Monrovia – When President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was pressed in a 2016 FrontPageAfrica interview whether she would be willing to step down a year before the completion of her presidency to give her vice president Joseph Boakai a chance at proving himself in the role, she did not hesitate in delivering a somewhat fiery response: “Not a chance”.
President Sirleaf explained that she would be willing to support her Vice President in all his endeavors; according to what he wants, how he sets his program to become President.
“I will give him the fullest support but he will get it the same way I got it. Anybody who gets it will get it the same way I got it.”
“They will go and they will campaign for it and they will fight for it, they will set their target and they will get it and besides it is very important for Liberia’s political maturity for us to have a peaceful transition for the first time in three decades, it is very important for us and I will not deny the country that, by not staying on.”
Only five Vice Presidents — James Skivring Smith, Alfred Francis Russell, William D. Coleman, William R. Tolbert, and Moses Blah – in Liberia’s history have ascended to the presidency, either due to the President’s death, resignation, or removal from office.
Sirleaf’s road to the Presidency took 40 years in the making that included several battles with the establishments of late President William R. Tolbert, Samuel K. Doe and Charles G. Taylor.
New York Times Journalist and author Helene Cooper explores some of those battles in her upcoming book, Madame President, which hit the bookshelves, March 7.
As far back as the 1970s, Sirleaf’s resistance and fighting spirit was evident since her first public speech, at her Alma Mater, The College of West Africa in November 1972 where she used a commencement address to hit home on kleptocracy in the Tolbert government.
Under Doe, she refused to take up a Senate seat she had won because she believed the elections were rigged.
She was imprisoned twice and narrowly avoided execution.
Following the 1985 elections she openly criticized the military government which led to her arrest and a 10-year prison sentence.
She was later released after a short time and allowed to leave the country.
Although she has admitted and acknowledged as a misjudgment, her efforts in raisingUS $10,000 to support Charles Taylor’s rebel movement which launched a military incursion to oust Doe in December 1989, she later became critical of the Taylor.
Years later she would lose to Taylor in the elections of 1997, winning a mere 9.5 per cent of the vote as Taylor swept his way to a landslide 75 per cent victory.
Nearly a decade later, she would finally win the presidency that had eluded her political life, becoming the first woman head of state in Liberia and the continent of Africa.
Her forty-year political battle had garnered her a fighting persona that evolved over time, a nickname previously bestowed on late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady.
President Johnson-Sirleaf was suddenly in good company.
The Iron Lady persona had come at an opportune time for Thatcher in 1976 when she delivered a fiery foreign policy speech in which she slammed the Soviet Union, earning her the nickname Iron Lady.
The name has since become a metaphor for strong-willed female politicians.
Today, many remain perplexed about Sirleaf’s position over her perceived lack of support for her vice president.
Although she has repeatedly said Boakai, who has been a loyal and trusted number two for the past eleven years is her preferred choice, the vice president and his supporters are feeling otherwise.
“I know what she’s not doing for the Unity Party, but the people probably know what she’s doing for other parties.”
“We’re asking her – the Unity Party is her party, it’s the party that would bear her legacy and she ought to be supporting it,” Boakai told FrontPageAfrica in an interview this week.
Boakai’s assertions come just days after Harrison Karnweah, a prominent son of Nimba and head of the Forestry Development Authority, who was high on his list of choice for Vice President in the upcoming Presidential elections, crossed over to the opposition Liberty Party.
The defection has dealt Boakai a major blow and generated a lot of dissent within the ruling Unity Party where partisans are becoming increasingly nervous about their chances in the upcoming presidential elections.
The Bassa-Nimba factor appears to be causing some jitters within the UP and other political parties with reports emerging that Charles Walker Brumskine is leaning toward Karnwea as his veep.
Boakai’s nervousness is evident over his expressed fears about the impact of Karnwea’s potential teaming up with Charles Walker Brumskine, the political leader of the LP.
“I am not the one saying that President Sirleaf fully supports Brumskine. The people are reading the signs and they’re saying that.
“Whether she’s supporting Brumskine wholly and solely I don’t know. The people who are reading the signs are saying ‘This is what we see.’
They have spoken to it publicly, she has heard it.”
Boakai is also causing jitters among his supporters after losing two legislative by-elections in his hometown, Lofa County which is supposed to be his stronghold.
Although he did not officially endorse a candidate in the 2015 District #2 by-elections won by Julie Wiah who ran as an independent, critics frowned on Boakai for failing to use the elections to show his strength.
Augustine Boakai Lansana, the Unity Party candidate in that election lost.
Two years later, by-elections aimed at replacing the late Eugene Fallah Kparkar in District #1 appears to have also been lost by the ruling party, dealing yet another blow to Boakai.
Francis Sakila Nyumahn Sr. of the Union of Liberia Democrats appears to be on his way to edging the nine candidates vying for the seat with William Saah Kettor, the ruling UP candidate set to lose. Even the opposition Liberty Party which held the seat via the late Fallah Kparkar is unlikely to maintain the vacancy.
More importantly, the response from the President’s office suggest Boakai’s concerns may be more than the political advantage the opposition Liberty Party may be garnering.
The President’s office, in a statement Wednesday hinted that Boakai’s aides may be worried that she is not providing financial support to his bid.
“President Sirleaf is clear that it is not only money but clear and well defined strategies that will lead to victory for the Vice President and the Unity Party.
Therefore, the focus of some partisans on money cannot be the magic wand for getting votes.
She urges all with interest in the party to remain focused on the political goals ahead of the party and the Vice President.”
Strains between Presidents and Vice Presidents are rare in Africa but seldom in Africa’s oldest republic.
In next door Sierra Leone, a political crisis in 2015 erupted when President Ernest Bai Koroma fired his Vice President Sam-Sumana without parliamentary approval.
Sumana was disbarred from the ruling All People’s Congress(APC) amid accusations that he was fomenting “chaos” and trying to form a new party.
President Koroma, citing a constitutional requirement that anyone running for Vice President be a member of a political party, expelled Sumana from the governing ALP.
The party statement made several accusations against Sumana including that he was instigating unrest.
In Liberia, the most notable involved President Tubman and the late Clarence Simpson Sr.
Simpson was a major political force in the mid-1900s. Prior to becoming Secretary of State, he had served as Post Master General and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1931–1934.
His influence made him one of six candidates in line to replace President Edwin Barclay whose term ended in January 1944.
Although he eventually lost to William V.S. Tubman, Tubman selected him to serve as vice president from 1944–1952.
Tubman, a non-Monrovia or Rock boy as was called those days from Maryland County was seen as humble and controllable.
Barclay would later become surprise that Tubman became a hard-headed man who used his influence to have the constitution changed from two terms to a non-term limit or as long as the Liberian people needed you to serve them as their President.
Barclay and other Monrovia boys including the late David Coleman formed what was known as the independent True Whig Party to oppose Tubman in 1955.
Tubman marginalized Barclay and his Monrovia boys including David Coleman who was killed along with his young son John Coleman who has just return from the United States as a young Engineer.
The strains between Tubman and Simpson heightened.
Tubman fearing that Simpson was a bit ambitious reportedly orchestrated a high-profile political lynching of Simpson, linking the respected statesman to the killing of the famous Madame Korlu.
Although Simpson denied the charges, it ruined his political ambition. Some older Liberians believed that the Madame Korlu case was designed by Tubman and his security team. Simpson was also accused of being behind a solidarity youth movement holding Tubman’s feet to the fire.
Tubman’s biggest fear was that Simpson had his eyes on the presidency. Members of the True Whig Party met in caucus and supported by President Edwin Barclay selected William V. S. Tubman. As a compromised, Clarence Simpson became the Vice Standard Bearer to William V. S. Tubman.
W.V.S. Tubman knew that his first Vice President, Simpson was very ambitious, selected a new replacement, Ben Freeman from Careysburg, Montserrado County who died before he was inaugurated or took the oath of office.
Tubman selected Tolbert, who many Liberian felt was not ambitious. Some Liberians believed at that time Tubman did not want Simpson around and sent him out of the country as Ambassador to the Court of St. James-London, England; Ambassador to the United States, Washington, D.C.
Throughout Liberia’s history, Presidents have been known to tip less-ambitious personalities as running mates or successors.
This was clearly evident in 1977 when late President William R. Tolbert who succeeded Tubman tipped the low-key Bennie Warner as his Vice President, shocking a nation that became puzzled by the choice of a bishop of the United Methodist Church who was politically unknown.
The choice also marked the first time that Liberia had two religious leaders as heads of the state.
The choice at the time was seen as a strong attempt by Tolbert to appease the indigenous community. Bishop Warner’s father was Charlie Zeonbartaye, a Bassa and his mother, Eli Nboramba, from Namibia.
The choice made Warner only the second indigenous Vice President following Henry Too Wesley (1924-28) who was born from Grebo parents in Maryland County.
Wesley was a lawyer who served as a member of the Senate prior to being elected to the office of vice-president and was second of three Vice Presidents of President Charles D.B. King. To this day, historians are perplexed as to Why President King drop Too Wesley for Allen N. Yancy in 1928.
Warner’s father was a seaman who went to Namibia on a vessel like most Liberians who worked on vessels that took them to some African countries, Europe and America. His father adopted the Warner name from the late Beck Warner, daughter of president Daniel B. Warner.
Boakai, who has been a trusted and loyal lieutenant to Sirleaf in the past eleven years finds himself in a rather complicated dilemma, forced to go public over what his supporters say are valid concerns that Sirleaf is not one hundred percent behind his candidacy.
In an earlier interview in 2015, Sirleaf envisioned both she and Boakai sailing into the sunset when her term expires in 2017.
“Joe Boakai and I have stuck together. We stuck together for the first term, we’re sticking together again for the second term.
“We hope that God will give us the second term and he and I will retire together.”
“We will both leave public office and turn it over to the young people and go and rest ourselves. He will be with me right to the end.”
It is clear now that Boakai who has already been ordained by the ruling party as its standard bearer has his own ambitions for the presidency but having stood on the sidelines over the past years with humility, he appears to have reached his breaking point; but at what cost?
Political observers say, despite her domestic woes, Sirleaf still commands a great of influence in the West African sub-region which could prove pivotal to whoever emerges in the driver’s seat of her succession line.
But most importantly, Boakai, like the nearly two dozen candidates eyeing the presidency, is struggling financially to jumpstart their campaigns into gear. Sirleaf’s perceived lukewarm approach is being viewed by the VP camp on financial terms.
Insiders from both camps acknowledge the strains which have been building up for quite some time now are becoming visible by the day.
Pres. Sirleaf aides have quietly confided to FrontPageAfrica that the VP may be misguided by some of his supporters into not taking suggestions from the presidency.
In contrast, VP aides are also quietly saying that presidential aides are trying to shove impossible propositions at Boakai’s doorsteps.
On the sidelines are political observers and pundits weighing the pros and cons of Sirleaf’s demand that Boakai fight for the presidency as she did.
Comparisons are also being tied to Zambia, where the late President Federick Chiluba anointed his former vice president, Levy Mwanawasa, as his successor. Chiluba was caught in his tracks when his anointed vice president’s administration prosecuted him.
Given the history of President Barclay and Tubman and President Chiluba of Zambia and his anointed vice president, UP insiders appear wary about a similar play in a post-Sirleaf presidency.
Some closed aides and friends of President Sirleaf are said to be concerned that this could happen to President Sirleaf because of some of the anti-Sirleaf groups or men that are supporting VP Boakai. They believe these men could influence VP Boakai to carry on which-hunt.
In an election year bordering the abnormalities of stratospheric proportions, concessions are in short supply as virtually all of the political parties appear to harbor the belief that they can win the presidency on their own.
But like 2005, the 2017 field is still a wide open one entrenched with a lot of intricacies and complications as strains previously shunned as rumors and hear-says have finally come to the public glare and on the verge of a breaking point, amid an emerging state of political uncertainty.
Rabbi Prince Joseph Tomoonh-Garlodeyh Gbaba, Sr., Ed. D.