MONROVIA – Former Vice President Joseph Boakai has said he’s is in a better state of health to contest the 2023 presidential elections amid intense speculations about his health and whether he is fit to contest.
In an interview with the Voice of America (VOA) Wednesday, Boakai said: “I’m very, very well. I took my Covid-19 vaccination and I’m doing well. I’m discharging my daily responsibility; I go on my farm, come to my office on a daily basis”.
“I know the state of my health, I am very, very well. I can assume the presidency because I haven’t been to any hospital in the last two years”.
The former vice president when asked whether he would make his health record public ahead of the 2023 presidential elections, Boakai added: “If it’s the requirement of becoming a president of Liberia then I can do that, but I think it’s not a requirement. My doctors know my status of my health; they will tell me whether it’s necessary or not. All I can tell you is that I am healthy”.
Asked about “being too old” to contest the presidency, the 76-year-old replied: “I can’t change my age and I thank God I am as old as I am. Age is about wisdom”.
Boakai, standard bearer of the former governing Unity Party (UP), is seeking to be the standard bearer of the Collaborating Political Party (CPP) from a primary comprising three different opposition political parties.
But ahead of the December primary, the CPP has been embroiled in internal wrangling
The Unity Party standard bearer didn’t say whether he would relinquish his presidential ambition if he missed out on on becoming standard bearer of the CPP, but sent a caveat: “It’s all enshrined on how we perceive the document of the CPP. There is an agreement and in that agreement we should follow all the rules to the letter. The outcome shouldn’t be dictated. Everyone should know this: if we can’t get a consensus, we will go to the Voter’s Perception Survey (VPS); then from there we will give the way forward”.
In the build-up to the 2023 presidential elections, political observers and insiders from each of the four collaborating parties all agree that lingering uneasiness within the CPP poses grave dangers to its survival.
For Senator Darius Dillon, the distrusts amongst feuding supporters of the four-party collaboration may be a healthy doze of reality needed to put things in perspective albeit strong cause for concerns.
“ANC is no cancer in CPP, UP should not be a cancer in CPP, Liberty Party, ALP, none of us should be cancer – or threat to the survival, growth and success of CPP. We are in a democratic process where ANC is justified and has the right to project a political leader.”
The debacle within the CPP has escalated in recent weeks with the two leading political leaders making the media rounds to explain why they should head the ticket.
Former Vice President Boakai, says he is confident of receiving the CPP’s nomination to be the standard-bearer to lead the collaboration in 2023.
“If the CPP wants to win and take Weah down, Boakai is the man to do that this is in no disrespect to my colleagues in the CPP,” the former Vice President said.
For Mr. Cummings, he says he will throw his support behind whoever clinches the nomination. “I believe whoever wins the nomination we will stick together as a group and make Mr. Weah a one-term President. I’m gong to to my work to make my case to the CPP partisans, and then, the partisans will decide. I’m confident we will do the work and together, we can make President Weah,, a one-term President.”
Amid the competitive nature of the ongoing CPP process, Senator Dillon says the process should be embraced by all. “We are in a democratic process where Unity Party is justified to project a political leader the standard-bearer, ALP should have the right to project a standard-bearer. Same with Liberty Party. Liberty Party should be allowed and have the right to project their standard-bearer. We did not form CPP to ordain a particular person without whom CPP can’t survive. That was not the intent, that was not the motive, that was not the justification. We came together to pull our resources together, to bring our ideas together, to merge our principles together, our values, our vision for the country, bring them together so that, together, we can have the numbers and the unity in strength to defeat the evil that is over this country, to remove the gang that is ruling and wrecking this country”.
