-Honors Fallah, Ignores Nyumalin
Local Government Minister, Francis Nyumalin, had thought he would have succeeded in dissuading President Joseph N. Boakai from supporting Deputy House Speaker; Thomas Fallah’s newly initiated National Independent Movement for Boakai, NIMBO that was officially launched in grand style during the weekend in Monrovia.
On hearing of the pro-Boakai political movement, Minister Nyumalin, a stalwart of the ruling Unity Party, took to the airwaves and trashed the initiative, describing it as politically confused and an act of inconsistency and double-dealing by Deputy Speaker Fallah, originally a member of the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, CDC of former President George Weah.
The Local Government Minister’s remarks stirred up a public debate in which he was interpreted as urging President Boakai and his Unity Party Government to be more focused on the interest and welfare of ordinary Liberians than giving relevance to Fallah’s initiated pro-Boakai Movement.
During his recent radio appearance on the OK FM Radio Station, Nyumalin made it unequivocally clear that he wouldn’t in any way associate himself with the Fallah’s pro-Boakai Movement, apparently the same reaction he anticipated of President Boakai, whose presence and participation in the event that marked the official of launch of NIMBO spoke louder than words.
During the launch, President Boakai said he and his Unity Party-led Government are opened to every Liberian irrespective of the political party, tribe or religion they come from. “We are here to open to everybody. Let’s leave this politics business and build our Country together,” the Liberian leader said, apparently in reaction to Local Government Minister, Nyunmalin’s anti-NIMBO and Deputy Speaker, Thomas Fallah remarks.
Minister Nyunmalin and the Deputy House Speaker have been longtime political rivals in their native Lofa County of which the Liberian Leader is also a citizen.
In 2023, Fallah defeated Nyumalin in an election for a seat to represent the County in the House of Representatives.
Also during the official launch of NIMBO, President Boakai and Fallah broke a white kola nut as a sign of peace and reconciliation following the 2023 Presidential elections campaign during which Fallah, then of the former ruling CDC of George Weah, was a vicious critic of the President, his kinsman.
“I’ve never done this before,” President Boakai remarked before breaking the white Kola nut amidst a thunderous applause.
The President used the occasion to urge partisans and supporters of the ruling Party to stop what he said was internal wrangling and join hands together to build Liberia.
“Not because I can’t do it, doesn’t me that you cannot,” Boakai also said, adding that it is not about the next elections, but about the next generation.
For Deputy Speaker Fallah, the mission of NIMBO is to ensure that President Boakai and his Unity Party win a second term of office during the 2029 presidential and legislative elections.
During the official launch of NIMBO, Fallah in a sharp reaction to the opposition CDC’s planned come-back to national leadership, said the CDC was given the opportunity to lead the Country, but misused it. “What did you leave in the Executive Mansion that you want to come for,” he asked rhetorically amidst cheers.
Forty nine out of the seventy three members of the House of Representatives or the Lower House of the Liberian Legislature witnessed the official launch of the pro-Boakai Movement. For Local Government Minister Francis Nyumalin, his absence was conspicuous at such an elaborate occasion where President Boakai a white cola nut with Deputy Speaker Fallah as a demonstration of peace and reconciliation following the 2023 acrimonious presidential elections.
