MDR Explodes On Cause of PYJ’s Death -Youth Spokesman Hints Betrayal By UP, Boakai Over WECC

MONROVIA – Prince Yormie Johnson, fondly called PJY, is finally resting in a kingly mausoleum where he was buried Saturday, January 18, 2025, bringing an end his mostly noisy, controversial life. Even in death, and as in burial, the noise and controversy mounted, as tributes of exceptional wit and color echoed over his coffin. The boldest and most emotional tribute came from the spokesman of his party, the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), Youth Congress which is the political asset the 19-year Senator of Nimba County and potential indictee of war crimes used quite strategically and successfully as a formidable shield to protect himself from exposure to national and international demands for war crimes prosecution. Two successive regimes spanning over 18 years capitulated to the shield as a quid pro quo for his political support, but it seems Joseph Boakai’s Unity Party regime proved immune to the PYJ charm, seemingly sparking health complications which his Party’s spokesperson at funeral credited to his death. The Analyst reports.

The Nimba County dominated Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction Youyj Congress let the cat out of the bag, with declarations about probable cause of death of their Political Leader, Prince Yormie Johnson.

At a jampacked funeral services of the late Prince Y. Johnson in Ganta City, the spokesman of the party Youth Congress, Czar Mabulu Palay, hinted that their political leader’s death had something do with war crimes court noise which had hunted Johnson over the years and hyped and amplified under Joseph Boakai whose administration so far sponsored and torpedoed a resolution on the court at the National Legislature.

The MDR Youth Congress said at the funeral attended by hundreds of eminent persons, including President Boakai that following the passage of the resolution, also signed by Senator Johnson, their political leader faced into health complications that might have hastened his demise.        

The Presidential Kingmaker

Three-time-elected Nimba County Senator not only politically dominated the second populous province (votes-rich), he also directly influenced presidential elections since 2006 – a history studded in controversy for being both a political kingmaker and a known prime suspect for war crimes.

He led his predominantly Nimbaians-dominated Independent National Patriotic Front (INPFL) faction, a defectee of the Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Party, during the Liberian civil war (1989 – 2003) and was particularly blamed for recruitment of child soldiers, rape, arbitrary killings and other crimes against humanity, including butchering to death a sitting president, Samuel K. Doe.

PYJ had always denied the labels, defending himself saying his calling to the civil war was to defend his native Nimba people who were in his words, “being butchered like chickens” by Samuel Doe and his Krahn loyalists.

The INPFL leader, who in his memoir declared, “the Gun that Liberate Will Not Rule”, entered into politics upon arrival to the country from Nigeria where he was exiled following the invasion of his Caldwell barracks by the NPFL, running and wining as a senatorial independent candidate in 2005.

He formed the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), successor of his National Union for Democratic Progress (NUDP) from which he was deposed by partisans, and had however since enforced his political claws on Nimba and on Liberian presidents and presidential candidates.

Trading Nimba for Prosecution Shield

Nimba County towers in population over all Liberian provinces save Montserrado County, and widely perceived by his kinsmen as a wartime hero, he capitalized his home-based popularity to woo ruling political parties and their standard-bearers to provide him shield against war crimes prosecution.

Both his popularity and Nimba’s population granted him a powerful clout any political establishment seeking national leadership would hardly ignore or resist.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first postwar democratically elected president, couldn’t resist. She needed Nimba, and not without PJY first. A deal was reportedly brokered, Nimba would go her Unity Party way, not only in 2005 but also 2011, and despite all the intense pressure and available opportunities – the presence of 17000-strong international stabilization forces (UNMIL) and her alliance with powerful countries during her reign – she kept the deal.

At the expiry of Sirleaf’s 12-year leadership, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in search for post-Sirleaf leadership entered into a similar contract with the MDR political leader. The CDC won the Nimba vote and therefore the presidency at the 2017 polls, reportedly also with guarantees that all the national and international bully for war crimes court would be shrugged by the regime. And for six years, Weah, like Sirleaf, did.

There was a second advent of the Unity Party, this time under the standard-bearership of Joseph Boakai. Perhaps due to the party’s earlier respect and adherence to the quid pro quo agreement with Senator Johnson, the deal sailed through easily and largely because the CDC was ambivalent in its relationships with the kingmaker. He put his weight behind Boakai, joining what was called the Unity Party Alliance.

PJY’s Headache Begins

As usual, the PJY Nimba vote was available and availed in 2023 to the UP and its standard-bearer, yet again with the understanding that the anti-war crimes deal would be in the center of it all.

Expectedly, Boakai won the presidency, and barely at inauguration, signals emerged to the effect that a smooth sail of the deal was going awry, and concerns by the PYJ and MDR started to mount.

Boakai did not keep his repulsion to the age-old political deal secrete after elections, not even beyond his inauguration, as he declared in his induction statement that establishing the war crimes court would be one of his priorities.

The apparently highly disgusted PJY mocked the newly inaugurated president immediately after the speech, when he said: “Boakai, having mentioned war crimes court in his speech, he fainted, saying, emmm emmmm.”

Sources say the last time PYJ and Boakai ever saw and talked to each other was during the inauguration day, January 22, 2024, and they never did again until his death November 28, 2024. The political benefactor (PYJ) and political beneficiary (JNB) parted company – ‘the dump truck couldn’t pass before the executive mansion after building it,’ as someone said, and the deal which survived 18 years of pressure from national and international forces on Sirleaf and Weah crashed at the behest of Boakai.

Alleged Cause of PYJ’s Death

At the funeral Saturday, January 18, many family members and prominent Nimba County citizens sounded virtually diplomatic and “politically correct” in their tributes, but that was not for political institution built by the fallen Nimba hero.

The spokesman of the party Youth, reverberated the poetic refrain of South African political activist Julius Malema delivering a tribute at the funeral of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela some time ago.

Ever since there had been simmering murmuring by some family members and some MDR bigwigs as to the ‘genesis’ or cause of PYJ’s death, and the very emotional tribute by their spokesperson broke the euphemism.

“Senator Johnson, I heard you cry one time,” the MDR Youth spokesperson said quite audibly, panting and trembling with emotions. “And let me say this here clearly. That time was the time you signed the resolution for the war crimes court.”

He continued: “When we heard that you signed the resolution, the executive committee members of the MDR rushed to your office to ask you, ‘Senator, what caused you to signed the resolution’. And you said to us, ‘It is too much. I am tired of provocation. I am tired. Liberian politicians are on me for this one war crimes court. Every day, war crimes court, war crimes court. If they want to kill me, let me die.”

Czar Mabulu Palay continued: “The week you died – the morning of the week you died – we came to Ganta to attend your program. We saw you and realized your body [weight] dropped, and we asked you. We said, ‘Senator, why are you reduced in body like this?’ And you told us, you said, ‘My mission on earth is over. You people should be brave.’

“Senator, we are not satisfied. We are not satisfied. You died from pressure of war crimes court. You died because of war crimes court. Our Father, we say, ‘your soul must rest in peace’. We are here. Your struggle will never go in vain.”

Reporting Threats to Life

Before inks got dried on the comments of Palay, reports has it that unknown persons began calling and making threatening reports targeting him.

A local paper, quoted the MDR Youth spokesman as alleging that “people have been sending me messages that I should leave Nimba because people are looking for me. The comments I made during the funeral of Senator PYJ did not go well with some people.”