The Man With The Patch
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Registration date : 2008-04-27
 | | Subject: Mansion Says Sirleaf is Healthy -- But Why The Declaration??? Mon Apr 28, 2008 8:46 am | |
|   A ‘Clean Bill of Health’ – Medical Clearance Ends Speculations Clouding Prez Sirleaf
04/27/08 - Rodney D. Sieh, rsieh@FrontPageAfrica.com | |
 | | Sirleaf partcipates in a recent campaign to encourage Liberians to return to the soil. Despite Sirleaf run will prove a formidable despite recent domestic troubles regarding the high price of commodities on the Liberian market. Photo Adama Thompson, Executive Mansion |
iberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has a clean bill of health, Executive Mansion sources confirmed to FrontPageAfrica Sunday, ending months of speculations regarding the health of the 69-year-old first woman to head an African nation. An official announcement is expected Monday, FPA has learned.
[size=15]  | | Sirleaf, who turns 70 on October 29 this year will be 73 when the October 2011 elections come around. |
The issue of Sirleaf’s health has been a major topic of discussions in recent weeks, raising questions about whether Sirleaf would seek a second term.
FPA has learned that Sirleaf, who is currently in the United States to seek routine medical check-up at a Connecticut hospital, missed last week’s visit of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to Monrovia. No details of the medical results have been made public, but FPA has learned that the Executive Mansion will make the announcement on Monday.
Veep Boakai dismisses Talk
The issue heightened last week when Vice President Joseph N. Boakai was forced to respond to speculations in published in the Wednesday, April 23 edition of the Chronicle Newspaper, under the caption “In President Sirleaf’s House: Troubling Disclosure.”
The Chronicle reported that Sirleaf’s elder sister Jenny Bernard on Wednesday, April 16, informed Vice President Boakai at a dinner table that the President would not be contesting the presidency for the second term. The report further asserted that Bernard asked the Vice President and other stakeholders to begin to search for a new Standard Bearer to lead the Unity Party to the next elections because the President was overworked, frustrated and sick.
However, the Inquire newspaper reported last week, that Boakai rejected the reports as baseless. Boakai, according to the Inquirer said there was no meeting on April 16 between him and the President’s sister or any other member of the Sirleaf family to discuss a political decision or any other matter, as claimed by the Chronicle.
The Vice President reportedly described the publication as tactics being employed by detractors to divert attention from the mammoth reconstruction effort. “The Unity Party led by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been more concerned about the mandate given it by the Liberian people to rebuild the devastated country. It is too early to begin thinking about succession or retention of power,” Vice President Boakai emphasized.
2011 – Scenarios in the air
 |  | | Harry Greaves | Richard Tolbert |
Although Sirleaf is yet to declare her intentions for 2011, she has in recent weeks received several appeals from Liberian groups to seek a second term. In a FrontPageAfrica interview in October 2007, Sirleaf hinted that it was still too early to ponder the decision: “I’m not even worrying about that. Right now my mandate is to deliver to the Liberian people the six years that they give me. That’s all I want to focus on. Anybody who asked me about a second term, I tell them that is far from my plan. I don’t even want to think about it. Because if you think about it then we begin the politicking right now – and I’m not ready for politics. Right now, I want to concentrate on development, I want to concentrate on the Liberian people. When we get to 2010, then we will deal with that issue,” the President said.
During a Cabinet retreat to Lofa County this year, citizens of the area appealed to Sirleaf to seriously consider running for a second term. The appeals followed a similar one made during the President’s visit to Grand Gedeh two years ago. But in response to the appeals from citizens in Lofa, Sirleaf said she is a woman, and there is an intriguing feature of silence in a woman which, except God, man will not understand. “So You’ll leave that one yea.”
During the meeting with elders and Chiefs of the county representing the seven district – Zorzor, Voinjama, Foya, Belle, Quandi Boni, and two other districts met with the President and praised Sirleaf for her development initiatives and for her leadership of taking the government to the people. The in essence said they can reciprocate this articulate and sound leadership of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf only through their votes if she should accept their petition.
With Sirleaf yet to make a second term run official, several speculations are already beginning to surface about potential scenarios for 2011. Among them are reports that a number of officials in the current government including Harry Greaves, Managing Director of the Liberian Petroleum Refinery Corporation, Richard Tolbert, head of the National Investment Commission, Internal Affairs Minister A.B. Johnson, Agriculture Minister Dr. J. Chris Toe, Governance Commission Chair Dr. Amos Sawyer, Defense Minister Brownie Samukai and Labor Minister Samuel Kofi Woods all may have hidden ambitions for the presidency. Some aides to Minister of State for Legal and Economic Affairs Morris Saytumah have also hinted that even he might throw his hat in the 2011 race.
 |  | | Liberty Party's Charles Brumskine | George Weah, Congress for Democratic Change |
With George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change already in disarray, there has been some talk of a Brumskine-Weah pairing should Sirleaf decide to seek a second term. One source told FPA, on condition of anonymity recently that Weah, who is currently repairing his handicap from the 2005 elections by trying to fufill his college degree has already consented to run as a number two to Brumskine. Weah won the first round of voting and but lost in the November 8, 2005 run-off. He initially filed formal fraud charges, but subsequently dropped his allegations, citing the interests of peace. He received nearly 14% of the vote, 6% less than the second-place candidate, Sirleaf. But as apetizing as the pairing of Brumskine-Weah appears, Some critics fear the egos of both men may stand in the way of any eventual arrangements. Also complicating matters are the achilles both endured during the 2005 elections - that their message never really sunk in and they never really reach out to the ordinary LIberians as Sirleaf and the UP were able to do, especially in the run-off.
Edwin Snowe, former speaker of the House of Representatives and representative of the 5th District Montserrado County has already ruled himself out of a run at the high office, suggesting that he is not yet ready for the job. "You know I believe that the Liberian presidency is not a joke. The president of a nation is either the father or the mother of that nation and one must come with the requisite qualification. One must come with the moral credibility to lead a nation. It’s not a child’s play. I believe that the person Edwin Snowe will not be ready for the presidency come 2011,” the lawmaker told FPA recently.
FPA has also gathered that the National Patriotic Party of Charles Taylor has had several early meetings to select a standard bearer for the 2011 election according to sources inside the party. One source said the party is grooming Former Liberian Diplomat at the Liberian embassy in Washington Mr. Aaron Kollie to be its standard bearer in 2011. Sources in Monrovia have informed FPA that LPP and UPP supporters of the president have become disgruntled. These supporters believe that they have been systematically looked over for those who were not originally involved with the campaign. Information also coming from these camps is that the old progressives like Commny Wesseh, Micheal Dahn, Dusty Wollokollie and many others are having strategy meetings to stop some of those old boys from succeeding president Sirleaf if she decides not to run in 2011.
Age barrier concern for UP, Critics say
 | | Liberia's vice President Joseph Boakai will be 70 when the 2011 election rolls around. He has not ruled out a possible run. |
Besides the opposition threat, there is also the concern about the future of Boakai. At 64, Boakai would be approaching 70 when the 2011 comes around, but critics say, even if Sirleaf finally decides to run, the age-pairing could prove to be a handicap for UP. There has been some suggestions that Boakai may be dropped for a younger person to bolster the UP ticket should Sirleaf decides to run.
Boakai, too have hinted that he is in fine health. He told FPA in a 2007 interview: “I would not be moving around as much as I do and still continue to survive because in Liberia, just as much as I come here and maybe even more so, it is a twenty-four hour thing because you go to work, you are kept busy almost all through the day. You go to the house they follow you. On weekends there are programs all over. But I thank God. I mean I am okay.
That’s just politics. I mean if I am not healthy, I should be the first to know but if other people are concern that I am not healthy, they would have to come and tell me. But to replace me, let’s make people know that very clearly that I am not an appointed person. I am elected and people are speculating about a replacement as if to say the Vice President can just be replaced at any time, I think that should be some joke.
On whether he had any presidential ambitions Boakai said at the time that it was too early to make a decision. “You know, people always come to that. But my belief in life is what God has given you - the people in Liberia give us six years to prove ourselves, to improve their lives. I am more concern about the six years and what we would do to show that we are worth their confidence. My own life has been that of what God wants me to do, I’ll do it. I mean, I do not go out there chasing for this or that.”
 | | Should McCain, 70, wins the November elections, he would be the oldest person ever inaugurated as president. |
| [/img]http://www.frontpageafrica.com/images2/mugabe.bmp[/img] | | [size=10]Robert Mugabe, 84, has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since 1980. |
The age concern has not been an issue for African leaders. In Zimbabwe for example, Robert Mugabe, 84, who has been in power since 1980 party recently failed to secure control of Zimbabwe's parliament in a partial recount of March 29 votes, which lhanded the ruling party its first defeat in 28 years.
On the contrary, in the curren elections in the U.S., the age factor has also been a concern for the presumptive Republic nominee for the White House John McCain. Should McCain, 70, wins the November elections, he would be the oldest person ever inaugurated as president. As is evident from the scar on the left side of his face, he has had malignant melanoma, the most invasive and dangerous form of skin cancer. McCain recently released his medical report which showed that he is in great health.
As the political maneuvers continue in Liberia, Sirleaf’s clean bill of health will no doubt bring good news to supporters of the Unity Party government as it looks ahead to 2011. However, observers say a run without Sirleaf would no doubt leave the ballgame wide open, but make no mistake, a Sirleaf run will prove a formidable despite recent domestic troubles regarding the high price of commodities on the Liberian market. The incumbent enjoys international clout and should benefit from a sound financial bundle that the opposition may not be in the position to counter. Whatever the outcome, at least for now Sirleaf enjoys a clean bill of health and despite her campaign pledge to only seek and serve a single term, the game of politics is full of surprises, raising the stakes for an eventful second post-war election which from all indications appears to have the makings of difficult decision for Sirleaf as she ponders what many now see as the inevitable – a quest for a second term.
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