- Says She Gave Liberia to Unqualified People In 2017

Miatta Fahnbulleh, one of Liberia’s prominent women, has said she holds grudge against the former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who she accused of betraying former vice president, Joseph Boakai, now President of Liberia. Miss Fahnbulleh recalled that the ex-woman president, in 2017, turned Liberian over to whom, she referred to as unqualified group of people.

Fahnbulleh, a onetime staunch supporter of the ex-president, did not mention any name, but was obviously referring to ex-president George Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change, CDC. She said rather than supporting her own vice president  in the 2017 elections, Sirleaf chose to support Weah and the CDC, terming that as a betrayal not only to ex-vice president Boakai, but also to the Nation.

Admitting that she supported and campaigned for Sirleaf, who became Liberia and Africa’s first woman president, Madam Fahnbulleh said Sirleaf alleged support for Weah and the CDC over her own vice president, now president, was an act of betrayal and ingratitude to her own Party and Vice President.

“I still begrudge Madam Sirleaf for her acts of betrayal and ingratitude against Boakai,” Fahnbulleh said.

Fahnbulleh, an ardent critic of former President Weah, said she and her family lived out of Liberia during the six years of Weah’s administration because, according to her, she and her family could not have lived in the Country under what she said was an incompetent regime.

Her comments came at a time Liberian women were this year paying homage to prominent women that made significant strides to politics, peace building, and leadership.

Notably Liberian women falling in this category, would include former President Sirleaf, Africa’s first woman president, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Leymah Gbowee, trailblazing diplomat, Angie Brooks-Randolph, former permanent representative of Liberia to the United Nations, the late Ma Mary Brownell, Fahnbulleh’s own mother, and others.

 “I have deleted former President Sirleaf from my list of prominent and respected Liberian women for her decision to have turned the Country over to a group of unqualified and incompetent group of  Liberians,” Fahnbulleh, popularly known as Aunty Miatta, recently said on the night time radio talk show, ‘Night Time Heat’ on Prime FM Radio in Monrovia, obviously in reference to former President George Weah and his Coalition for Democratic Change or CDC.

Although former Presidents Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf did not publicly endorse Congress for Democratic Change, CDC and George Weah for the Liberian presidency in 2017 over her own Party’s candidate, Joseph Boakai, her own vice president for 12 years, she supported the CDC and Weah for the presidency.

It can also be recalled that her support for Weah and the CDC resulted into major fallout with the Unity Party.

In 2018, the Unity Party also expelled Sirleaf on allegation of violating the Party’s constitution for campaigning for Weah and his CDC.

Some Liberians, at the time, said Sirleaf support for Weah and his CDC, was in support of what they called ‘generational change’.

For others, Sirleaf had struck a deal with Weah and his CDC behind the scene not to audit her administration or pursue legal actions against her and her family if they won the elections. Whether those claims were right or wrong, for their six-year tenure, Weah and the CDC administration did not audit the Sirleaf 12-year regime although there were widespread allegations of corruption and mismanagement under that administration.

In contrast, when Joseph Boakai and his Unity Party assumed state power, they immediately began an audit of the Weah and his CDC administration, demanding accountability and transparency, an audit that supporters of the CDC and other critics of the current regime call a witch-hunt of officials of the Weah’s administration.