Authoritative sources close to Nimba County Senator, Prince Y. Johnson, have told the Hot Pepper that, after the public and defaming betrayal against President George Manneh Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) in favor of Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai and the Unity Party (UP), the Senator is secretly sending messages to the President, soliciting money to fund his senatorial campaign bid in the up-coming 2023 general and presidential elections.
With his second term tenure elapsing this year, Senator Johnson is vying for re-election in Nimba County, but tightly rivaled by the CDC candidate, Roland Duo, and Nya D. Twayen, Jr., the former Deputy Director General of the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP).
The CDC candidate, Duo, is said to have the biggest support base in Ganta, one of Nimba’s most populated cities, and cut across the political dynamism of the county, with his father being a Gio and mother a Mano. With these leverages, in addition to the huge financial support expected from government, Duo appears to be one of the favorites for the Nimba senatorial seat come October 10, 2023.
Twayen, another contender to Senator Johnson, hails from Buutuo, located in Buu Yao, district #5, where Senator Johnson hails from. He was reportedly petitioned by rival towns of Senator Johnson’s support base. Politically, this means the “house” of Senator Johnson is for the first time putting their trust in another son, not to only contest the senatorial position but to unseat their previously trusted son, Johnson, for several and varied reasons. Twayen is also said to be financially potent and prepared for the campaign, as his humanitarian foundation, Nya D. Twayen Foundation, has been aiding the people of Nimba in the areas of education, health and sanitation since its establishment in 2018.
It is being assumed by political pundits that Senator Johnson will contest on the ticket of his Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR), with the Unity Party (UP) and its collaborating parties pledging support to him and not fielding any candidate against him. But the “godfather” of Nimba politics may be left to explore avenues of support for his campaign by himself, with little or no financial contribution from the political marriage he arranged between the UP and the MDR.
According to information, before he could break ties with the CDC government, Senator Johnson benefitted from several financial compensations, ranging from monthly support for his university college to support for security intelligence, etc. This information was corroborated by the US Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy, when he accused Senator Johnson of being involved with “pay to play”.
However, the Hot Pepper sources said after the break-up between the Senator and the government, all confidential imbursements for the Senator would be put to halt, but with the hope of finding alternatives to obtain funds from elsewhere Senator Johnson would withstand the chokes and maintain his stance against the Weah administration. According to the sources, the unfriendly posture has been on-going for nearly six months now, financially strangulating the Nimba Senator and leaving him to survive only on his monthly salary at the Liberian Senate.
Apparently reaching the heights of extreme suppression, Senator Johnson has reportedly reached out to President Weah, through message, to lend a hand to bankroll the campaign for his re-election in Nimba County.
Noted for his political inconsistency, observers are wondering about the motive of reaching out to President Weah barely three months to the conduct of the elections. They say if the information of Senator Johnson reaching out to President Weah has any iota of truth, Ambassador Boakai should begin to man-up for a political betrayal.
But contrary to their opinion, the Hot Pepper is hinted that Senator Johnson’s request did not go without a precondition—that he will continue to support the Unity Party (UP) and the election bid of Ambassador Boakai. However, at the heels of the election, he would use his pulpit to declare a vision or prophesy that President Weah would win the election. Not to be at odds with God’s Word, the man of God will then quiet down and reinitiate his age-old routine of negotiating for political spaces in the new arrangement.
“Prince Johnson cannot be trusted,” one of the sources sounded. “He may be old as a cotton tree, but his senses are as alert as the rabbit. This man knows how to maneuver his way amidst political odds and unforeseen circumstances. Both Weah and Boakai need to be careful as to how they deal with him, or they may be their own reason for their downfall.”
Prince Johnson’s betrayals started as far back as the first Liberian civil war, when he collaborated with Charles G. Taylor to form the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). It did not take long for Johnson to accuse Taylor of wanting to execute him and forming the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL). He would later capture, torture and execute President Samuel Doe.
After the war, Johnson would be elected to the Liberian Senate in 2006. In 2008, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) indicted him, then President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and others for war crimes and crimes against humanity and banned them from participating in politics for 30 years. However, during her final annual message in 2011, President Sirleaf defied the TRC report and declared that she would be a formidable candidate in the October 2011 polls. A few days later, Senator Johnson, too, would rally his supporters and declare himself a candidate in that election. He established a political rivalry between him and President Sirleaf, but would renege on his words at the dying minutes to support President Sirleaf in the run-off.
In 2017, Senator Johnson would break ties with the Unity Party government and support then Senator, George M. Weah, and take him to Nigeria to meet his Spiritual Godfather, the late T.B. Joshua. A few years into President Weah’s first term, Senator Johnson broke ties with Weah and the CDC, rejoined ranks with the Unity Party (UP) and is opting to boot Weah out. With the information that he has begun to send President Weah messages soliciting funds for campaign, one my guess that Senator Johnson has worn his betrayal cap and is getting ready for the “pay to play” matters.