SALAYEA DISTRICT, Lofa County – In a carefully-worded remark Thursday, President George Mannah Weah dropped more than a few hints about his plans to retain his Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor as his running mate in the 2023 presidential elections.
Describing his collaboration with the former Bong County senator in the 2017 presidential elections as “the perfect team”, the Liberian leader said he looks forward to working with his “brilliant and politically-smart” vice president beyond 2023 when their first term ends.
“In 2017, Jewel Howard-Taylor and I came here in Salayea District to ask for your vote, and you voted us. Three years into our first term, we have come back to tell you thank you for your votes” President Weah said.
“The team you elected is a very good one and I hope we will continue to work for the Liberian people beyond the first six-year mandate you people gave us. I have a vice president whom I rely on so much in this government for key decisions.”
“People say Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor is smarter than me, but I say to myself, I am smart because I selected a very smart vice president in Jewel Howard-Taylor.”
“I am enjoy working with my vice president, and I hope we can continue this working relationship beyond our six-year mandate,” President George Weah said.
President Weah made the remarks in Salayea District, Lofa County at the start of his five-day tour of the county. The vice president is among scores of government officials traveling with the president.
Amid rumors of internal rift between the president and his vice president, this is the first time Howard-Taylor has travelled with the president since he embarked on his nationwide tour. And speaking, President Weah downplayed rumors of rifts, saying: “We are very happy working together as a team for the betterment of Liberia.”
There have also been rumors that the president would break ranks with his vice president in 2023 by selecting a different running mate, but an elite member of the Coalition for Democratic Change, Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee, brushed off the speculations and described Howard-Taylor as a “political assert” to the coalition. Koijee predicts a George Weah and Howard-Taylor in 2023.
“President George Weah and his Vice President started as a team in the 2017 presidential elections and they will continue that journey in in the 2023 presidential elections,” Koijee said.
“This team is working for the people of Liberia and I see no reason why the CDC should change its running mate in 2023. The vice president has been politically tested and proven, and I strongly believe she’s the right person to go as the running mate on the ticket of the Coalition for Democratic Change in 2023,” he said.
“There has been no beef between the president and his vice president. It has been the opposition that has been spreading this falsehood,” Koijee said.
Jewel: I’m a team player
Asked if she would accept to go as running mate to President Weah in 2023 if he came asking, Howard-Taylor said: “Why not? I am part of the CDC and if the opportunity comes one hundred times I will definitely accept. I’m a team player,” the vice president said.
Rumors of rift between President Weah and his vice president hightened after Bong County superintendent Esther Walker broke her 26-year relationship with the former first lady.
Many accused the president of trying to disintegrate the vice president’s National Patriotic Party, a constituent member of the ruling CDC of which Madam Walker served as national women chair before her resignation.
During the December 8,2020 senatorial elections, President Weah and Howard-Taylor differed on the choice of candidate. Though the vice president didn’t announce her choice of candidate, she publicly differed with President Weah’s choice – Henry Yallah. In one of her radio interviews, Howard-Taylor said: “Yallah is President George Weah’s candidate, not Jewel’s; and it’s the responsibility of the president to make him win re-election.”
Yallah would go on to lose the election to former deputy speaker and former District Two lawmaker, Prince Moye.
Popular Jewel would be key to CDC
Howard-Taylor, former wife of former president Charles Taylor, has established herself as the most popular politician in Bong County, having been elected twice as senator of Bong County (2005&2014), and helping to ensure the elections of twoof her former office staff as lawmakers of Bing’s districts five and three.
As running mate to President Weah in 2017, the CDC for the first time won Bong County in both the first and second rounds of the elections. It was a feat many attributed to Howard-Taylor’s influence after the CDC two failed attempts by the party to win Bong County in the 2005 and 2011, respectively.
If the CDC selects the vice president as its running mate in 2023, the likelihood of the coalition winning Bong, the third populous county, is certain because of her legacy she has built in the county over her almost 18-year stint as senator of the county before becoming vice president.