Monrovia – The man who many saw as one of the few that would have been selected as running mate to Senator George Weah on the 2017 ticket of the newly formed Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) is wondering about the two names on the coalition’s ticket.
Report by J.H. Webster Clayeh – [email protected]
“…Just recently I had the opportunity to discuss with Senator Weah I need to discuss with Jewel and I need to see whether they can be guarded a little bit,” he said.
“If they are willing to be guarded and we are successful we should be able to put a strong team around them, but if they are not willing to be guarded then it just sad.
“And so, I am yet to understand the ticket” – Dr. Togar Gaywea McIntosh, Former Presidential Aspirant
Dr. Togar Gaywea McIntosh says he went to the coalition to provide leadership, but had to withdraw from the list of five potential names.
“During the internal consultation, I told them – because it was getting a little bit rowdy – let’s move my name and let it bows down to four,” McIntosh said.
“And I moved my name because …; I looked at my resourcefulness, if am vice President of this country what will I bring to the table?”
McIntosh says the country can get the most out of him if he gives more than 80% of his resourcefulness, which means he serves as President or he rather fills anther position, adding that his resourcefulness could not afford him to go as the Vice running mate to the Montserrado Senator, George Weah.
However, the Coalition for Democratic Change held its convention over the weekend making Senator George Weah as the standard bearer while Senator Jewell Howard Taylor was selected as the vice standard bearer.
But Dr. Mcintosh said he’s yet to understand the ticket proffered by the coalition.
“…Just recently I had the opportunity to discuss with Senator Weah I need to discuss with Jewel and I need to see whether they can be guarded a little bit,” he said.
“If they are willing to be guarded and we are successful we should be able to put a strong team around them, but if they are not willing to be guarded then it just sad. And so, I am yet to understand the ticket”.
He added that before the 2005 election he and President Sirleaf had a discussion to be her vice running mate, but he refused. He claimed that such position is a ceremonial position.
“Anybody like myself who want to get things done; I told madam President the same thing and I told Mr. Weah the same thing; I will still play the role as far as the republic of Liberia is concern,” he concluded.
‘Sympathetic Politics’ – Dr. McIntoch Describes President Sirleaf
A longtime supporter of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, now strong member of the newly formed opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Dr. Togar McIntosh says the President failure to set clear example on corrupt officials is because of her weakness.
During Sirleaf’s final annual message she pointed out corruption and reconciliation as the two areas her government has failed to achieved.
But speaking to journalists on Monday after the President’s address, Dr. McIntosh who served as Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, Foreign Affairs Minister and later Vice Chairman of ECOWAS in the Sirleaf administration, said in order to fight corruption it is good to deal with the roots cause than dealing with the surface. McIntosh said the Liberia leader has failed to do the aforementioned.
“On corruption, you have to set clear example no matter who [whom] it is, your own ma, your own pa, you caught their hands in the cookies jar let the world know because if you do that two, three times you would have done something about it,” Dr. Mcintosh said.
“Sometimes I try to understand why; I think she is balancing politics with motherly heart”.
Explaining a short story about him and the President during her first year in power, he said President Sirleaf told him that every night she is praying for somebody to steal so that she can catch them, but he added that when people started to steal she could not grab them.
Added McIntosh: “One day we were in Brussel (Belgium) and I ask her, ‘madam we used to call you iron lady, where is the iron?’, and she told me it is in the needle, I say in the needle? I can break it; she said if you not be careful it will [pricks] your finger”.
He continued: “She was still talking about how to deal with corruption. So, deep down in her heart she wants to do something about it, but it was now issue on how to go about it”.
