“Boakai Doesn’t Speak to Me!” -PYJ’s Voice Rings After His Death; Shows Deep Frustrations

MONROVIA – The death of Nimba County’s most revered senator, Prince Yormie Johnson, is now unravelling some eye-opening realities that might have never been amplified were he still alive. But it is now clear as daylight that the man who served as kingmaker in the country’s four postwar presidential elections, and who could jockey presidential nominations for his kinsmen at the drop of a hat because of his proximity to the corridors of power, had become before his sudden death on November 28, 2024, a pariah shunned by the political hierarchy that he helped to bring to power.

“Boakai doesn’t answer my phone. He doesn’t even have time for me,” the late Senator Johnson was recently heard bitterly complaining in a posthumous audio recording now flooding the Internet.

Senator Johnson’s audio lamentations also revealed his distraught frame of mind over what he perceived as a betrayal on the part of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai for whom he ferociously campaigned during the 2023 presidential and general elections that brought the Unity Party government back to power.

Johnson said he felt especially let down that Mr. Boakai would allow himself to be deceived by the likes of Cummings, Dillion, Nyonblee and others to go after him.

“As you know, the CDC still controls the lower House and the upper House. So, some kind of way they did a resolution that passed unopposed and sent it to the Senate. All of them went to Nyonblee’s house that Tuesday morning. They didn’t tell me; they hid it from me.

“It only remained two persons to sign, James Barney and myself. Then when I heard about it, that’s when I went to Koung. I asked, ‘what is going on. You were here when Weah sent the document to us. We sent a report with all supporting legal documents to guide Weah. Then Boakai, who benefited from the 2010 decision from the Supreme Court, to be involved in the elections in 2011 because he was not supposed to run with Ellen, after serving as Vice President for 12 years now, and we finished campaigning for the old man, then he wants to prosecute us.

“So, I asked Koung, what is going on. But he said the only thing he could do was to help me with a lawyer. He gave me $5,000 to look for a lawyer. From my own son’s office, I went and signed that resolution. When I asked the senators why they agreed to sign that resolution, they told me a resolution is not a law. Signing this resolution means we agree to the establishment of a war and economic crimes court. But bringing it is another thing,” Senator Johnson was heard stating frustratingly in the audio recording.

He said what irked him the most was that the financial malpractice in the past is even worse now, citing a litany of governance missteps of the Boakai administration.

Dillon Confirms Boakai’s PYJ Slight

Many who listened to the audio recording that flooded the Internet seemed to have believed outright that Senator Johnson’s disclosure might have been the result of his deed-seated frustration over the establishment of a war and economic crimes court, rather than his lack of access to officialdom in the current Boakai administration, as opposed to the high level of cordiality he enjoyed during the administrations of former Presidents Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and George Manneh Weah. But a stark disclosure from Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon during Tuesday’s Senate tribute session changed the whole picture.

According to Dillon, Senator Johnson, before his untimely demise, had begged him to talk to President Boakai to employ his (Johnson’s) daughter. Senator Dillon said his colleague felt reassured that he could intercede on his behalf because of his closeness to President Joseph Boakai.

“Senator Johnson brought his daughter Crystal to me, and several times he came and said: ‘Senator, please talk to President Boakai to give my daughter a job. I trust you and your relationship with the President. I said I will honor that request.

“Two days before his passing, Senator Johnson called and said, ‘Distinguished, please don’t forget.’ I said I will meet the President in Grand Bassa County for the funeral of the late superintendent of Grand Bassa County, and that I will remind him and push him.

“Thursday morning, we’re in Grand Bassa County for the funeral of the late superintendent of Grand Bassa County when Crystal called me early in the morning crying: ‘Senator, daddy is gone. He left me with you. Being an emotional person, I broke down. I called the Pro Tempore and informed her. By the time President Boakai arrived at the Pro Tempore’s house in Grand Bassa for the funeral, right in her living room, I said to the President, who was also feeling down, ‘Senator Johnson left his last wish with me for us to intervene. And the president asked what it was, and I explained to him. I said we must honor it, Mr. President. And he said, “We will do it.”

Snowe Detests Double-faced tributes

For his part, Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe chose to go for the jugular of some of his colleagues, accusing them of being deceitful in their tributes to the late Senator Prince Johnson because many of them were not on speaking terms with the late Nimba County senator.

He said most of the senators avoided Senator Johnson as if he were a leper because they didn’t want to antagonize the Americans who have now elected as President someone who was convicted of 33 crimes.

Angry Public Reactions

Perhaps the most telling part of the late Nimba County Senator’s audio recording is the public’s mad reactions to Johnson’s frustrations with the Boakai administration and Senator Dillon’s affirmation that Joseph Boakai had indeed cut off communications from Senator Prince Yormie Johnson, the man who rallied Nimba County for the Unity Party Alliance victory in 2023.

“A man that gave you power should beg you to give his daughter a job? This is so disgraceful on you and the VP part. While the VP’s sister-in-law has a job, the man that made him VP daughter does not have a job,” remarked an irate commentator on social media yesterday.

“This is more damaging than that handshake. This shows that the treatment of PYJ by JNB might have led to his early demise,” another frustrated citizen remarked.

Said another Liberian from Nimba County: “Prince Johnson died from frustration, and I believe it was caused by the way he was treated by Jeremiah Koung and Boakai. Senator Johnson never expected such punishment from these two, especially Koung. Boakai is a vindictive old man who never forgets. The video that was around with PYJ said Boakai was too old and Koung would be the one doing the presidency work. Boakai kept that in his heart and acted on it to PYJ’s death. This shows how spiteful this old man Boakai is. Sad for the people of Nimba that PYJ had to die like that”.

“It says a lot about the relationship between PYJ and Koung. Why did the Senator skip Koung and go to Dillon? So, the late Senator was right when he said the president had refused to talk to him. Wow!!” remarked another irate citizen from Central Liberia.

“I am here trying to fathom what will make the giant of Nimba to have pleaded with Dillon for his daughter to be appointed if he had access to the president? They have continued to expose their dirty deeds against Senator Johnson,” another citizen remarked.