–As PYJ Justifies ‘Pay-for-Play’ Agreement with Governing Party
IPNEWS: The former Minister of Finance and Development Planning and Foreign Affairs; as well as Director of the Bureau of National Budget, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan once said: “During the heat of a political process that leads to a given presidential and legislative elections, there will always be alignment, realignment, crisscrossing, boat-jumping from one political party to the other due to political interests of the political players.”
According to Mr. Ngafuan, who now serves as Regional Director for the Africa Development Bank and posted in Kampala in Uganda, East Africa, following his resignation in 2016 – a year to the 2017 presidential and legislative elections – that politics make strange bedfellows as he expected a lot of movements from party to the other by political actors for political gains.
And sure indeed, prior to the 2017 presidential and legislative elections, the main opposition political party during former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s 12 years tenure, the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) having failed in succession to defeat Madam Sirleaf’s Unity Party (UP) decided to seek alliances or mergers with other opposition political parties with similar ideologies in order to form a formidable political front to combat the governing UP to avoid it winning three straight presidential elections with the UP putting upfront their Vice President for 12 years, Joseph Nyumah Boakai as candidate to continue the UP’s stay in state power.
The Birth of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC)
In its quest to put a halt to the UP political dominance for an additional six years having already served 12 consecutive years, the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) of former football icon and Montserrado County Senator George Weah joined political forces with the former opposition ruling National Patriotic Party (NPP) of jailed ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor which now has Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor as its Political Leader and former House Speaker Alex Tyler’s Liberia People’s Democratic Party (LPDP) to form an alliance known as: COALITION for DEMOCRATIC CHANGE (CDC).
The Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) following its formation into a partnership status in 2017, it became a major political force that rivaled the then ruling Unity Party (UP), that had former Vice President Joseph Boakai as its standard bearer.
In the first round of the 2017 presidential election, the National Elections Commission (NEC) reported that George Weah of CDC finished with 596,037 votes that represented 38.4 per cent of the total valid votes cast. Former Vice President Joseph Boakai, who is the standard bearer of the ruling UP, obtained a total of 446,716 votes or 28.8 per cent.
The electoral body said opposition leader, Mr. Charles Brumskine (now deceased), of the Liberty Party finished third with 149,495 votes that constituted 9.6 per cent, followed by Mr. Prince Johnson, a former warlord and candidate of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), got 127,666 votes or 8.2 per cent, while prominent businessman, Alexander Cummings, of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) – first timer in the presidential race, finished fifth with 112,067 votes that represented 7.2 per cent.
A total of 20 presidential and 986 House of Representatives candidates contested in the October 10, general elections in 2017. There are 73 seats in the Liberian House of Representatives and 30 in the Senate.
In keeping with the Elections law of Liberia, the first two top candidates in a given presidential election with the first and second highest votes or percentages automatically qualify to contest in a run-off.
And so in 2017, candidate Weah of the then former opposition CDC (with 596,037 votes that represented 38.4 per cent) and candidate Boakai of the then ruling UP (with 446,716 votes that totaled 28.8 per cent) were qualified for the Presidential run-off that was set for November in 2017.
Before political campaigns and rally for the presidential run-off could kick, there were lobbying here and there by politicians and political parties as to which of the two parties that qualified for the presidential run-off – Weah’s CDC and Boakai’s UP – to support to ensure victory to the Liberian presidency.
It can be recalled prior to the 2017 elections, Senator Prince Y. Johnson had in the 2011 elections gave his support to the then ruling Unity Party (UP) of president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who went on to defeat the CDC that had former UN Special Envoy to Somalia, Cllr. Winston Tubman as standard and former international football icon, George Weah as his running mate. The 201l election gave president Sirleaf’s her second six-year term as Senator Johnson played a key role to win votes from his native vote-rich Nimba County.
And so in 2017 with former President Sirleaf not in the picture in terms of qualification for a third term in line with the Liberia constitution, Senator Prince Y. Johnson and his MDR political party decided having failed to secure a run-off spot in the first round of the presidential election, to switch allegiance from former President Sirleaf’s UP which was now headed by former Vice President Joseph Boakai, and pledged their support to CDC’s George Weah; a move observers believed was pivotal in ensuring Weah’s resounding victory to the presidency.
But in a statement issued in Monrovia recently, the party announced that the political marriage between the CDC and the people of Nimba has come to an end due to President Weah’s failure to appoint sons and daughters from the county to top positions in government.
Senator Prince Y. Johnson of vote-rich Nimba County recently said he sees nothing wrong with entering into an agreement with a winnable presidential candidate in exchange for money and employment of his partisans and kinsmen to ‘lucrative’ government positions.
Senator Johnson, a former warlord and political leader of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) was sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury for being “complicit in, or directly or indirectly engaging in corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”
The Treasury Department said, as a Senator, Johnson has been involved in pay-for-play funding with government ministries and organizations for personal enrichment.
“As part of the scheme, upon receiving funding from the Government of Liberia (GOL), the involved government ministries and organizations launder a portion of the funding for the return to the involved participants. The pay-for-play funding scheme involves millions of U.S. dollars. Johnson has also offered the sale of votes in multiple Liberian elections in exchange for money,” the Department said in the statement.
However, in an interview with James Butty on the Voice of America, Senator Johnson said politics is an interest – and as such, he entered into agreements with political parties to address the financial problems his party faces after a presidential election.
“Politics is an interest. There was a negotiation. If I support you what do I get in return? It is not a crime if people whom you supported helped you,” he said.
According to the Nimba County Senator, the Elections law of Liberia compelled every political party to establish headquarters in all of the 15 counties of Liberia. To set up headquarters and procure logistics for campaign activities requires a huge sum of money. Owing to this, political parties incurred huge debt. To pay back the money borrowed, his party signed agreements with a viable party to take in the runoff, he explained.
The MDR’s political leader spoke after his party severed its ties with the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) of President George Weah.
An Imminent Political Divorce?
During the presidential run-off election in 2017, Senator Johnson, who contested as a presidential candidate pledged his support to Weah; a move observers believed was pivotal in ensuring Weah’s resounding victory to the Liberian presidency as he overwhelmingly won 14 of Liberia’s 15 counties.
But in a statement issued in Monrovia recently, the party announced that the political marriage between the CDC and the people of Nimba has come to an end due to President Weah’s failure to appoint sons and daughters from the county to top positions in government.
During the interview with Butty, Senator Johnson repeated his party’s statement; saying that President Weah and his party have failed to live by the agreement.
“In that communication the President and I signed, we are to get four ministers, four managing directors, three assistant ministers, and three ambassadors. But right now, what we have is one minister post and that is post and Telecommunications that doesn’t have enough budget so the minister cannot employ. It has the least budget,” he said.
“We supported CDC and certain positions were allotted to the MDR and Nimba County, but the hierarchy of the CDC has not met with the hierarchy of the MDR since 2017. All communications have not been possible. The President has given some but those positions are not the ones where you can employ people who suffered,” he added.
He criticized President George Weah for leaving his kinsmen out of government and occupying key positions with people from the Southeast, a region where the Liberian leader hails. “All the other ministries and other agencies have people from the southern region including the Supreme Court bench.”
It is not however known whether Senator Prince Y. Johnson’s MDR political party will make a U-turn on severing ties with the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government headed by President George Weah. The Nimba County Senator is noted for inconsistences as proven over the years of always undoing his previous pronouncements over a given situation.
Nimba County Senator Prince Johnson Laments Supporting Weah’s Election
In February 2020, Senator Prince Johnson of Nimba County stated and told his kinsmen and Liberians in general that regretted rallying the vote-rich county of Nimba, in support of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) during the 2017 Presidential Run-off Election, which was between then Senator George Weah and former Vice President Joseph Boakai of Unity Party (UP).
As a demonstration of his disappointment in the ruling Coalition, the Nimba County lawmaker, who is regarded as the ‘Political godfather’ of the county, walked out of the Senate’s confirmation proceedings for a new Superintendent of Nimba County. President George Weah had appointed Mr. Nelson N. Korquoi in 2020, who was to replace outgoing Dorr Cooper. Cooper is said to be a supporter of Sen. Johnson.
The Senator’s walked out action on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 was in protest to Pres. Weah’s decision to nominate a new superintendent without consulting members of the County’s Legislative Caucus, specifically him (Johnson) and his other colleague in the Senate.
“I don’t want confusion; you all know the level of work I did in Nimba to get President Weah elected. In 2005 and 2011, the people of Nimba didn’t vote for CDC. In 2017, everything almost went to the other candidate; my support for the CDC brought the victory,” Sen. Johnson said then.
Nimba County, according to the 2008 National Housing and Population Census, had a population of about 462,026. From the National Elections Commission (NEC) 2017 statistics, Nimba had a voting population of 279,601, of this number, 200,791 votes were cast in the county.
Despite the presence of 20 Presidential candidates in that 2017 presidential race, the Unity Party was led by Vice President Joseph Boakai and Senator Weah, who headed the CDC, were inarguably the heavy weights in that elections, but still Senator Johnson was overwhelmingly voted for by kinsmen and women in Nimba.
He attained 107,430 votes of the 200,791 votes that were cast. That constituted 53.5% of the overall votes in the county. The margin between Senator Johnson and Vice President Boakai, who came out second in Nimba was a 67,466 difference. VP Boakai obtained 39,964 votes.
Weah’s performance in Nimba was dismal despite coming out third in the county. He earned 16,002 votes (8%).
Senator Johnson’s political performance in Nimba has always been splendid; so endorsing anyone was a very good prospect for that person. When he lifted candidate Weah’s hand in Nimba, it became a done deal and Weah won overwhelmingly in the runoff.
Sen. Johnson thinks the happy time he had with the CDC is now over based on what the President did by not consulting with him before appointing a new superintendent.
“To now nominate from my county, one of the sophisticated counties, one of the largest counties next to Montserrado County without the knowledge of the Senior Senator and the Junior Senator, is an insult to us and a disregards for what we have done to bring CDC to power. I regret it; it is discouraging and disheartening!” Johnson further said on Tuesday, February 18, 2022 before he walked out of the confirmation room.
Despite the decision by the Senator, the Senate’s Committee on Internal Affairs and Reconciliation went ahead with the process.
Senator Thomas Grupee, the then other Senator from Nimba, didn’t take his colleague Prince Johnson’s side. Sen. Grupee stated that Mr. Nelson N. Korquoi’s appearance was in line with his right as a Liberian citizen, who is entitled to a due process and has the right to appointment in government by the appointing authorities.
“It is also clear under our constitution that the three branches of government must have their own functions but coordination makes our job easier. So when Sen. Johnson spoke that we were not consulted, we are not to be but for the purpose of coordination, we should have that consultation.
“I am baffled by the way you were nominated, but it is not your fault that is why we try to do justice to you to hold this hearing.”
Prince Y. Johnson Says CDC Will Rig the 2023 Elections
In another development, Senator Johnson, who is considered a ‘man of God’, sometime ago alleged through prophesy that the 2023 elections will be rigged by the ruling CDC. “It will happen, if not, do not believe me anymore,” Senator Johnson had said.
According to him partisans of the ruling CDC as part of his religious belief will in 2023 have bitter confrontation with the people of Liberia. “I am seeing chaos, confusion and more destruction,” the Nimba County lawmaker further prophesied.
He told reporters in 2020 that if he were the President, he would have prioritized the payment of salaries to all civil servants to ensure food and other domestic issues are addressed in their respective homes.
It can be recalled in 2017 Senator Prince Y. Johnson’s Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), called on partisans and supporters of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) to stage, what he termed as a democratic coup d’état against the former ruling Unity Party in the pending runoff election. “I ask you to join ranks with us to stage a national coup d’état against the Unity Party of Joseph Boakai. I ask you not to drink alcohol on Christmas Day. Keep your heads up and in the hands of God.”
The MDR political leader made the call Thursday, December 14, 2017 at the headquarters of the CDC when leaders of the opposition Liberty Party (LP) joined ranks with CDC for the runoff election.
Senator Prince Y. Johnson Noted for Inconsistencies
For many political pundits and commentators as well as Liberians in general, Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson is noted for being consistently inconsistent, as he always summersaults over decisions he makes in a giving situation.
According to pundits, the Senator used those ‘political techniques’ for reported financial gains at the detriment of the people of vote-rich Nimba County, where he has enormous political influence.
The people still believe him to be their redeemer from the hands of slain president Samuel Kanyon Doe’s deadly military squads during the onset of the Liberian civil war that lasted for 14 years. “Anything the Senator tells his people in Nimba when it comes to election they listen to him so he uses that to their disadvantage to gain financially. That is one of the main reasons he was sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury,” one political pundit told IPNEWS.
It is however not clear whether Senator Johnson’s party, the MDR’s stance to severe ties and divorce politically from the governing CDC of President George Weah is one of his ploys to gain financially from the current powers-that-be. Will the MDR’s pronouncement of divorcing from the ruling CDC be business as usual, where a decision is taken by its standard bearer and political leader, Senator Johnson, only to be overturned after a golden handshake with his political partners? That is one of the many questions lingering on the minds of political commentators in Liberia.
Also with pronouncement from the US government that any institution or individual who does business with the former or currently sanctioned government officials for corruption, those institutions or individual too may risked being sanctioned.
Out of fear of the US government imposing sanction on the CDC leadership, including its political leader and standard bearer, President George Weah if they partner with Senator Johnson politically in their re-election quest for the 2023 presidential and legislative elections, will it accept the MDR’s decision to end ties with the CDC? Or will the CDC risk the possibility of its leaders to be sanctioned to obtain votes from vote-rich Nimba County only for the sake of re-election in 2023 for its second term?
There are more hard questions hanging in the air regarding the MDR’s decision to end political ties with the government CDC of President George Weah than answers. Some political pundits term it as a ‘catch-22’ situation, where damn you do or damn if you don’t do.
With few months ahead of the 2023 polls the bookmakers are watching keenly as developments unfold. Only time will tell.
