Bong County – During the 2017 General and Presidential elections, Bong County voted overwhelmingly for the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), which helped to propel the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) to the presidency, but in 2023 the story changed as the party struggled in Bong County, finishing neck and neck with the Unity Party (UP).
By Selma Lomax, [email protected]
Several factors led to the struggle by the CDC in Bong County, including the marginalization of Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor over the six years and the action by Representative of District #3 Josiah Marvin Cole who acted like a political demigod in the county, beating health workers and other individuals perceived to be against the CDC.
The people of Bong County in 2017 had the belief that their daughter, Jewel, becoming a vice president could mean a lot to the county in terms of development, providing jobs opportunities for qualified citizens of the County among other political dividends.
Surprisingly, the six year regime of the CDC proved quite contrary to the aspirations of the people of Bong County as Vice President Taylor herself became a mere spectator during the entire regime.
With the exception of one notable appointment at the Ministry of Health of a relative to the Vice President and the appointment of Dr. Mogana Flomo, Jr as Agriculture Minister, Bong County was sidelined with President Weah and his CDC officials cutting cards.
President George Weah filled the government with his kinsmen from the Southeastern part of the country, not reaching out his vice president on major appointments in government.
Although the Constitution gives the President the exclusive right to appoint officials of the Executive Branch of Government but as the president and the vice president are elected together, it is only good leadership for a president to at least confer with his vice president at times.
At some point during the CDC regime, it was reported that President Weah was at odds with his Vice President to the extend that they were said not to be speaking. Close aides to the Vice President even confirmed that at some point, the office of the Vice President went without receiving its allotment and barely struggled for gasoline to keep the second most powerful politician in the country convoy functional.
The Office of the Vice President during the regime of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had a bus to commute staffers in the office of the Vice President to work but during the entire six years of President Weah, the Office of Vice President Taylor did not have vehicle to commute staffers to work.
Vice President Taylor was treated like an outsider to the regime as the CDC even played a major role in fermenting confusion within the vice president’s National Patriotic Party (NPP) only to make her powerless.
Vice President Taylor was marginalized to the extend that she was unable to make any meaningful contribution through tangible projects in Bong County during the entire six years.
The negative treatment of Vice President Taylor led to widespread rumour that President Weah was not contemplating maintaining her as his running mate during the just ended 2023 presidential elections.
But with few months to the elections, President Weah and the CDC started to play a smart game by making the vice president to feel comfortable but it was little too late for Howard-Taylor to salvage her long standing relationship with the people of Bong County.
Comparing the impact of Vice President Taylor to that of Jeremiah Koung, a sitting Senator who was chosen as running-mate by President-elect Joseph Boakai, it was a huge task to convince the people of Bong County that they still needed the position of a vice president.
Even while Koung was a Representative, he constructed a modern hospital and turned the facility over to the Government of Liberia and that facility is today one of the fully functional medical facilities in Nimba County.
This is why selling the Boakai-Koung ticket in Nimba County was such a very easy task based on the track record of Koung in terms of development and impact in Nimba County.
The outcome was the massive turnout by the people of Nimba County to vote the Boakai-Koung ticket. The CDC missed the opportunity to make Bong County like counties in the southeast, where the people will remain loyal to the party because of their daughter Jewel been a vice president. While it appears a bitter pill to swallow, the people of Bong County had no choice allowing a daughter to leave the second most powerful position because the people did not simply feel the impact of the position.
Although during the campaign process Vice President Taylor heavily campaigned in Bong County which led to the CDC topping the Unity Party in the first and second rounds of voting, but the margin was not comparable to that of the 2017 general and presidential elections.
Demigod Cole antics
During the six years of the CDC regime, Representative J. Marvin Cole of Bong County acted like a superman in the county, controlling everything and creating more enemies for himself and the CDC.
The lawmaker used his closeness to President Weah to orchestrate and perpetrate violence against peaceful citizens of the county, behaving like untouchable.
Lawmaker Cole paraded Bong County treating citizens like they are nothing, sometimes ordering the flogging of peaceful citizens who disagreed with him on issues.
The lawmaker took complete control of several government entities, including CARI, C. B. Dunbar Hospital, and the Bong County Technical College, making all the decisions at these institutions, and in the same way exerted control over other government institutions in the county, including the County Health team, among others.
Although Representative Cole was able to use the trucking method where voters were removed from some part of the country to another part for some form of inducement to get re-elected but his numerous actions in Bong County affected the CDC in the county.
The CDC has itself to blame for the treatment meted against Vice President Taylor which triggered to the votes obtained by the party in the county.
Even the late show by Jewel to campaign vigorously for the CDC could not help to change the minds of the people over what they saw during six years.
The CDC was its own enemy in the Bong County with the ill-treatment of Vice President Taylor and the ill-treatment to citizens of the county by Rep. Cole.