Monrovia – Prince Y. Johnson is known for many characteristics in Liberia: a merciless rebel leader, a politician and a clergyman.
Report by Lennart Dodoo – [email protected]
To some, he’s the liberator, the godfather, a Senator, a preacher man; but to others, he bears the traits of a murderer and a trickster.
“I think when Senator Johnson spoke his statements were taken out of context.”
“Senator Johnson did not endorse anybody, what he did that day was a declaration of intent which it’s different from declaration of support that in the future he might intend to support an indigenous person.
He has always supported the idea of indigenous President.
You can be assured he will be on the ballot and go into run-up election, he’s going to be an extremely formidable candidate.” – Wilfred Bangura, MDR Secretary General
But as politicking taking the central stage as elections draw closer, PYJ – as he’s affectionately called – is arguably a major decider of who becomes the next President of Africa’s oldest republic.
PYJ is already ‘sitting nicely on his peerage’ and some say he’s got the keys to Nimba County – Liberia’s second most populated county with a ghostly trace of the country’s civil war.
In fact, it is the civil war and PYJ’s revolution, some argue, brought relief to the oppressed Nimbaians from the tyranny of slain President Samuel K. Doe.
Johnson, a perceived liberator, is still savoring his ‘heroics’ as seen in the eyes of his kinsmen.
The people of Nimba County assume they owe him a debt of gratitude and are willing to walk down the political lane with him, evident by his two successes in the Senatorial elections as well as his surprising performance in the 2011 Presidential elections.
This is why he’s been labeled a political ‘godfather of the county’.
Make no mistake PYJ is a force to reckon despite his villainous starring role in Liberia’s ugly past.
From a fierce indiscriminate warlord, Johnson presented himself to Liberians, especially the people of Nimba as a clergyman, though he never showed remorse for any of his actions during the war. He opted to represent his county at the Liberian Senate in 2005 special elections.
His victory was overwhelming – accumulating 81,820 votes, while the runner-up, Saye-Taayor Adolphus Dolo, only managed 42,229 and had to settle as a junior Senator.
Having tested the waters, PYJ in 2011 aimed higher – this time aspiring for the nation’s highest seat. Many took this quest for granted, brushing aside what later became a major threat to many well-established candidates including then incumbent, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Perhaps, JYJ garnered the ambition from how his support to President Johnson-Sirleaf in the second round of the 2005 elections turned the table around – bringing her from the second place in the first round when soccer legend George Weah was leading with an 8.5 percent difference.
Having clinched his seat as an incoming Senator, the Nimba native threw his support behind Johnson-Sirleaf and though Weah was extolled favorite in the first round, the soccer legend defeat in the second was a resounding one – losing to Johnson-Sirleaf with an 18.8% margin.
In Nimba County, Johnson-Sirleaf got 77 percent of the votes during the run-off in 2005 compared to Weah’s 22 percent. Interesting, before PYJ declared his support to Sirleaf in the second round, she did not even come third in Nimba during the first round in the county.
It was Weah who topped Nimba in the first round with 28.3%, followed by Joseph Korto, 21.9% and Varney Sherman secured a third place in the county with 14.6 percent. Johnson-Sirleaf was never a favorite for the Nimbaians.
With the Nimba County’s run-off results favoring Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, supporters of Weah felt cheated since they could not comprehend how politics interplayed and the influence of the ‘PYJ factor’.
A conspiracy theory about the election results was tampered with after the run-off cast a dark shadow over the country until several interventions prompted Weah’s acceptance of the result after national and international observers declared that the election was free, fair and transparent.
The support of Senator Johnson and Korto, among others, did the magic for Johnson-Sirleaf.
In 2011 PYJ decided to take the bull by the horn. He felt his popularity in the county and the numbers thereof could have catapulted him to the Presidency or perhaps he was just testing his political might.
Astonishingly, he emerged third in the first round – winning a spot, many say, should have been Liberty Party’s Charles Walker Brumskine’s.
Brumskine, who was third in the 2005 elections, had to settle for fourth in 2011.Pundits say that defeat was a political retrogression and it forced Cllr. Brumskine to a political sabbatical.
Fast forward to 2016 and Senator Johnson was again pulling the strings to test his popularity amongst the opposition politicians ahead of this year’s crucial elections.
He doctored the Ganta Declaration in September last year after he hosted 12 political parties from the opposition bloc in Ganta, Nimba County. PYJ had a proposal even he himself knew was impossible.
The ‘Ganta Declaration’ called for unity amongst opposition politicians and parties in order to form a formidable force to defeat the ruling Unity Party.
This formidable force which was still knitting at the time was a course for the ruling party to be uneasy in the upcoming election, but alas, it fell apart in its very embryonic stage – Johnson could not hold it together and some accused him of flip-flopping, other labeled him as a sell-out.
Politically Unstable
In late January this year, Senator Johnson graced the occasion marking the opening of the new headquarters of Liberty Party.
At the event, he told supporters of the party that his presence was an indication he “believes in collaboration and people of like minds”.
“I invited them to Nimba; I’m here in the spirit of the Ganta declaration,” the Nimba Senator said while condemning the leadership of President Sirleaf.
“In the 12th year of this administration, the leader of this regime Ellen Johnson Sirleaf admitted that she has blatantly failed in the war against corruption.”
“With the vampire corruption, there is nothing left to empower you, we want all opposition to unite and get the Unity Party (UP) out.”
When Senator Johnson spoke at the LP event, Cllr. Brumskine and his partisans were breathing a hope of relief and were optimistic that the Nimba County lawmaker will strengthen the party’s geo-political chances ahead of these elections.
“We want all opposition to get UP out,” Senator Johnson shouted amid thunderous applauds from LP partisans.
“Madam Sirleaf and Joseph Boakai are politically married on one ticket when one is going the other must follow. They got nothing to offer you in this country, they cannot reconcile Liberia she has said so.”
As the Senator concluded his statement and left, the joyous crowd chanted his name “PYJ, PYJ.” But that suppose feat or ‘political catch’ was short lived, PYJ was once again up for grabs.
Two days after boosting the morale of Liberty Party he declared during one of his sermons at his Church that his visitation at the LP headquarters does not in away mean he supports the party.
This came as a shock to the supporters of Liberty Party, for some, it was a stab in the back.
But Johnson’s U-turn on Liberty Party was not more puzzling like the outcome of the merger between his Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), the Benoni Urey’s All Liberian Party (ALP) and Nathaniel Blama of the Liberia National Union (LINU).
The controversial merger was reached without a common ground on who becomes the leader of the coalition. Of course, the major options were Johnson and Urey, but both felt they were elephant enough to lead.
Sen. Johnson told FrontPageAfrica in a telephone interview right after the merger was consummated: “I must go first.
Mr. Urey has no political experience, so I can’t go under him. I have contested elections. I contested the Senatorial elections twice and won.
Two days before signing the declaration of intent, Sen. Johnson told FrontPageAfrica he had no idea of any plan to merge with the ALP as he, being a native, could not subject himself to a non-native like Urey.
“I’ve been receiving calls that I have agreed to go under Benoni Urey to be his running mate; for god sake, I am one of the key indigenous sons and continues to preach indigenous leadership as opposed to minority leadership.
For one hundred and some years, we have always cooperated with them.
“They are in leadership and they’re always taking country boys to be VP to them.
“But I think it is about time we compromise, we politically reconcile so that they can be seen under a country boy, then I would know that Liberia is moving on the right trajectory,” he said.
However, his somersaulting and initial stance on the merger with Urey, Sen. Johnson said the other parties in the coalition took the “document” to him and after he reviewed the document, he agreed with the vision and decided to affix his signature.
“I am the father of the coalition. I was the one that brought 12 political parties together in Ganta for the purpose of the coalition. So I’m ready to form a coalition with any opposition political party,” he said.
He, however, said even as the Joint Technical Committee is working out modalities for the convention, he must be first on the ticket.
“I have the numbers. Mr. Urey may have money, but I have the numbers. If he means well for this country then he must act like Jewel Howard Taylor.
She’s more educated than Weah, she’s more experienced than Weah, but she humbled herself to go under Weah.
“Mr. Weah and I are the two most popular people in this country so how do you expect me to go under somebody?”
A fortnight ago, LINU withdrew from the so-called coalition, terming Johnson’s attitude towards the merger as “betrayal of confidence”.
“The technical working committee had not concluded its work and Senator Johnson was crying to be standard bearer, that alone undermined the workings of the technical committee,” Nathaniel Blama, head of the LINU told journalists at a press conference in Monrovia.
A Try of Luck With Up
Upon his return from Nigeria recently, Johnson said he could not have under any circumstance supported Urey who he said forms part of the ‘minority’ bloc that has ruled the country for over one and a half centuries.
Then he flipped, this time, eyeing Vice President Joseph Bokai’s ticket with the ‘Congou and Native politics’ play. Johnson claims he regards Boakai as an elder amongst the natives whom he claims constitute the majority in the country.
His pronouncement left the impression that he was backing off the race in order to avoid creating any hindrance to Boakai’s candidacy.
PYJ said during his press conference upon his return from Nigeria, “I can never look at a ‘country-man’, a ‘majority’ and go against him because when the man of God was telling me the road is open go, I said no. I am a native and a majority, the old man, too, is a majority; I don’t want to challenge him for the vote to divide,” said Senator Johnson at the same time prophet T.B. Joshua of the Synagogue Church upon whose invitation he made his trip to Nigeria had hinted him that the way was clear to win the elections.
According to Johnson, he was instructed by the renowned preacher to work along with Boakai to ensure victory.
By that assertion, political pundits deduced he was aiming to become the running mate to the UP standard bearer.
It appears Johnson is playing smart as he holds his trump-card close to his chest and seems optimistic that throwing a hint of support for his ‘fellow native’ in VP Boakai and based on his popularity amongst the people of vote-rich Nimba, it would have earned him the UP vice standard bearership – a try of luck which never succeeds.
Flipped Back to Status Quo
Over the weekend, the Secretary-General of Johnson’s political party, Wilfred Bangura, called a press conference announcing that PJY will contest the election as the front-runner of his party.
According to Bangura, PYJ’s assertion about Boakai was totally taken out of context by the media.
“I think when Senator Johnson spoke his statements were taken out of context.
Senator Johnson did not endorse anybody, what he did that day was a declaration of intent which is different from declaration of support that in the future he might intend to support an indigenous person.
He has always supported the idea of indigenous President. You can be assured, he will be on the ballot and go into run-up election, he’s going to be an extremely formidable candidate,” Bangura told journalists.
Senator Johnson’s unstable political affiliation, political pundits believe, is an indication that he has perhaps acknowledged his failing Presidential bid.
But with eagerness of coming closer to power, he’s undoubtedly a narcissistic kingmaker with an eye on the vice Presidency.
The Problem With Liberia’s Elections
There are two formidable individuals in Liberian politics that might not attain the Presidency – yet they have the power to determine who the next President would be: the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) George M. Weah, a soccer legend, and Senator Johnson.
Weah, for instance, has a stronghold of more voters in Montserrado County – the most populated county with the most registered voters in the country.
Like Prince Johnson in Nimba County, arguably, Weah cannot perform beyond Montserrrado County but might make it to a run-off election.
The past two elections have exposed Weah’s weaknesses, and unless he gets the backing of Prince Johnson in the run-off, that is, if he succeeds in making it among the first two.
But should PYJ, who will likely not make it among the first two after the first round, supports Boakai, Brumskine or whosoever, the people of Nimba are most likely to cast their vote for that candidate.
Take it or leave it, the impending Presidential election has PYJ writing all over it and his influential political interplays will be a factor.
Like America’s Electoral College, PYJ remains the ultimate kingmaker, but will he ever come very close to the seat of the Presidency?
Perhaps, it is the answer that keeps him perplexed and politically unstable.