MONROVIA – There have been no shortage of denials and explanations since a leaked audio recording suggested that President George Manneh Weah was unhappy 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).
Report by Rodney D. Sieh,
Recently, Chief Moses Suakollie, the Dakpanah, and Arthur Kulah, native superintendent in Bong County (head of chiefs in Bong County) lost their jobs, after a high-level traditional meeting headed by Assistant Minister of Culture at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Joseph B. Jangar, and Chief Zanzar
Bong County Superintendent Esther Walker has been suspended indefinitely after she was heard on the audio recording explaining that the President was likely to dismiss a few traditional leaders over the row.
Madam Walker 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, where at least three of Pres. Weah’s trusted lieutenants – Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah and Minister of State Nathaniel McGill were seated.
Denials, Denials
Her suspension was preceded by a Facebook posting from the government’s Chief spokesman, Information Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe who cautioned that the superintendent’s days were numbered. “Bong County will soon have a new superintendent. Since you want to be a lying gossiper, we will send you back to your “puppet-master,” the minister wrote.
Hours later, a statement from the Executive Mansion announced the superintendent’s suspension. “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 turn over all government properties in her possession,” the statement from the President’s office noted.
In the wake of the fallout from the recording, several of those named by the Superintendent have come out with swinging denials.
Chief Zanzan Karwo, head of the National Traditional Council of Liberia, was one of the first to deny being present at President George Weah’s Jamaica Lodge where it is alleged that he was blasted by the President for allowing the Dakpanah of Bong County to bestow the county’s highest traditional honor on Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor instead of him.
The Chief explained at the weekend that since he was born or became a chief, he has never set foot at the lodge called Jamaica. “I became Chief Zanzan… I lived in Monrovia, that Jamaica [Lodge] that they are talking about every day, I’ve not entered there before. Since they built that place, I’ve not gone there, I don’t know whether there’s house there or not. I’ve not sat with the President or even [Nathaniel] McGill or [Jefferson] Koijee,” he said in an interview with reporters.
Superintendent Walker is heard on the audio leaked to FrontPageAfrica, that she was confronted by Minister of State Nathaniel McGill and the Minister of Finance, Samuel Tweah, at Jamaica Lodge during the party after President Weah delivered his second Annual Message, over the traditional recognition given to the Vice President in the county.
In the recording, she is heard saying that Pres. Weah initially accused the Chief Zanzan of bestowing the honor on the Vice President.
According to her, Chief Karwor had told President Weah that he was unaware of the ceremony which was organized by the Dakpanah.
She further narrated that Chief Karwor reminded the President it was his decision that Chief Moses Suakollie be coronated as Dakpanah. At that point, according to her explanation, Pres. Weah gave the order for Chief Suakollie to be dethroned as Dakpanah.
“Samuel Tweah turned to me and said ‘If I hear that you carried news to Gbarnga that we’re coming to dismiss people you’ll see that we’ll do… They started giving Zanzan instructions. The President [was] sitting down looking. When Zanzan turned to the President, he said listen to those people. The people giving you instruction, listen to them.”
However, in his reaction, Chief Zanzan said he has never met with President Weah over the issue neither has he had any conversation with Minister McGill of Koijee over the matter.
He said he was never instructed by the President to remove the Dakpanah in Bong County. He added that an individual cannot unilaterally removed a Dakpanah as it has to do with deep tradition.
Chief Zanzan also denied being knowledgeable of the decision to bestow any traditional honor on the Vice President. According to him, he was never present at the ceremony, neither did any attend any meeting leading to the ceremony. He also said, he cannot confirm whether the Dakpanah title was conferred on the Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor. “Dakpanah issue is a bush matter. They can’t take Dakpanah position and give it to a woman. Woman can’t maintain Dakpanah position,” he asserted.
City Mayor Jefferson T. Koijee, who is also mentioned on the recording has also come out expressing denial over the recording, declaring at the weekend that he is taken aback by the mentioning of his name in a leaked audio believed to be the voice of Bong County Superintendent, Walker.
Although the Mayor expressed shock that Madam Walker would mention in the recording that he was at the President’s Jamaica Lodge on the day President Weah delivered his second Annual Message, the actual recording does not.
The suspended Superintendent did say that President Weah is being influenced by Minister Tweah, Minister McGill and Mr. Koijee. Mr. Koijee however, categorically distanced himself from such assertion as his ill health couldn’t permit him to attend either the Annual Message ceremony at the Capitol or the after party at the Jamaica Lodge.
The Monrovia City Mayor has challenged the Bong County Superintendent to show any proof, audio, video or still image to prove that he was present at any of the ceremonies. “If she could give out such misinformation about my presence, then the integrity of the entire statement throughout the recording must be questioned,” the Mayor is quoted as saying.
Bong County Representative Marvin Cole also denied his involvement in an alleged conspiracy to overthrow President George Manneh Weah, terming the accusation as grave and has the potential to tarnish his reputation and poses imminent threat to his life, his family and associates.
He wrote in a statement: “Let me firstly, make it emphatically clear that these accusations are false, malicious, lacks any iota of truth; has the potential to turn away investors from our National environment and send a very bad signal of insecurity and mistrust in this Government. Considering these and other negative implications, I believe it is my duty to make clarity on this matter to our people.”
“Let me say without fear; that I harbor no desire or intention whatsoever, nor have I ever been a party with anyone or any persons in discussions of such matters; nor am I interested in doing anything negative which will be a stumbling block to this Government; breed disunity and animosity amongst officials of Government or act in any way to increase the suffering of our people. This new trend of lies, undermining, threats and bringing disrepute to others must stop.”
‘I Just Stood There and Listened’
Despite the denial, at least one person appears to suggest that some kind of conversation took place.
Mr. Josephus Dormeyan, the man whose name is mentioned repeatedly by the suspended superintendent acknowledged to FrontPageAfrica at the weekend 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.
The controversy has resurrected strains between President Weah and his Vice President, Howard- Taylor with many political observers fearing that Superintendent Walker’s suspension could dampen perceived long-running feud between President Weah and his vice president, Jewel Howard Taylor, particularly amid concerns over the puppet-master referenced by Minister Nagbe and who he was referring to.
Walker was 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.
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.
Walker’s Fate Up in the Air
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 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.
For the immediate future, the mystery surrounding the Dakpanah saga continues to linger with many pondering who may have secretly recorded the Superintendent. On both sides of the aisle, sympathizers and critics are still deciphering what to make of the recording and what the Superintendent said. Government officials say her narratives never happened while others are convinced that Madam Walker is being thrown under the bus while those named on the audio are still in their jobs.
For the foreseeable future, like many controversies before, no one knows how this latest investigation will play out. The key players for now appears to be standing by their story and an antsy nation awaiting a word from the suspended Superintendent.