Party Chairman, just not be in the meeting due to lingering strains between he and the President.
“Because of the strains, he was probably just asked not to attend,” said a source privy to the happenings at the party’s headquarters Tuesday.
Mr. Paye, it can be recalled triggered strains back in the November 2014 Senatorial elections when he slammed the candidacy of President Sirleaf’s son, Robert Sirleaf who was going up against football legend George Manneh Weah.
Paye, at the time said, the President’s son, who was running as an independent, lacked the moral credibility to get the support of the party.
“We are convinced that while this Sirleaf may have become rich overnight, he lacks the moral credential and credibility to earn our Party’s trust. Therefore, any member (whether local officer or member of the National Executive Committee) pledging support to him is doing so at his or her own risk.”
Mr. Paye represents a major holding base of vote-rich Nimba which has been unsettled over Boakai’s decision to skip one of their own as a running mate in the upcoming presidential race.
But the strains between Mr. Paye and the outgoing President is just one of many within the hierarchy of the ruling party.
Lingering distrusts between partisans deemed to be too close to Sirleaf and those leaning toward Boakai have been evident for months even as the Executive Mansion has moved in recent weeks to allay fears from the Vice President’s circle that the President is not supporting his candidacy but those of his rivals in the race for the presidency.
At least two very close aides, former Minister of Gender Julia Duncan Cassell and Ciatta Bishop, former head of the Bureau of Concessions have since left the party after they were denied the chance to contest on the party’s ticket in the upcoming legislative elections in Grand Bassa and Bomi respectively.
Despite denials, those affected by the ongoing strains acknowledge that it is real.
“The way they the Boakai supporters) are doing things is not right.
They trying to punish us for their feelings toward her and it is not fair. Yes, Eugene resigned the position as secretary general but he is still a member of the party,” said a source speaking on condition of anonymity Wednesday.
Nagbe, in a letter dated on August 3, 2017 and addressed to the Chairman of the Party, Paye, said:
“I hold the National campaign Committee and National Campaign Management team can stir our party to victory while I and others in the administration continue to hold the fort in supporting Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as she climaxes her historic and exemplary leadership with a peaceful, fair, free and democratic transition.”
But some within the Boakai camp believe Nagbe’s resignation, followed by a wave of others, had ulterior motives, triggered by Sirleaf in a bid to diminish Boakai’s presidential bid, something the Executive Mansion has repeatedly said on numerous occasions, is untrue.
Source: Meeting ‘Did Not Go as Plan’
“The President was at a campaign committee meeting at the party’s headquarters in Congotown last night and in further consolidation, will meet with UP delegation from Canada to hold discussions about the elections. So I hope those who are still perpetuating those rumors would stop,” Press Secretary Jerelinmek Piah told a local radio station Wednesday.
But sources privy to Tuesday’s meeting said efforts to broker some kind of understanding did not go according to plan.
“The meeting, they try to broker peace but it did not go well. Wilmot Paye boycotted the meeting before the President arrived and it is not what the organizers had in mind.”
One source privy to the meeting said Boakai was quiet throughout, only speaking at the end when the President told the committee that there was a need to hear from the vice president.
Issues of perceive distrust is also being speculated in the wake of a draft bill submitted to legislature Tuesday by the President, which stressed the importance of establishing an arrangement for the transfer of administration from one democratically elected President.
In the draft bill, the arrangement will set up the frame work for smooth transfer of political power and governance.
The purpose of this law is to build a strong foundation and culture that embrace democratic value for sustainable peace, management, and regulation of the transfer of political power and other related matters.
Said Sirleaf: “I have not set to include such provisions into this law. Instead, I have thought to defer to the wisdom of the legislature to determine if it deems it necessary that immunity provisions would contribute to the promotion of a healthy vibrant irreversible democratic path for our country.”
In the draft law, the President of Liberia shall appoint 15 persons, including the Director General of the General Service Agency and the Director General of the Cabinet, who shall be the secretary to the Transition team and shall be responsible for submitting the final report as provided for in the law.
The bill is likely to spark yet another string of issues between the Sirleaf and Boakai camps, especially in the wake of recent controversy surrounding the issue of impeachment by a couple of justices on the Supreme Court bench.
Immunity vs. Impeachment
VP Boakai has sat on the fence on the issue and refused to delve deeper or take a position when presented at last week’s presidential debate.
While both Alternative National Congress (ANC) standard bearer, Mr. Alexander Cummings and Charles Walker Brumskine of the Liberty Party said the action to impeach is unconstitutional and All Liberia Party’s Benoni Urey said both sides erred, Mr. Boakai, said he was not a lawyer and could not take a side:
“The courts are protected by law, so are the legislators themselves.
“We have to know why they did what they did. Could it have been a pre-emptive strike? I don’t know. I cannot render judgement but I know we have to abide by the laws of our country. For me, I await for the outcome. I cannot interfere in the branch of others. For me, wherever the outcome is the law is the law. The house – I can make no judgment.”
The impeachment quest is being spearheaded by the lower house headed by Mr. Boakai’s running mate Emmanuel Nuquay. VP Boakai also serves as the President of the Senate and may cast a vote in the event of a tie.
Regarding the immunity draft bill, it remains to be seen how the Boakai camp will respond and how warmly the Emmanuel Nuquay-led legislature will embrace the draft or how speedily it will go through the lower house.
For the immediate future – with 48 days to Election Day, speculations of rift, deceptions and betrayals are unlikely to go away especially amid unconfirmed and lingering concerns from the Boakai camp, despite denials, that other opposition parties including the Coalition for Democratic Change and the Liberty Party are benefiting from assistance from the current leadership.
If the circumstances surrounding Tuesday meeting at the party’s headquarters are anything to go by, this nagging controversy and perceptions of distrust and deception, is unlikely to go away any time soon.