By Jerry J. Gbardy, Political Commentator & Groove 106FM Contributor
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From the looks of things, Lady Momentum is rapidly kissing your campaign
good bye and shifting to a footballer. Your party is in complete disarray — split right in the middle between those who support you, Party Chairman Wilmot Paye and Cllr Varney Sherman who is having an acrimonious relationship with Madam Sirleaf in one corner and those who support the President in the other. You are finding it harder and harder to persuade and convince Liberians why they should give you another six years given the twelve years of hardship and suffering your administration has brought to bear on the people. Campaigning is getting increasingly difficult and so desperation is setting in for which you are calling on Liberians “not to vote for a footballer.” That call speaks to the level of frustration I am referring to. FrontPageAfrica newspaper attributed a statement to you in its August 25th edition under the heading, “’Don’t Vote for Footballer’ – Vice President Boakai Admonishes Supporters,” you warned supporters: “If you vote for a footballer you will be kick (ed) (past tense mine) like a football because that is the work of a footballer.”
Really? No, Honorable Boakai, George Weah will not kick the Liberian people around like football. He loves the people and they love and believe in him. During his illustrious football career, he combined mental and physical toughness with skills to outsmart and dribble opponents, chip goalies, outrun defenders, and score goals that were incredibly breadth-taking and spectacular by kicking the ball only and not people. That is why in 1995, he conquered Africa, Europe, and the world in football. If he did not kick opponents around in the past to win those laurels in football, he will not kick his own people around, plain and simple. In a game of football, if you kick your opponent instead of the ball, you will be shown a red card and that ultimately means automatic ejection. The funny thing about your statement is that you are berating a football icon yet here you are, going on soccer fields, taking kick-offs and asking players to vote for you. In other words, you are telling them that they are bunch of nobodies because they play football but hypocritically you want them to vote for you.
George Weah took a little over six years – from the closing stages of 1988 to 1995 – to reach the zenith of his foot-balling career. Therefore, when he takes the Presidential Oath of Office in January 2018, his first order of business within the first six years will be to give you a proper retirement package and not kick you around, that is a promise. Thereafter, he will build the Menokona Road so that when you are travelling to Monrovia to pick up your pension check, you will have a smooth ride and not get stuck in the mud as is presently happening. Remember, Sir the Menokona Road project was started by your former boss, President Samuel Doe, from Gbarnga to your home county of Lofa, but you and your present boss, Madam Sirleaf did not dare touch it for almost twelve years which prompted you to apologize to the people of Lofa as was reported in the August 28th edition of FrontPage Africa under the heading: “VP Apologizes to Lofa County For Not Addressing Critical Concerns.”
Uncle Joe, sorry Sir, but that apology came twelve years too late. For almost twelve years you have been dutifully playing second fiddle to Madam Sirleaf but abandoned your own people of Lofa County only to apologize to them and unconscionably promised them thus: “Let me simply and humbly apologize and ask that we continue to believe that the time for it to happen is at hand. God willing it will be done soon.” How can you, with straight face, look in the eyes of the people of Lofa County and ask them to vote for you after you abandoned them for twelve years? Where were you, Sir? That is a hard sell and you know it, Uncle Joe. I am not sure whether you can redeem yourself.
For almost twelve years, you and President Sirleaf have presided over a government with failing schools, endemic corruption, poor healthcare delivery system, bad roads and in some areas, no roads at all, which make the southeastern region and other parts of Liberia seem like a region in the 17th century. Pictures from Rivercess, Grand Kru, Grand Gedeh, Lofa and Sinoe Counties and parts of Nimba are horrible. And now you want the people to give you and your party another six years? What you did not do in 12 years, even though you had the opportunity but shirked that responsibility, cannot be done in six years. You had your chance but blew it.
Another thing, Uncle Joe, you keep playing the victim by stating that the President never asks you to recommend anyone for any ministerial post and also insinuating that she does not consult you on major policy issues and so you are fighting tooth and nail to distance yourself from the government’s failed policies. But you want to take credit for some of the good things that the government has done; for example, the roads constructed from Monrovia to Ganta and from Harbel to Buchanan? That does not fly. If you want to distance yourself from Madam Sirleaf for the failed government policies, you cannot and should not take credit for the good ones either. You cannot have it both ways.
Just to refresh your memory, Honorable Vice President: in 2014, during the Montserrado County senatorial election in which President Sirleaf’s favorite son, Robert Sirleaf was pitted against Amb George Weah, the Unity Party, through its then Secretary General (now Chairman) Wilmot Paye, called a press conference and made a scathing attack against Robert Sirleaf. The Party disavowed Robert Sirleaf in no uncertain terms and went as far as barring partisans from voting for him by over-emphasizing that any partisan who supported Robert Sirleaf would be doing so at their own risk. Unity Party publicly disgraced him and figuratively threw him under the bus. In that election, Robert Sirleaf went on to be embarrassingly trounced by Amb Weah. That began the watershed moment between the Sirleafs and the Party. Madam Sirleaf blames you partly for that. An aide close to President Sirleaf has said that the President will not support you and the Unity Party simply because you did not rein in Mr. Paye.
Senator George Weah will win this election because the Liberian people are behind him. He is battle-tested and has better organizational machine this time around. You have a humble beginning just as he is but what sets him apart from you is that he is younger and his message of hope is resonating with Liberians, especially the young people who make up majority of the voting population. They love him, believe in him and will vote for him. The Liberian people see you and Madam Sirleaf as one of the same – ones who they sincerely believe have failed to meet their socio-economic needs. Therefore, they will not give the Unity Party another six years.
