–Main CPP, UP Admit Engagements despite US Gov’t’s Warning

IPNEWS: A local daily has reported that the two main opposition political institutions ahead of the 2023 October presidential and legislative elections have begun what they term as ‘informal discussions’ the political party of sanctioned Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson (PYJ) political institution, the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction (MDR) which is now headed by another Nimba County Senator, Jeremiah Koung as a political leader and standard bearer.

According to the local daily, the two main political opposition groups in the country, the Unity Party (UP) and the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), have begun courting sanctioned Nimba County Senator Prince Y. Johnson (PYJ), for possible collaboration, despite a warning from the government of the United States of America that it would be risky for anyone to do business with individuals who have been blacklisted by the US Treasury Department under the Global Magnitsky Act.

Ahead of the October 10, 2023, presidential and legislative elections, both the CPP and UP told the Daily Observer that they have begun informal discussions with the political ‘god-father’ of the vote rich Nimba County and his political institution, the Movement for Development and Reconstruction (MDR), though nothing has been crystallized yet, they told the Daily Observer on Tuesday.

CPP Chairman Musa Bility said that the CPP has reached out to PYJ’s MDR and suggested that they could work together. “We started talking, but it’s nothing substantial,” he said via a WhatsApp call. “We are waiting for them to respond.”

UP Secretary General, Amos Tweh, said discussions are ongoing with the Nimba Senator and other leaders of the MDR in an effort to work together as opposition political parties.

“We are not basically in to do a formal collaboration yet. We have not reached that level, but, of course, we are holding discussions with [Senator] Prince Johnson and other leaders of the MDR in making efforts to work together as opposition political parties,” Tweh told the Observer in a telephone conversation. “We are having talks to build confidence, work on issues of mutual interest, and of course, for the most part, hopefully, work together towards the October 2023 polls. Yes, we’ve been talking, we have been holding very informal discussions, but we have not reached the point where we have formalized those conversations.”

However, these moves by the leading opposition political parties seem to only be in disregard to the US government’s warning, but they are risky as they, too, stand the risk of being blacklisted as per what the US said it would do to violators of its warning.

The US government on Thursday, December 9, 2021, slammed an “Economic Sanction” on Liberian Senator Prince Y. Johnson, famously known by his initials, PYJ, for corruption in what many think are ongoing efforts to enclose the notorious warlord for eventual war crimes charges.

The US said the Nimba Senator has been involved in ‘pay-for-play’ funding with government ministries and organizations for personal enrichment — while also receiving funding from government ministries and organizations to launder a portion of the funding for the return to the involved participants.

“The alleged 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.” Also sanctioned following PYJ are the former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Nathaniel McGill, the former Solicitor General Syrenius Cephus, and the former Managing Director of the former National Port Authority (NPA), Bill Twehway. Grand Cape Mount County Senator Varney Sherman was the first Liberian government official to be sanctioned. Despite the sanction, former Minister McGill seems to be wielding political clout in Margibi County.

Apart from his alleged acts of corruption, Senator Johnson is a notorious ex-warlord, whose defunct Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) captured and killed former President Samuel Kanyon Doe. The Truth and Reconciliation Report documents Johnson as having committed atrocities during the country’s first civil war.

Despite these, politicians seem not to be heeding the US’s caveat as they go all out in search of potential votes with little or no ‘moral consideration’ given to where those potential votes could be amassed from—and what favors they may be obliged to return.

Addressing a news conference at the US Embassy in Monrovia on November 14, 2022, Ambassador Michael McCarthy pointed out that financial institutions and others would subject themselves to sanctions if they continued to do business with these sanctioned ex- and current government officials.

The opposition and ruling parties have been tussling over PYJ, who has become a kings maker since 2005. While the CPP and the UP are courting Senator Johnson in order to have a strong hold on Nimba, the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change is doing all in its power to maintain the flamboyant lawmaker with whom they struck a collaboration in 2017 that helped them to get hold of the presidency.

Tweh said that the UP is aware of the sanction against Johnson, and that is why the party thought it prudent to engage other officials of the MDR, not just PYJ himself.

“We are very much aware of the sanction; that’s why I said earlier on that we are holding discussions with some leaders of the MDR. So I was very careful as a party to say to you that we are holding discussions with the MDR, and, of course, these are parts of the effort. 

“Probably you have one partisan of the MDR who was placed on sanction, but minus that partisan, there are the rest of the other partisans, leaders, and members of the Legislature who are also part of the MDR. So they are part of the leadership of that party. They are the ones we are also talking to.”

Tweh noted that the former ruling party is very careful with how to deal with individuals who have been placed on sanction, “because we know very well that the American people have said very fairly and we have actually been amplifying that. So we can’t be the ones trying to breach what the American people have reported.”

Senator Johnson continues to enjoy unlimited political power in Nimba County and massive support among his people since 2006—a feat that has practically given him leverage in the national political space and positioned him as a kings maker in the Liberian society.

This made him a political “darling boy” for both the former and current ruling parties of Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and George Weah, though it appears that he has left the grip of the latter.

A political marriage consummated with the CDC in 2017 that helped propel President George Weah and his CDC to the presidency of the country has gone sour in recent months, with Johnson halting his support for the ruling Coalition.

He recently terminated the political association between his Movement for Development and Reconstruction (MDR) party and the ruling Coalition at a time when the crucial 2023 presidential and legislative elections are on the horizon.

He called on Liberians, especially citizens of his native Nimba, not to give the CDC-led government a second chance because they had failed the people.

In a Voice of America (VOA) interview last week, Senator Johnson disclosed that he is holding talks with other opposition political parties about collaboration.

The second-term senator, who acknowledged that no single political party wins elections in the country, stated, “We are open to all parties, we are working with the Unity Party, we are working with the ANC, we are working with the newly certified party, the EFCC, all the parties on the ground, we are working with them. One party cannot win elections without the other,” he said.

The decision to halt his support for President Weah’s reelection bid, he said, is based on the president’s failure to prioritize the interests of the people of Nimba County.

“What we expected in the past is not what we see on the ground. We had believed that, being the world’s best, the European best, the African best, with his election, he would have attracted investors to Liberia to create jobs and alleviate the suffering of our people through their investments. But since his election, the world has abandoned us in the sense that no investors are coming. And what we are doing in the country is just ratifying loan agreements, and you cannot build a country based on loans,” Sen. Johnson told the VOA.

PYJ has since stood down as the political leader of the MDR, relinquishing power to his political protégé, Senator Jeremiah Koung. But many see the move as a way of taking the back seat, due to the US sanction, though he is still actually in charge and approving every major decision.

The standard bearer and political leader of the opposition CPP, Alexander B. Cummings is on record for saying that if elected president of Liberia, his government will ask the international community for help to establish the War and Economic Crimes for Liberia, to give justice to the victims of the 14-year Liberian civil war as well as give opportunity to alleged perpetrators of heinous and war crimes to exonerate themselves.

With Senator Prince Y. Johnson being the brainchild of the MDR, which is now headed by Senator Jeremiah Koung, it is unlikely that the PYJ will want to give support to the CPP knowing fully well that they want War and Economic Crimes Court for Liberia elected and given state power.

MDR’s Vice Chair Slams Prince Johnson for Assertions against Government, Pullout of Support

It can be recalled the Vice Chairman for Political and Governmental Affairs of the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction (MDR) Wilfred Bangura took issues with the party’s Founder and Standard Bearer Senators Prince Y. Johnson and Jeremiah Koung for unilaterally nullifying the party’s support to President George Manneh Weah in the pending 2023 general and presidential elections in Liberia.

Mr. Bangura previously served as the founding Secretary General and acting Chairman of the MDR. He took the party to a convention that replaced Senator Johnson as Standard Bearer with Senator Jeremiah Koung of Nimba County in December 2022.

Senator Johnson is the Founder and political godfather of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), a party he established barely few months to the conduct of the 2017 general and presidential elections.

The Senator told the Voice of America last week that he has terminated an agreement he signed to support President Weah. He attributed his decision to the failure of President Weah and his government to benefit citizens of Nimba County since he ascended to the Liberian presidency.

Senator Johnson further disclosed that he is holding talks with other opposition political parties for collaboration.

As for Senator Koung, he has been consistently calling for a merger or collaboration of opposition political parties to unseat President Weah.

But addressing a news conference in Congo Town on Monday, January 23, Minister Bangura pointed out that the MDR was never founded to “nurse” the selfish interest of anyone or group of people.

According to him, the party was established to represent the interest of the Liberian people.

He observed that despite its true intent, executives and partisans of the party have been alarmed, concerned and perturbed with media reports on the negative developments within the party less than two months following the ascendancy of Senator Koung to the Standard Bearer position in recent times.

Minister Bangura stated that these reports displayed criticisms of the “most demeaning kind” from both the Founder and Standard Bearer of the MDR, Senators Johnson and Koung against the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government that they helped to bring to power.

He pointed out that the two executives have been “showboating” of ending ties with the CDC, without holding any consultation with members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party.

Minister Bangura emphasized that despite the showboating of the two men, he and other executives and members of the MDR remain supportive to retaining President Weah in October 2023.

“I stand with the President to ensure his re-election as President of the Republic of Liberia and I will do everything legally, morally and politically possible to ensure that the President is reelected with a decisive mandate in this year’s elections so that he can continue working on the Liberian project.”

Contrary to claims made by the two Nimba County Senators that the party will contest the presidential elections, Minister Bangura disclosed that the MDR will not field a candidate in the October 2023 elections.

According to him, the party will also not subject itself to a Vice Presidential ticket to any political party in the country.

Minister Bangura claimed that Senator Johnson, who founded the MDR, has been duly informed about his position on the matter.

PYJ’s MDR Condemns Bangura for Speaking against the Party’s Decision to Withdraw from Weah

At the same time, the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction (MDR) has described as “greedy and self-seeking” a statement issued by Mr. Wilfred Bangura, the Party’s former acting chairman that the MDR will continue to support the re-election bid of President George Weah.

In a press conference held by Mr. Kelvin Matadi, Vice Chairman for Media Affairs of the MDR, the Party is concerned about the unilateral statement issued Monday, January 23, 2023 by the former acting chair that the Party is still supportive of President Weah’s re-election.

In Mr. Bangura’s press conference, he stated that the MDR still supports the re-election of President Weah and the CDC-led government, and was further assertive that both the Lead Vision Bearer, Sen. Prince Y. Johnson and the Standard Bearer Sen. Jeremiah Koung’s statements that was reiterated following the Ganta Convention through various mediums run contrary to the Party Position.

“Let it be stated here that, National Executive Committee, which Partisan Bangura mentioned has absolutely no knowledge about the self-developed press conference of Mr. Bangura, as such, it is convening a National Executive Committee Meeting in the soonest possible time to take a decision on Mr. Bangura’s press conference.

“Minister Bangura’s statement is not surprising, it’s also worth mentioning here that, since our Ganta Convention, after Partisan Wilfred Bangura’s quest and hope for the Chairmanship was vehemently rejected by the delegates at the convention, he has taken 365 steps away from the party’s activities upon our return to Monrovia.”

The MDR, through it vice chair for media, said the party’s position that was endorsed by the Executive Committee of the Party following the Party’s convention remains on course.

“Again, the MDR is independent, we have paused our support to President Weah and the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and this decision is beyond just a single individual like partisan Bangura. Absolutely no one person is above this Party, not even the standard bearer Sen. Jeremiah Kpan Koung and the Vision Bearer Sen. Prince Y. Johnson.

“As the third biggest Political Institution in Liberia, the MDR has embarked on ongoing consultations across Nimba County, Gbarpolu County and Bong and let it be stated here that the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR) is seriously considering fielding a Presidential candidate as well as Senatorial and Representative candidates in all the 15 political subdivisions of the country in the Upcoming October general and presidential election.”

Meanwhile, political pundits are wondering what will be the outcome of the various political maneuvering that is ongoing between and amongst political parties, as Senator Prince Y. Johnson is noted to be consistently inconsistent.