Monrovia – Esther Walker’s warning came a little after 3pm local time Friday when the Liberian government’s Chief spokesman Mr. Lenn Eugene Nagbe posted on his personal Facebook Page that the Bong County Superintendent’s days were numbered in the George Weah-led government.
“Bong County will soon have a new superintendent. Since you want to be a lying gossiper, we will send you back to your “puppetmaster,” the minister wrote.
By the end of day, the Executive Mansion issued what many believe is a prelude to Walker’s departure with a one-paragraph statement announcing the superintendent’s suspension with immediate effect. “Madam Walker remains suspended pending investigation into allegations she made in a leaked audio which went viral on February 15, 2019. She is henceforth advised to turnover all government properties in her possession,” the statement from the President’s office noted.
Weah-Jewel Ties Fragile Again
Walker’s suspension is likely to dampen perceived long-running feud between President Weah and his vice president, Jewel Howard Taylor, particularly amid concerns over the puppetmaster referenced by Minister Nagbe and who he was referring to.
VP Taylor was out of the country when the recording went public. She had traveled to Accra, Ghana to escort the body of her former colleague Geraldine Doe-Sheriff back to Monrovia.
Walker is not just an ordinary appointee. She is one of the few recommendations from the VP’s National Patriotic Party wing lucky to land a post after the election of Mr. Weah in January.
The NPP had been quietly mumbling that the party is not fairly represented in the government, as a key member of the ruling coalition.
The NPP is part of an alliance formed in January 2017 to contest the 2017 general elections, which brought together Mr. Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change and the Liberia People’s Democratic Party (LPDP).
The coalition is credited with helping to propel Mr. Weah’s CDC to a second-round victory with 61.5% of the vote, whilst the CDC won 21 of the 73 seats in the House of Representatives.
Walker succeeded Selena Polson Mappy, who served the county in the position since 2012.
Prior to her appointment, she was the national chair of the Women’s Wing of the Coalition for Democratic Change.
A trained agriculturalist from the Booker Washington Institute, Walker also obtained specialized training in rubber culture from Malaysia.
The suspended superintendent is not new to the county’s politics. Former President Charles Taylor appointed her as Mayor of Gbarnga in 2002 and she has very close ties to Vice President Howard Taylor which could pose an intriguing dilemma for her fate in the investigation ordered by the President.
Liar, Gossiper Label Placed on Supt
Until her suspension Friday, Walker’s reign had been mired in controversy.
Last June, she was ordered by Internal Affairs Minister Varney Sirleaf to reinstate dismissed chiefs who had been laid off because, according to her, they were members of the former ruling Unity Party, in Bong County. She immediately replaced them with partisans of the NPP.
Taylor’s influence in Bong, which was the main base of Charles Taylor’s NPP movement, remains strong. The party was formed in the county in 1992 during the de facto National Patriotic Reconstruction Assembly Government (NPRAG) of former President Taylor.
For Walker, the suspension could mean two things – a chance for the administration to buy time as it ponders her permanent fate with implications for the president and what it means for the relationship between President Weah and his Vice President and what it means for the ruling coalition and the rapidly growing fragility of the NPP factor in the coalition.
More importantly, as the investigation into the leaked audio gets underway, some political observers fear Walker’s fate has already been sealed owing to her indictment by Information minister Nagbe who has already labeled her a “liar” and a “gossiper”.
The recording obtained by FrontPageAfrica this week, centers around President Weah’s reported displeasure over the bestowment of the nation’s highest traditional honor on his Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor – a ceremony that led to the dismissal of the county’s Dakpanah (heads of chiefs in the country).
Chief Moses Suakollie, the Dakpanah, and Arthur Kulah, native superintendent in Bong County (head of chiefs in Bong County) lost their jobs, following a high-level traditional meeting headed by Assistant Minister of Culture at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Joseph B. Jangar, and Chief Zanzar Karwor, chair of the chiefs and elders of the National Traditional Council of Liberia in the county.
On the audio, Madam Walker suggests that the President was likely to dismiss a few traditional leaders over the row.
The Bong County Superintendent is heard explaining to her aides that she had attended a party organized by First Lady Clar Weah after President Weah delivered his second Annual Message. According to her, it was at the President’s Jamaica Resort, along the Roberts International Airport highway, at least three of Pres. Weah’s trusted lieutenants – Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah and Minister of State Nathaniel McGill.
Who’s Telling the Truth?
The Weah administration’s only response so far has come in piecemeal from Minister Nagbe, his deputy, Eugene Fahngon and a handful of other officials making posts on Facebook expressing denial and slamming the superintendent.
One official, Mr. Boima J.V. Boimah, Deputy Director for Rural Broadcasting at the Liberia Broadcasting System posting that the Superintendent made her own recording and sent it to FrontPageAfrica.
On Friday, however, Mr. Josephus Dormeyan, the man whose name is mentioned repeatedly by the suspended superintendent acknowledged to FrontPageAfrica that the discussion did take place, but not necessarily between him and his boss, the superintendent.
Dormeyan, who is the Administrative Assistant to Superintendent Walker, said the conversation was done last week when Madam Walker returned from Monrovia, where she had gone to attend the President’s second Annual Message.
Mr. Dormeyan further explained that he had gone to see his boss and upon entering her office, he met few gentlemen there whom he said work in Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor’s office.
“I went and met them already in their discussion in her office. I just stood there and listened to her,” he stated. He added, however, that at no time did he set out to go to her so that they could have a discussion.
Dormeyan said, the conversation was between four persons, Jefferson Gbaryan, head of the County Service Center, Amos Barbu, office coordinator of Jewel Howard-Taylor, Victor Flomo, a supporter of Vice President Taylor and the Superintendent’s protocol officer.
Dormeyan said he is shocked at how the recording has gone viral. “When I listened to the recording, I felt bad. But I swear to my children, I didn’t record my boss,” Mr. Dormeyan said.