“Bravo to our partisans for their courage to challenge and emasculate the cultism of the Political Leader position. The political leader position in the Liberty Party is not meant for deification and as such, the occupant of said position is not above our Party. He/she must, at all times, respect the sanctity of institutional decision making”. These are words of Mr. Isaac Jackson, a founding member of the Liberty Party while addressing trending issues within the party.
He gave background of the situation by saying “And so, I am gratefully pleased that on Wednesday, October 27, our partisans defied the vile threats, and also ignored Nyonblee’s selfish and useless call that allowed Mr. Cummings to avail of a mammoth welcome at Liberty Party’s Monrovia headquarters. Nothing could be more affirming of our partisans’ faith in peaceful collaboration and democratic virtues than this singular action”.
“In all democratic settings, power is inherent in the people collectively, but not a single individual, be he or she a political leader or president. In the instant case, the Executive Committee of the Liberty Party met and made a democratic decision to have Cummings visit the Party headquarters. So, there was no rational basis for Nyonblee’s public service announcement, calling on partisans to boycott Cummings’ visit. The call failed spectacularly not only because it was ill-timed, unwise and childish; it failed because it was about Nyonblee’s ego, not about the party and its partisans. Just as standing on the tracks of a fast-approaching train is unwise, equally so is an attempt to deter the will of the people in a democratic arrangement”, the tough talking founding member of the Liberty said.
On his impression of the political leader of the party, Senator Nyonblee Karngar Lawrence, he said “It’s high time that we call out Nyonblee for who she is. Nyonblee is now an absentee leader bent on pushing her self-driven agenda of being Vice President to Joseph Boakai. I do not begrudge her for harboring such ambition; however, forcing the Party and its partisans to toe her line without democratic deliberations is offensive to say the least”.
He went further by saying “As a founding executive member of the Party, it is my view that the decision to endorse either Boakai or Cummings as Head of the CPP should be thoroughly deliberated upon and democratically determined. The overwhelming majority of our Party members are wary of supporting Joseph Boakai because of his well-known declining health. And Nyonblee cannot continue to drag the Party along the Boakai’s line, when higher numbers of our partisans are expressing their satisfaction about the impeccability of Cummings’ character and competence – attributes that are in short supply in our Country”.
On whether the party should support former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai or not, he said “It’s time that we as leaders heed the call of our partisans regarding Oldman Boakai’s health. Liberty partisans across the country are saying that they cannot bet on Joseph Boakai’s health; they are clear in their unanimity that a sick country like Liberia cannot afford a sick President as its leader”.
“Matter of fact, the Constitution of Liberia discourages a terminally-ill person from occupying the Presidency. The Constitution says in Article 63 that when the President or Vice President is incapacitated as a result of illness, he/she should be replaced. Since it is now public knowledge that Mr. Joseph Boakai’s health is rapidly declining, do we want to knowingly assume the risk of making him President, and subsequently dealing with the issue of his incapacitation due to illness? No! I think the wisest course of action to take under these circumstances is for the nation to be proactive in avoiding such catastrophe by politely encouraging Mr. Boaakai not to further exacerbate his health conditions by participating in the rigorous democratic competition; preferably, to step aside and focus on his health issues. The nation, as well as his children and family members still need him around, not as President, but as an elderly statesman”, he stated
“It may be recalled that in May of this year, Mr. Joseph Boakai on the 50-50 Talk Show of TMax Jlateh publicly announced that he underwent a surgical procedure by inserting pacemaker, i.e., battery in his chest. A Pacemaker, as is popularly known medically, is a small battery that is placed under the skin in one’s chest to help control the heartbeat. The troubling concern is that the pacemaker upon which Oldman Boakai is relying to keep him alive can give up at anytime”, he noted.
Giving reliance to his assertion on former VP Boakai, he said “In addition to the troubling facts stated supra, in another interview on VOA, Oldman Joseph Boakai stated that he is well because, according to him, “he has not visited a hospital in two years”. Pray tell, who in the world can safely say that he or she is medically-fit without a medical examiner’s report? Besides, how sensible is it that an unwell Oldman whose very existence is determined by a pacemaker is not doing regular medical check-ups?”
Making his case further against the presidential ambition of VP Boakai he noted,“I am of the view that democratic competition encourages active engagement with citizenry. And that someone who is sick cannot fully participate as head of a ticket in a democratic competition. And so, those who truly love Oldman Boakai need to encourage him not to further task his declining health by participating in a rigoristic democratic competition”.
You see, there is a rational-basis jurisprudence associated with the issue of retirement. At a certain age, preferably under precarious declining health conditions, people are encouraged to respectfully retire because in many instances, the stamina to carry on and do the heavy-lifting would elude you. This respectable tradition and practice are not akin to western culture alone, it is even practiced in traditional African culture whereby our elderly people are discouraged from doing heavy-farming work for fear of overburdening their health: particularly when afflicted by life-threatening conditions.
He noted further that “Nyonblee is aware of the ailing conditions of Oldman Joe Boakai but she’s desperately trying to exploit and take advantage of the situation. I almost laughed my socks off when one of Nyonblee’s siblings confided that she [Nyonblee] sees her pathway to the presidency through Joseph Boakia. The lady happily narrated that her sister Nyonblee wishes to be Vice President, in that, God forbids when Joe Boakai kicks the bucket, Nyonblee will automatically benefit from the ascendency clause in Article 63 of the Constitution by becoming President of Liberia; then she would subsequently appoint Dillon as her Vice President. And so, Nyonblee and her consigliore, Dillon’s motivation for supporting Joseph Boakai is nothing but nefarious, and in poor taste – highly driven by deception”.
“People ought to choose leaders on the basis of their competencies and attributes. Nyonblee and Dillon are asking us to support Joe Boakai on the basis of his widely known poor and declining health, and therefore, his natural inability to perform the duties for which he is to be elected. This is wicked indeed!
“Looking at the known incompetence of Nyonblee Karngar-Lawrence coupled with Dillon’s strange relationship with truth-telling; Liberians need to spurn these two evil geniuses”, the outspoken politician said.
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