News & Analysis By Our Staff Writer
MONROVIA: One of Liberia’s ex-feared and Libyan trained frontline commandos during its bloody war era, now Senator of Nimba County, Prince Yormie Johnson, alias, “PYJ” has been flip-flopping on his support for incumbent President George Manneh Weah’s re-election bid for the 2023 presidential and legislative elections.
Nimba is Liberia’s second largest economy and has a huge voting population next to Montserrado County.
According to the 2008 National Housing and Population Census, Nimba’s population is 462,026.
Senator Johnson, widely referred to as the ‘political God-father of Nimba’ previously supported President George Weah and his Government during the 2017 Presidential and Legislative elections and the 2020 Special Senatorial elections.
Senator PYJ was also a strong and visibly uncompromising supporter of President Weah during his nationwide tour.
Interestingly, however, the Nimba County’s charismatic Senator and “King-maker” soon changed political color, as he began to incisively lambast incumbent President Weah and his administration.
Conversely, in mid-2022, the Nimba strongman unveiled his political formula by blasting opposition political leaders including former Vice President, Joseph Nyuma Boakai, of the former ruling Unity Party (UP), and Alexander Benedict Cummings, alias “ABC” of the Alternative National Congress (ANC).
At the time, the Senator declared his unwavering support for Weah’s reelection bid in 2023 when he spoke to the Liberian nation on Saturday, September 17, 2022, via Spoon Talk-Show.
Senator Johnson, at the time, alleged that both opposition leaders Joseph Nyuma Boakai (JNB) and Alexander B. Cummings (ABC), on many separate occasions, visited him at his Paynesville residence, aimed at soliciting his support ahead of the crucial 2023 elections in the country.
However, few weeks after he addressed the nation via Spoon-Talk Show, Senator Johnson launched what some observers called a new political attack on President Weah and the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
According to Senator Johnson, who is also the former leader of the erstwhile armed insurgent group, styled: Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), Nimba County has not been fairly treated by President Weah in the appointment of public officials.
He accused the President of involvement in acts of nepotism and sectionalism by favoring citizens from the Southeastern Region of the country in the appointment of people in key and lucrative ministerial positions in government as compare to other regions of the country.
Recently, Senator Johnson, intensified his verbal campaign against the ruling CDC and President Weah, describing them as failures.
Senator Johnson maintains that his Movement for Democracy and Reconciliation (MDR) party will put forth a candidate to contest for the Liberian Presidency in the October 10, 2023 Presidential and Legislature Elections.
He told Journalist James Butty of the Voice of America (VOA), recently in Monrovia that his MDR party’s decision to withdraw its support from the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led government, headed by President George Manneh Weah is irreversible.
The Nimba County political ‘godfather’ further told the world that President Weah had sent a high-powered CDC delegation comprising CDC’s National Chairman, Mulbah Morlu; Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel Doe Tweah Jr.; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Executive Director, Prof. Wilson K. Tarpeh; and the former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel Falo McGill, to him, aimed persuading him (Senator Johnson) to reconsider his recent decision to withdraw his support from incumbent President Weah and the ruling CDC for the October polls.
There has been no independent confirmation as regards the Senator’s latest claims of these high-level former and current officials visiting him to negotiate with him for Weah’s reelection bid as the October polls fast approach.
According to Senator Johnson, the MDR has refused to give credence to the proposal of President Weah’s emissaries while maintaining that his MDR party will be a force to reckon with in the October 10, 2023 polls.
The Nimba County lawmaker pointed out that, at the moment, there is no Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), with the incumbent government for MDR’s support as it as the case with the 2017 elections in the country.
He narrated that the 2017 MoU between both parties (CDC and MRD), which was the basis upon which the MDR did not field a candidate and subsequently supported Weah’s CDC in the 2017 elections has since expired in October 2022.
The Senator categorically denied report that he supported the CDC of President Weah in the 2017 Elections in return for cash and immense benefits including being consulted by President Weah as it relates to appointing any Nimbaian to public office.
According to Senator Johnson, part of the many reasons MDR is withdrawing its support from the ruling CDC’s quest for reelection is due to President Weah miserable failure to live up to the terms and conditions of the 2017 MoU that directed MDR’s support to the CDC.
Senator Johnson pointed out that apart from President Weah defaulting on his agreement with MDR, the soccer icon now president has failed to govern the country, according to his 2017 campaign promises.
He said the excruciating economic hardship ordinary citizens are currently faced with under the Weah-led Government has also emboldened the MDR’s resolve to not lend any political blessings to Weah’s reelection bid.
According to the Nimba County Senator, the failure of the government to provide jobs for the county’s youthful population made it to the long list of reasons why the CDC has forfeited MDR’s support for the 2023 polls.
However, in the face of the former INPFL’s Field Marshall, now Senator’s anger with President Weah and his CDC, critics are concerned about Senator Johnson’s recent radical stance against the President.
PYJ is widely blamed for the gruesome killing of Liberia’s then sitting President, Samuel Kanyon Doe, on claims of being in possession of Liberian people’s money during the country’s bloody armed conflict.
During the heights of the Liberian civil war in September 1990, Senator Johnson, then, frontline Commando and “Field Marshall” of the erstwhile, INPFL, an offspring of Charles Taylor’s then armed insurgent group, National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), captured former President Samuel Kanyon Doe, at the Free Port of Monrovia where he was severely tortured and killed by Johnson and his INPFL forces.
Doe visited the Free Port of Monrovia which was then being protected by troops of the West African Peacekeeping force, ECOMOG.
Interestingly too, Senator Johnson is currently placed on United States Government’s sanction for corruption.
The US in 2021 says, “Prince Yormie Johnson is a former warlord and current member of the Liberian Senate. He is the former Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security, Defense, Intelligence, and Veteran Affairs. In 1990, he was responsible for the murder of former Liberian President Samuel Doe, and Johnson is named in Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Report as having committed atrocities during the country’s first civil war.
According to the American Department of Treasury, 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 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,” said the US Treasury Department report.
Johnson is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who is a current or former government official, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged 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.”
For more information, please visit https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0523.
2 comments
As soon as he no longer support the George Weah for President campaign, he’s now president’s killer. Really? Plus PYJ, Minsu PYJ, The Buga Dancer will lose and lose BIG time.
You need read Liberia History good because it’s about supporting George Weah for president.