Monrovia – Some members of the ruling Unity Party (UP) are troubled by the lukewarm posture of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf towards the Presidential ambition of Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai.
Report by Lennart Dodoo – [email protected]
“We told her Madam, we want to know where we stand; she said, well, whoever wins the election I’ll provide my support to that person.
I’ll be coming here to tell you people to support that person just like you people supported me.”
The President, in their view, has not demonstrated much support to strengthen and pave the way for Boakai who has served her as Vice President for the past 11 years.
Her stance on whom she supports came under questioning recently when Harrison Karnwea, former Internal Affairs Minister and current Managing Director of Forestry Development Authority (FDA), who used to be a staunch member of UP, resigned from the party, yet maintaining his position at the FDA, though he has joined the opposition Liberty Party.
Members of the party expected the President to immediately dismiss him, but that is yet to happen.
Recently, UP Legislative Caucus member, Worlea Saywah Dunah demanded Karnwea’s resignation.
In a revelation to FrontPage Africa, a member of the ruling party residing in Nimba County where the President recently visited lamented that President Sirleaf shunned several attempts to host her in an all UP meeting on the upcoming elections.
“We received some T-shirts from old man James Davis that the Madam will be coming and that we should identify with her anywhere she goes to make some offer.”
“We intended to convene a meeting with her after she completed the first phase on Sanniquellie highway at the Methodist conference.
“In the evening when she had come to rest, we decided to have a meeting with her and she told us she did not come to meet with a particular political party and that she’s not for one person this time around.”
According to the UP partisan who asked for anonymity, a second attempt to hold discussion with the President when she visited Bahn to dedicate a town hall proved futile.
“We the Unity Party people, we tried to coerce her at all level so that she can identify with us so we tried to gown her. Our county chair spoke and ended in his speech that Madam we want to know where we stand, so she said, well, whoever wins the elections, I’ll provide my support to that person.”
“I will be coming here to tell all of you to support that person just like how you people have supported me for the length of time that I’ve served you people,” our source said.
According to him, by interpretation, they believe President Sirleaf is not supporting any particular candidate in the upcoming elections.
Unity Party Chairman, Wilmot Paye, confirmed to FrontPage Africa that he had received such complaint of the President’s attitude towards her partisans in the county.
He, however, said “The President does not have the key to the presidency in her hands so she can say whatever she wants to say and the people will vote who they want to vote so that has nothing do with what happens in October.”
Paye recalled that last year President Sirleaf told the party’s executives in executive committee meeting that she was passing the torch over to her Vice President.
“If this same President who had said before that she supports her Vice President as the anointed successor, can come now to say that she would support whoever, then I think you should throw the question to her. Since only she can change her position, maybe she’s changing her position but that is not going to affect the party in any way.
He maintained that Unity Party has a standard bearer, a party leadership and a population that is yearning for the kind of leadership that Joseph Boakai has the quality to provide.
Paye, however, stated that the President’s undecided stance is not a big issue for the Unity Party as it has its strategies in place and relying on the integrity of the Vice President.