Gbarnga, Bong County – Joe Boakai’s coming out party in the vote-rich Bong County is no coincidence. Several other political parties including Benoni Urey’s All Liberian Party have all made the rounds in the county in hopes of fortifying their bases ahead of the 2017 presidential elections.
Report by: Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
LIBERIA’S VICE PRESIDENT COUNTING ON A FRAGILE OPPOSITION, INCUMBENT BASES TO TAKE HIM OVER THE TOP
The Sirleaf’s administration’s meagre governance and anti-graft record coupled with a rather unfavourable domestic record has made the Vice President a prime target for his opponents.
Alex Cummings of the Alternative National Congress came through here and so has Mills Jones, the former Central Bank Governor now the face of Movement for Economic Empowerment (MOVEE) party; while football legend George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change have flirted with the county as has Liberty Party’s Charles Walker Brumskine.
It is the county that opened its arms to Charles Ghankay Taylor, the former President, who adopted the county as his stronghold at the height of the civil war and probably remains loyal to him to this day.
Perhaps it is for the simple matter of the county’s 328,919 population, enough to make it only the third-most populous county in Liberia; or the geographical convenience that it borders Boakai’s hometown, Lofa and the incumbent Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s hometown of Gbarpolu County to the North.
It is the county that in 2005 propelled Winston Tubman to political notoriety after he chose one of its sons, Jeremiah Sulunteh, then a Cuttington University Professor, as his running mate.
Tubman, at the time ran on the ticket of former President Samuel Doe’s National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL), and surprised many after placing fourth with 9.2% of the vote.
The ticket combined for 43, 348 for 42.2 percent of the vote for first place after the first round of voting.
Although Tubman finished fourth and did not make it to the second round, his choice of Sulunteh, a son of the county proved the vote-rich county still has a lot of stake in deciding the presidency.
Sirleaf went on to win the county in the second round, handsomely defeating football legend George Weah with 53,608 votes for 72.2 percent of the vote to 22,808 for 29 percent of the votes for Weah.
It is also no coincidence that some of the key figures being touted as running-mates to Boakai – Mr. Sulunteh and Dr. Henrique Tokpah hail from BongCounty.
In the last presidential elections in 2011, approximately 124, 422(72.6%) of the county’s 328, 919 population showed up at the polls in the first round and 65,963 (38.4%) showed up in the run-off won by the ruling Unity Party which won 52,949 votes for 83.5 percent in the second round to Tubman’s CDC with 10,499 for 16.5 percent.
So one can see why the county is considered a strategic target for potential suitors with eyes set on the presidency.
But picking a vice president from the county is not a guarantee shot at victory.
Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine tipped then Bong Senator Franklin Siakor as has his running in the 2011 Presidential elections but only managed 11, 404 votes for 10.1 percent.
This time around however, the stakes are even higher with several candidates vying for supremacy in the county still soft on Taylor.
Courting NPP, Boakai Faces Stern Dilemma
Regardless of who Boakai chooses, the Vice President could still face competition from Urey, who enjoys much of the Taylor base in the county.
Taylor’s National Patriotic Party still remains divided over where they will throw their weight.
Mr. Urey, not so long ago enjoyed a huge rally during the ALP’s convention in the county. But Urey himself is fighting off competition from Senator Jewel Howard Taylor. Her support could be crucial.
The former First Lady to Taylor still enjoys immense support in the county and is aggressively being courted by the likes of Mills Jones and Alexander Cummings.
Whichever way the former First Lady throws her support could make the difference between winning Bong and cementing one’s foot a step away and a heartbeat from the presidency.
For Boakai, the stakes have never been higher and so have the expectations.
The Sirleaf’s administration’s meagre governance and anti-graft record coupled with a rather unfavourable domestic record has made the Vice President a prime target for his opponents.
“The Liberian people do not even want us to maintain the status quo which Joe Boakai will probably, do,” says Brumskine, of the opposition Liberty Party, in a recent FrontPageAfrica interview.
“We must now move this country forward with someone who has a vision. Someone who has been tested and proven not to be an appointed official of government but one elected by his people and one who the people he represented still enjoy his trust and he still enjoys their trust. That is what moving forward is about.”
Urey of the ALP has up the ante, promising to unite Liberians while providing the basic essentials of life, including water, shelter, and electricity. He also promised to fight nepotism and corruption.
Brumskine who has been rumoured as a possible Boakai running mate is on record for dismissing the link. “Boakai is in a different class.
He is in the ruling party; we do not want to collaborate with the ruling party. We need to beat the ruling party.”
Brumskine, like many in the opposition fear the emergence of another political hegemony. “If Unity Party should win a third election in Liberia opposition will begin to crumble.
“So we are going to sell that message to our colleagues that we need to come together and in my speech in Voinjama, I will be saying and meaning it, everything is on the table, let us come.”
“Let’s negotiate on two things-we must walk out of that room with a ticket that the Liberian people can trust to lead them and a ticket that can win, once we accomplish those two things, we are ready to go.”
Cummings agrees. “We are in discussions with other political parties as we speak; including some of their leaders; because I agree, it will take some coalition of individuals and parties to win the election.”
But even amid the chorus among the opposition for collaboration, polarizing egos have been a major reason why the opposition has failed to hold, coupled with the lack of financial resources, organization and the will to form a fortified force against a financially-formidable incumbent with some political lapses and vulnerabilities as exhibited in the recent legislative special elections in which the candidate Boakai supported lost.
A point Jefferson Koijee, Youth Leader of the CDC asserted recently. “Boakai is no threat, he cannot even defeat Representative Eugene Fallah Kparkar in his home Foyah, so we are not even bothered by him.
He has not been able to get a victory for the Unity party in Foyah district on more than three occasions, so where is his popularity?”.
According to Koijee, in 2005 Kparkar defeated the Unity Party in Foyah despite VP Boakai campaigning for the UP candidate and again in 2011 the similar thing repeated itself in 2011.
A similar result turned out in the November 2015 District Two elections in Lofa won by the Independent candidate Julie Wiah. That race fielded eight candidates including the UP candidate, Augustine Boakai Lansanna, supported by Boakai.
With their backs against the wall, supporters of the Vice President see an opening to exploit the opposition. The ruling party already enjoys the edge as the establishment with strong bases rooted in districts, towns and villages.
It was the very reason Boakai lobbied heavily for Dr. Tokpah to become Minister of Internal Affairs, a position which amasses immense influence on the various societies and rural communities with many of the chiefs and elders appointed by the incumbent to whom they could feel they owe a sense of loyalty.
Political observers say, the failure of the opposition to hold could come back to haunt especially if Boakai is allowed to galvanize his troops and pick steam and momentum from this weekend’s convention in Gbarnga.
For the foreseeable future, Boakai finds himself staring down the barrel of a two-edged sword over how much of the Sirleaf legacy to embrace and how much of it to trumpet on the campaign trail as he prepares for his Gbarnga coronation.
Dr. Toga McIntosh, who had earlier threatened to challenge Boakai for the party’s standard bearer pulled out at the last minute citing an unfair advantage by the party’s establishment.
For the immediate future, the opposition find themselves looking at the potential of seeing what many see as a weak incumbent challenge gain steam while they appear divided or stubbornly believing all 25 of them can win on their own.
For Boakai, this weekend’s Gbarnga fiesta could see him exhaust his last run of excuses. Critics of the Vice President has taken him to task for failing to seize the moment and emerge out of Sirleaf’s shadows as his own man.
Boakai’s supporters counter that he is simply performing the task of the vice president and rejecting overtures and suggestions for him to stand up against the lapses in his own party.
The days after this weekend’s convention could prove decisive for Boakai as he embarks on the final lapse of his quest for the presidency.
How he looks to emerge out of Sirleaf’s shadows could make the difference between victory and defeat in the backdrop of an opposition dividedly lurking on the side-lines for an opening to sway off; what some say has all the markings of the reincarnation of another political hegemony.