The Editor,
MY TURN: Last Sunday, I told the listening audience on the Liberia Destiny Debaters radio teleconference program that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was employing code words and phrases that imply that she is not sincere in her lukewarm support for VP Joseph Boakai to succeed her. To say Boakai must work hard like she did to get elected president is all smokescreen to fool Boakai that she supports him, but in reality Ellen is playing games and has not and may not reveal her true intentions of her successor. Ellen doesn’t trust Boakai and here is why:
Remember the VP was rumored to have been part of a plot to unseat Ellen shortly after his visit to the United States with his White House visit and the photo of him with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama? Remember how Boakai was humiliated by Police Director Chris Massaquoi citing the VP to appear at the Police Headquarters for interrogation for his alleged ties to those plotting to unseat Ellen?
Remember how Ellen was mute for nearly a year to declare her support for the VP who was going around saying he had told the President he would campaign to succeed her. Even after Ellen called an emergency meeting at her house last year of the Executive Committee of the governing Unity Party to discuss who succeeds her in 2027, not even a Press Release or statement was issued after the meeting. Two days later, a disappointed VP Boakai travelled to Gbarnga, Bong County and met with executives of the newly formed PUP party and said he held “collaboration talks” for 2017 with the PUP.
I told Liberia Destiny Debaters listeners that if Ellen truly wants Boakai to succeed her, she would lay low and let Boakai get more on-the-job training and allow Boakai to bring on board most of her latest “appointments.” Why would a failed, lame duck President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf reward outsiders this late with plumb jobs and not from the ranks of her loyal ruling party members? Example is her decision to send a Charles Taylor loyalist, Lewis Brown to the prestigious United Nations in New York?
I have written extensively that the National Elections Commission and the Supreme Court of Liberia are extensions of Ellen’s ruling dis-Unity Party. And unless Boakai is able to reach out to the CDC, the PUP and other natives-based political parties to be able to deliver an overwhelming tsunami victory like Senator George Weah and his CDC delivered in the Senatorial race against Ellen’s son Robert, bet ya Boakai, the CDC and the other greedy natives-based parties will be singing the blues in 2017.
Ellen, the Sirleaf Clan and their corrupt cronies don’t feel comfortable turning power over to Boakai, George Weah, John Morlu, Prince Johnson or any native who might go after them for corruption. This is why Charles Brumskine who now works for Ellen is on record saying he will not probe the outgoing Ellen regime. Brumskine is the lawyer for Mittal and when his Liberty Party “son” Israel Akinsanya was thrown in jail by Ellen for the $700,000.00 he took, Brumskine went begging for Ellen to free Israel. Israel was then given a fat job at NOCAL and a truce was reached that Brumskine stop criticizing Ellen if he wants favors.
Watch out for a Brumskine-Cummings tag team in 2017 but that is a risky calculation for any team that does not have native representation. We call on our people to wake up and unite (Prince Johnson, George Weah, John Morlu, Simon Freeman, the PUP and Joe Boakai) or we will have a repeat of 2005 and 2011. Ellen is TWP-trained; never underestimate her. Remember how she came up with “Decree 65” and said defeated candidates must wait till after 30 days to cry foul after the National Elections Commission declared winners, and then if not satisfied, then go to her controlled Supreme Court; all delayed tactics and by then the declared “winners” would have been sworn into office? Wake up, let’s put our individual egos away for the common good of our long suffering poor masses.
To quote Ellen Johnson Sirleaf : “Liberia is not a poor country, but a country run poorly.” In nearly 170 years of “independence “, natives headed the government for a mere 10 years under the high school dropout Samuel Doe but Doe did more to develop Liberia that all the leaders before and after him put together. Liberia is our only home. Doe never took our money out of the country unlike the rest of them to the present. Don’t say I didn’t want you. Not a sermon, just a thought.
Jerry Wehtee Wion,
Journalist and Political Commentator,
Washington, DC, US
[email protected]