That Senator Prince Yormie Johnson is a noted kingmaker in Liberia’s political mosaic and incontestable political godfather for the country’s second populous province needs no debate. This twin role of the former warlord is not mere mundane epithet; he is tested and proven over the years. And it gives him leverage if not carte blanche to dictate his way through the corridors of power, including seconding his supporters, particularly his Nimba kinsmen to positions of prominence, in Government. With a major shake widely predicted in the George Weah administration, it seems Senator Johnson is tipped to make a number of recommendations to consideration and he’s scouting for Nimbaians to second. This he’s however doing not without making joining his party or the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) a prerequisite. It is clear that the list of recommendees he reportedly developed includes one prominent Nimba citizen, Teeko Tozay Yorlay Sr., who is now fighting tooth and nail to have his name deleted. He tendered a letter of declination, as The Analyst reports.
It seems attempts by two-term Senator of Nimba County Prince Johnson to use job to bait and co-opt his Nimba County kinsmen into the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change has begun backfiring.
Senator Johnson raised reasonable public uproar when he requested citizens of Nimba County to join the ruling party in order to be incentivized with a government job.
But another prominent Nimba County citizen, former Development Superintendent Teeko Tozah Yorlay has asked that his consideration by Senator Prince Y. Johnson for appointment in Government be cancelled.
In a letter to Senator Johnson he pleaded “to kindly delete my name” from any list of appointments bound for President Weah’s desk for appointment.
“I write to convey my compliments and want to indicate that the list that you released in Nimba County this morning at a talk show on Radio Nimba indicative of your desire to get additional Nimbaians to get presidential appointments is not a bad idea,” Mr. Yorlay said in a letter he sent to Senator Johnson.
“However, I want to plead with you, for now, to kindly delete my name from same.”
He said, among other things, that he is a “Liberty Party partisan and will remain in my party until I, Teeko Tozay Yorlay, Sr., determine when to leave and said decision has not crossed my mind yet.”
The Nimba former local officials further wrote: “Frankly speaking, Pastor Johnson, I will not resign from the LIBERTY PARTY to join any political party in order to get any recommendation to get a presidential appointment in government. Honestly speaking, Evangelist Johnson, to resign from my party now and join any party for job will be dishonest, pretentious and being very unfair to myself and my conscience.”
He said he joins a party for better reasons than just getting a job or jobs and that “while it is a reality that I am a prominent son of Nimba County as indicated by you in said interview, it is also true that I did not give my expressed consent for the inclusion of my name on any list whatsoever for anything for which I am being asked by you on Radio Nimba to submit my CV.” He queried Senator Johnson for doing the list of potential Nimba appointees “without my knowledge and without my expressed consent. Therefore, I have seen it fit that you please remove my name from same.”
In the communication, Mr. Yorlar, further warned his county’s Senator that “if the intent of doing the list is to find competent Nimbaians jobs, I want to respectfully advise that there are many other Nimbaians who might meet your requirements and are very qualified and could be offered any job set aside for me.”
He concluded: “I hope you succeed in ensuring that Nimba County is adequately represented in this government as we are painfully grossly underrepresented currently.”
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