MONROVIA – The Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel Falo McGill, has termed as “nonsense and stupid” recent media report that he has covertly been positioning himself and campaigning to succeed President George Manneh Weah in 2029 should the President get re-elected in 2023.
The perception of Minister McGill’s purported succession intention came to the fore over the weekend when it was reported in the media of his visit to Margibi and Bong Counties on an outreach adventure which according to him was to take the message of the President to the people as well as herald the stewardship of President George Manneh Weah since his ascendancy in 2018.
Speaking to The Analyst Newspaper in an exclusive interview, McGill, who is also the Chief of Office Staff of the President, said he was taken aback over the report and could not fathom the intent of the report regarding his alleged ambition to succeed President Weah in 2029, when the President in fact is yet to be re-elected for a second term.
“I call it nonsense because, it will even be naïve for anybody to think about it, while we are talking about electing President Weah for the second term, then people are dreaming about my succession plan. There is no succession plan in the CDC. It will be naïve for anybody to think that I want to succeed the President, when the President has not won his second term”, McGill told The Analyst in an exclusive interview.
Minister McGill said what is obtaining presently is that everybody in the government, including the Vice President, he (McGill), Cabinet ministers and junior ministers, are actively campaigning for President Weah’s second term come 2023, a project which he said he has been heavily involved in and has been in the forefront driving it. He also rubbished the thought that he was positioning himself as a threat to the Vice President in terms of being relevant in the eyes of the President and being well placed to be the next Vice President.
“I am the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, everything that covers the affairs of the President is my responsibility to explain it to the people. I am only going out to the people and explaining what the President and the government are doing. I am not doing anything strange, so when somebody says I am threatening the Vice President’s job, that is the biggest stupidity ever.
“I am not going to be a candidate on the ballot paper, I am not going to be a candidate in 2023; you will never see McGill’s name on any ballot paper, so for people to go around saying, oh McGill wants to be Vice President, that is nonsense. And beside that, I am the Chairman on the nomination Committee for the President. How then can I be at the same time trying to be Vice President? They should desist from such an irresponsible reporting”, he said.
When asked why there have been reports that he has been projecting his name to carry out initiatives instead of the president, McGill outrightly rejected the allegation. “That’s a lie. If anybody says it, I say that person has lied, I always say the President. When I even went to KaKata, I said on behalf of the Friends of President Weah, we will contribute this amount. How can I be promoting myself when I am not going to be on the ballot paper? What kind of stupidity is that?” Minister McGill wondered.
Continuing, he clarified that other people printed T-shirts with his name and photo emblazoned on the t-shirts, but he had no knowledge of how t-shirts were printed. “I don’t know who did that, but what will be the rationale, when people print banners and put my name on it? It does not mean anything. I am the Minister of State, there are friends of McGill who are going around and saying McGill and the President. That has been their way of promoting the President,” McGill stated.
The Minister who is regarded as one of the most respected and close confidantes of the President also distanced himself from the story linking him to an ambition of being a running mate to President Weah in 2023, implying that the President may ditch VP Taylor and choose him.
“I don’t want to be Vice President. My job is a powerful job, being the Minister of State is sufficient. I am very content to be the Minister of State; I am the only person who is the principal Assistant to the President. Why will I leave that job to be Vice President?
“I think the writer should go and write for another party, because I don’t have interest in the Vice President position, and there is no desire on the part of the President to make me Vice President.
When you follow all my tapes, I have never said Nathaniel McGill anywhere. I always say the President or the government”, he concluded.
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