Monrovia — Joseph Boakai, the standard-bearer for the Unity Party, is set to announce his running mate on Friday. The announcement of his vice standard-bearer has been eagerly anticipated, and unless there is a last-minute change, Senator Jeremiah Koung is expected to be named to the position.
However, his choice of running mate does not seem to be going down well with some of his long-standing political allies, such as Benoni Urey of the All Liberian Party, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, and Henry Costa, who was recently positioning himself as a potential running mate to the 78-year-old standard bearer.
After announcing his decision to the rest of the team, Boakai was invited to Urey's home on Wednesday, where he joined Costa and other members of both the UP and the ALP teams to reconsider the announcement of Sen. Koung as the vice standard bearer. But being bent on his decision which he sees as his surest way to win the election, Boakai stuck with his decision.
Sources familiar with the discussion informed FrontPageAfrica that Urey, who exhibited signs of disappointment, questioned Boakai about whether he was prepared to "dance with the devil" by dealing with Senators Prince Johnson and Edwin Snowe. Some say that these two senators are the excess baggage that comes with selecting Koung as they will exert their influence on him through Koung.
To their dismay, according to the source, the UP standard bearer told them "If dancing with the devil" would make him win the elections, he was prepared to do so.
Mr. Boakai was quoted as saying "Even the devil has a role to play. I don't like Prince Johnson but I have to work with him to win." FrontPageAfrica has not been able to verify this quotation from Mr. Boakai, but Mo Ali, a political officer to Boakai who was also not in attendance at the meeting categorically denied the quotation. He said, Boakai had said he was prepared to work with anyone.
Jeremiah Koung has taken over as the political leader of the Movement for Democratic Reconstruction (MDR), a political party that was founded by Senator Prince Johnson. Senator Johnson stepped down from his position and handed over the leadership of the party to Koung after being hit with sanctions by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The sanctions were imposed on Senator Johnson due to allegations of "pay-for-play" schemes, where he allegedly received large sums of money from government ministries and organizations for his personal benefit. According to the allegations, the involved government ministries and organizations would launder a portion of the funding and return it to the participating individuals.
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 sanctions against Johnson come under the Global Magnitsky Act, which authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets, and ban them from entering the U.S.
Political analysts speculate that Senator Johnson, who holds significant sway in Nimba County -- the second-most populous county in Liberia in terms of votes -- orchestrated Koung's nomination as the Vice Presidential candidate for Boakai, in a bid to retain his political relevance and influence in the country's governance. Johnson's prior endorsement of Koung helped him secure a seat in the House of Representatives and subsequently the Liberian Senate.
In a recent press conference, Sen. Johnson said, "Now I am growing older and the older you grow the closer you are to your heavenly home. I want to see Nimba producing the Vice President as a gateway to the highest office. This old man is our father-Rescue 1 and he is going to be naming Rescue 2 from Nimba County and that is a blessing thing for us."
Johnson is a former warlord who killed ex-president Samuel K. Doe in 1990.
Until quite recently, Senator Johnson had been a staunch supporter of the incumbent President, George Weah. In fact, Sen. Johnson's support for Pres. Weah during the 2017 runoff election played a crucial role in swaying close to 70 percent of the votes in Nimba in favor of Weah. However, the once-strong relationship between the two deteriorated as Johnson accused the President of denying his fellow kinsmen and women lucrative positions within the government.
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FrontPageAfrica has learned that Senator Karnga-Lawrence, who stood by Vice President Boakai during the political disagreements within the Collaboration Political Parties (CPP), is reportedly disappointed with Boakai's decision to select Koung over her. According to sources close to Senator Karnga-Lawrence, she feels betrayed by the Unity Party and is currently seeking advice from members of the Liberty Party's Executive Committee on which direction to take. It remains uncertain whether she will continue to support Boakai's candidacy.
Last September at a fund-raising program organized by Sen. Lawrence in Buchanan, Mo Ali of the Unity Party a strong hint to would-be contenders for running mate to Boakai when he donned a T-shirt with the inscriptions "Boakai-Nyonblee" 2023.
Ali would then follow up with a post on Facebook: "We are not ambivalent, we are not ambiguous and we know exactly where we stand. The T-shirt tells where we stand and that's on period."
Some members of the collaboration at the time, especially members of Urey's ALP, took to social media to register their displeasure, describing Ali's action as a disrespect to their political leader.
