Africa-Press – Liberia. Madame Wadei Powell , Normally I would have dismissed your rejoinder to my article “Something Former President Sirleaf Needs to Know and Understand-She is Not the ALPHA and OMEGA of Politics in Liberia!” published January 16, 2022.
Initially, I had seen your rejoinder as the musings of an ill-informed and confused mind simply on account of the fact that the strength of your rejoinder is grounded in logical fallacies, half-truths, and outright lies.
And you write as though you know me but, I do not know you neither have I met you nor do I care to meet you.
However, being fully aware of the predatory, unwholesome and slimy interests you represent, and in view of overwhelming allegations that you have been involved in acts of corruption at various places of employment, I felt a compelling need to respond to your tissues of lies and half-truths.
I understand that you have since landed employment with the Musa Bility run, Sheik Raheem Import, Export (SRIMEX), dealers in petroleum products.
You are probably aware that Musa Bility was sanctioned by the World Football governing body (FIFA) and banned for ten(10) years from all FIFA sponsored activities for alleged corruption.
Given your alleged history of corruption at previous places of employment, I wonder just how long you are going to last in that outfit. And I need not remind you of the old saying, ‘THIEVES SOON FALL OUT”.
I shall preface my comments by informing and or reminding you that the interests you represent have done immeasurable harm to the posterity of this nation.
They have presided over the plunder of the country’s resources and the mortgaging of large tracts of its arable land(40%) to predatory investors under the rubric of 64 bogus concession agreements.
They have deliberately refused to pay their legal obligations to the Road Fund from monies/taxes derived from the sale of petroleum products.
According to informed sources, they owe so much money to various banks including a particular bank(name withheld) which have not been paid to the point where, according to sources, the Bank fears a rundown on its offices should the public and depositors get to know the truth of the Bank’s financial situation.
They have also conspired with corrupt judicial officials to bastardize the Liberian Constitution and have shed innocent blood. In all of this, they have portrayed themselves as clean and shining examples of good leadership.
But beneath this veneer of hypocrisy lies a sorry tale of corruption involving family members, friends, and close associates.
Let me inform you also, Madame Powell that I know from reliable sources, who your ghostwriter(s) is/are and they all come from the same slimy bunch.
Some, according to sources, are known spin doctors of former President Sirleaf while others are cuts of the rebel NPFL stock and its indicted war criminal leader and former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor.
But let me warn you to prepare yourself to spin many more lies and half-truths as rejoinders for there will certainly be more from me on developments in our country especially those concerning the former President’s nefarious activities.
And now to your(Ms. Powell) rejoinder “Lying to Deceive-Rejoinder to John H. T. Stewart’s Write Up ” as carried in the January 31, 2022 edition of the FrontPage Africa newspaper.
The first paragraph of your (Ms. Powell’s) rejoinder to my analysis of current developments unfolding in the now-dead Collaboration of Political Parties(CPP) highlighting the role of former President Sirleaf begins with an appeal to emotion which is in effect a logical fallacy.
Rather than dealing with the issues I raised, she launches a personal attack against me referring to me as “CLASSLESS. MEAN SPIRITED” and my article, “DISTASTEFUL”.
This is all because, according to her, former President Sirleaf was mourning the loss of her son when I published my article.
But in the same vein Ms. Powell sees nothing amiss about her patronne, former President Sirleaf while in mourning, writing a letter to ECOWAS leaders urging their intervention to purge ANC leader Alexander Cummings of the criminal charges levied against him.
This kind of faulty reasoning is an example of a logical fallacy called Ad hominin just so you know Madame Powell.
According to Dr. Richard Nordquist, Professor of English at the University of Georgia, “Ad hominem is a logical fallacy that involves a personal attack: an argument based on the perceived failings of an adversary rather than on the merits of the case.
Using an ad hominem fallacy pulls the public’s attention off the real issue and serves only as a distraction. In some contexts it’s unethical. It’s also called argumentum ad hominem, abusive ad hominem, poisoning the well, ad personam, and mudslinging. The attacks serve as red herrings to try to discredit or blunt the opponent’s argument or make the public ignore it—it’s not just a personal attack but one stated as a counterattack to the position”.
Ms. Powell, falsely claiming that former Vice President Boakai is my benefactor also maintains that whether I like it or not, President Sirleaf is a force in Liberian politics evidenced by her two-term win of the Liberian Presidency.
I should also add the manipulation of the electoral commission and electoral process which resulted in elections characterized by fraud.
That development nearly pushed the nation to the brink of conflict and violence, although the Supreme Court ruled the fraud was not of a magnitude significant enough to overturn the results of the 2017 elections.
The nation can also recall how just on the eve of elections she summoned Elections Magistrates to her home accompanied by a UN official to discuss electoral matters.
And of course, the email intercepts between her Finance Minister Amara Konneh and others talking about transporting fake ballots to southeast Liberia was widely bandied on social media.
More to that, she engineered the elections and impeachment of Speakers Edwin Snowe and Alex Tyler, and above all, masterminded the passage of 64 bogus concession agreements into law through bribery of legislators.
Having left the presidency, she still has fingers in the pie desperately in search of a successor who would guarantee her impunity to the same extent that President Weah has provided her in obvious gratitude for the role she played in bringing him to power.
She had, prior to the elections, tilted towards Brumskine but after polls showed Weah in a commanding lead, and that Brumskine would not even place second, she quickly pivoted towards George Weah and eventually ensured his victory.
Apparently possessed by feelings of grandeur like her NPFL counterpart, Charles Taylor, who extended his reach into Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast, she has now dipped her fingers into politics in Sierra Leone.
Her recent action prompted a stinging backlash from the Mayor of Freetown, Florence Blyden who publicly castigated her and cautioned her to take her hand out of politics in Sierra Leone.
Putting all this together, one can truly say that former President Sirleaf is indeed a force in Liberian politics and perhaps much further afield.
But this comes with a caveat-She is not the Alpha and Omega in Liberian politics. She is instead the Alpha and Omega of POLITRICKS in Liberia.
As to her(Ms. Powell) claims that I wrote my article in support and defense of former Vice President Boakai, it appears obvious that she is feigning pretense about not having read my subsequent article on the same subject for both articles were published just within a week following the first.
The first article, “Something Former President Sirleaf Needs to Know and Understand– She is Not the ALPHA and OMEGA of Politics in Liberia”, was published on January 16, 2022, while my other article, very critical of the former Vice President “The Joe Boakai-Alex Cummings Failed Accra Meeting in Retrospect” was published on January 21, 2022.
Note that Ms. Powell’s rejoinder was published on January 31, 2022, almost two weeks after my publication in FrontPage Africa of the article in retrospect of Boakai’s Accra visit. But she has cherry-picked one with the intent to impeach the other.
If my support for his (former VP Boakai) 2017 presidential quest qualifies the former Vice President as my benefactor, then the same should apply to former President Sirleaf as well since I actively supported her 2005 presidential campaign as well as her 1997 campaign against Charles Taylor.
I have no idea where Ms. Powell was at the time in 1997 when on former President Sirleaf’s campaign trail en route to Sanniquellie, Nimba County we were greeted with acid splashed on us by supporters of Charles Taylor.
I also have no idea where Ms. Powell was when at the time during the 1980s when comrades of mine assigned at her Congo Town home, guarded, protected and escorted her(former President Sirleaf) to safety from former President Doe’s pursuing security forces.
Ms. Powell probably needs to ask this formidable lady politician how she rewarded those who laid their lives on the line for her believing she was indeed genuinely fighting on behalf of the Liberian people.
This includes the family of the Immigration officer who committed suicide fearing reprisals from Doe for facilitating her escape from Liberia.
It also includes the Collins family on 19th Street during the 1980s where she sought refuge for some time before she took off for Buchanan to surreptitiously board a small aircraft arranged by a Liberian businessman to flee the country.
That businessman (name withheld) who sustained great financial losses on that account is still around today. To the best of publicly available information, he has not received a dime in compensation for his losses.
Further, do I need to ask the wife and family of General Thomas Quiwonkpa who was lured from asylum in the US to lead an invasion force to topple Doe, and what they received in reparations for his untimely death?
Or do I need to ask how Harry Greaves was rewarded for his friendship when their relationship went sour?
As to why Joseph Boakai lost out during the 2017 elections, is yours to answer which you have done in your rejoinder.
However, I believe the principal reason is because of President Sirleaf. She did not trust him as a gate-keeper committed to protecting her predatory interests.
Her “I take responsibility” statement for the theft of millions of dollars from the National Oil Company NOCAL, under the watch of her son Robert Sirleaf and for which she has not made restitution, is a clear example of how this government has colluded with Madame Sirleaf to cover-up theft of such magnitude.
Similarly, under her watch and that of President Weah’s, 16bn Liberian dollar banknotes went missing. Her son was then serving as Deputy Governor. He and the Governor proper were criminally charged but in the end, nothing came out of the case.
To sum up, and going by all the above, the former President has been and remains a powerful political force in Liberia but an unwholesome one at that judging by her record of corruption and unceasing attempts to control things from a distance for her personal benefit.
More to this, I do not need any lecture from you(Ms. Powell) as to why Boakai lost the 2017 elections. It is something that Boakai will have to analyze or has probably done so.
In view of this, I must hasten to remind you that the focus of my article/analysis was on the CPP and why it has fallen apart.
You have addressed none of those issues but instead, have rambled over a host of reasons why Joseph Boakai lost the 2017 elections and why he is, according to you, unfit to lead the CPP.
Again I must remind you that the issue is not whether Alexander Cummings or Joseph Boakai is best suited to lead. Neither is it about former President Sirleaf as a powerful force to reckon with in Liberian politics.
It is an analysis of the situation involving Urey’s lawsuit against Cummings and the fallout implications for the CPP. Those are the issues that Ms. Powell has failed to address.
For example, Ms. Powell has neither admitted nor denied allegations that former President Sirleaf while in her period of mourning wrote ECOWAS leaders urging their intervention to purge Cummings of the criminal charges filed against him.
In another appeal to emotion,(a logical fallacy), Ms. Powell writes “Strange things are happening and Liberians need to open their eyes and ears very wide!. Stewart is daring to suggest that our courts, aware of an obvious interest from the administration to break up and destroy the CPP to the political benefit of George Weah’s reelection effort, will be fair to Cummings. Even your 1-year-old child will not believe that line! Cummings is in the docket because he represents a threat to the current administration’s chances of victory in 2023”.
But the stubborn fact is Cummings is in Court because of a lawsuit filed against him and others accusing them of forgery and criminal conspiracy although Cummings has since maintained his innocence.
Ms. Powell’s assertion that “Cummings is in the docket because he represents a threat to the current administration’s chances of victory in 2023” is very highly speculative and not grounded in facts.
Cummings did not even place fourth in the 2017 elections and contrary to the hype that he would have ended up in the runoff with George Weah he placed a distant fifth.
In several by-elections held since there is no record to show that ANC candidates were massively voted into office. I challenge Ms. Powell to provide any such evidence to the contrary.
Ms. Powell further maintains without providing evidence that Urey, Boakai and Karnga Lawrence are involved in a conspiracy with the current administration to thwart Cummings’ chances of victory at the 2023 polls under the banner of the CPP.
The fact is Cummings has been accused of altering their CPP framework document. He has denied those accusations and he is on record for having urged Urey to take his case to the law if indeed he harbored any suspicions of misdeed.
The matter is now in Court and Ms. Powell wants the public to believe that the framework document was not altered as claimed by Urey yet she does not want the court to determine the matter on grounds that the trial will not be fair.
And she further claims that the George Weah administration is behind the lawsuit which she claims is politically motivated meaning that it will not be fair.
In an attempt to justify her bogus and asinine assertions she says Boakai and I go back a long way while Urey is my longtime buddy and in-law from Careysburg as reasons why, according to her, I support Boakai and Urey.
But she fails to mention that Cummings and I also go back a long way as high school classmates. By the way, Cummings and I still maintain our friendship.
That however does not mean that I cannot be critical of his actions particularly when those actions bear implications for national peace, social cohesion, national security, and stability.
Similarly, I have written a critical article of Joseph Boakai whose friendship with me, as Ms. Powell claims, goes way back. Our friendship however does not mean I cannot be critical of his actions either.
As for Urey, our friendship also goes way back but that, notwithstanding, we have also had our political differences over the years yet we still do maintain a friendly relationship although I have been very critical of him on several issues.
As for the George Weah administration, I have made no secret over the years of my critical disposition towards national governance under his leadership.
In CDC circles, according to informed sources, I am regarded as an opposition figure. This is how I was viewed in the Ellen government as well.
As a matter of fact, my attempts to have Finance Minister Tweah complete my payment of TRC arrears which her roguish Finance Minister Amara Konneh deliberately refused to honor for personal reasons, failed. He rebuffed me saying that government did not have the money.
I have never since met him on the matter although I had previously documented my concerns in a letter to him.
Aside from this, I have never sought any job, political appointment, or favors from this administration neither did I do so during the reign of Madame Sirleaf.
What then would provide such motivation that I would now hop aboard a conspiracy train involving the very Weah administration to derail Cummings’ chances at the 2023 polls is something she needs to answer.
In her further attempt to assail my character and divert focus from the issues I raised, Ms. Powell writes: “Given Stewart’s long journey from being a soldier in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), it is understandable that he may not like Cummings bursting onto the political scene and calling for real change as if none have been here with their noses to the ‘grinding stones’ for some kind of ‘change’. Stewart and others think Cummings needs to wait in some imaginary line, conspiratorially drawn for “progressives”. But to smear the man for daring to challenge the nation, without caring to cast a wider look at the consequences of the obvious conspiracy on the nation and our hard-won democracy, is shortsighted and blemishes any “progressive” badge he may wear.”
But what does my having been a soldier in the Armed Forces of Liberia have to do with the issues and how does it inform the discussion is what beats the imagination.
Moreover, I can confidently boast of having been, along with other comrades at the frontlines against tyranny and oppression in Liberia.
And for this, we have paid a steep price, false imprisonment, torture and even death. We did not bide our time waiting for fortune to favor us before staking a claim to national leadership as others did or have done.
Ms. Powell’s false assertion is another clear example of the logical fallacy referred to as “ad hominin” or “poisoning the well”.
On that score, she probably needs to inquire from Mr. Cummings whether indeed he did perform military duty as required then under the 1847 Constitution, of all males between the ages of 16 to 45. I did serve in keeping with my Constitutional obligations.
As a participant, I recall then on July 25, 1971, units of the various branches of the Armed Forces of Liberia under the command of Divisional Commander Major-General William H. Phillips were conducting full dress rehearsal in preparation for the observation of July 26 independence celebrations when it was announced that President Tubman had died in a London clinic.
I participated in military ceremonies attending his funeral and burial. I was then serving as command sergeant-major of the 1st battalion, 1st infantry regiment Armed Forces of Liberia.
I also participated in the 1972 inaugural ceremonies of President Tolbert following intensive training in Drill and Ceremony at the Camp Shiefflin Military Barracks now referred to as Camp Binyan Kesselly.
But again what does this have to do with the Urey’s lawsuit against Cummings? Absolutely nothing.
As regards Riva Levinson, alleged former economic hit-woman and PR consultant to several of Africa’s bloodiest dictators including Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Emperor Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, I repeat! She has no business meddling and interfering in Liberian politics.
Ms. Powell’s desperate and frantic effort to distance Riva Levinson from the intrigues of former President Sirleaf has drawn George Weah into the picture claiming that he hired super sleuth Ms. Levinson as PR consultant. But where did he know her from-not from former President Sirleaf?
Ms. Levinson is known to have worked for some top consulting firms owned by highly ranked US officials and may possibly have access to US intelligence files.
This is what she uses to pass off as an individual closely linked to top US officials including intelligence officials and members of Congress all in an effort to impress Liberian government officials with her supposed prowess.
But it is by no means surprising that she is hired by this government given President George Weah’s solemn pledge to protect the predatory “interests” of the former President. We are aware she encouraged him to do so to keep her pot boiling.
Ms. Riva Levinson has no love for Liberia but she ostensibly has great love and longing for illicit enrichment through bogus payments of thousands of dollars by corrupt government officials.
Is it any wonder why she was caught on tape discussing the sale of the iron-rich Wologisi mountain to predatory interests by bribing legislators?
Under US law, probably the Magnitsky Act, she could be criminally charged for soliciting money from predatory investors and aiding and abetting them to bribe Liberian legislators to buy off the Wologisi mountain.
This was during the tenure of President Sirleaf and she Riva Levinson using her contacts with President Sirleaf as leverage, threatened the New Democrat reporter who broke the story as well as the Management of the Daily Observer.
After all, bribery of legislators was an established practice introduced and encouraged by former President Sirleaf.
This is how the former President succeeded in passing into law 64 bogus concession agreements out of a total of 66 concession agreements passed into law under her watch.
And now coming on the heels of Riva Levinson’s implied threat of sanctions and apparently to prove a point, is a resolution coming from a US Congressman urging the application of targeted sanctions against officials of this government for corruption.
And unsuspectingly, media practitioners have run away with the story. Just when the US government become so concerned about corruption in Liberia given the past government’s history of corruption against which not a finger was lifted.
All this recent hue and cry about corruption is part and parcel of tactics of intimidation intended to coerce the government into dropping criminal charges against Mr. Cummings for fear of being sanctioned. And it fits neatly into former President Sirleaf’s grand strategy.
Having failed to convince ECOWAS leaders to act in line with her recommendations to intervene in the lawsuit against Mr. Cummings for fear of Hell and Damnation befalling the nation, she has now turned to use of threats of US imposed sanctions.
By the way when several auditors of the Liberian Revenue Agency(LRA) were brutally murdered by individuals suspected to be linked to this government where was Riva Levinson and did she urge sanctions? No!
Similarly, when the lifeless body of Harry Greaves washed ashore a local beach with a wooden stick protruding from his anus and his arms contracted as if in a defensive posture, were there calls for sanctions? No!
Riva Levinson, according to sources played a key role in sourcing pathologists in the US willing to play up to the “White” lie that Greaves died by drowning.
Initial examination of Greaves’ lifeless body was done by a female medical practitioner, Dr. Koboi and it was conducted right in the back of the pickup truck that conveyed the body to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center minutes after its retrieval from a local beach. Her findings were reported in the FrontPage Africa newspaper.
These are all examples of former President Sirleaf’s wicked prowess as a force to reckon with in Liberian politics as a true and tested Machiavellian.
In 1990, she downplayed concerns about Jackson Doe’s safety behind Taylor’s lines, not even caring, according to Tom Woewiyu, to inquire about his wellbeing even after news of his killing had become public.
And according to the late Thomas Woewiyu, she had a hand in his death including those of politicians Gabriel Kpolleh and David Dwanyen.
Further, according to Woewiyu, she encouraged the NPFL leadership and goaded Charles Taylor into launching the 1992 Operation Octopus, an all-out military assault on Monrovia.
At the time she was serving as the top UNDP official for Africa. It can be recalled how the UNDP resident representative at the time, Ross Mountain, was pressuring the ECOWAS force commander, General Olatunji Olurin(deceased) to open a relief corridor from Monrovia through ECOMOG’ defensive lines to convey food to rural Liberia.
As General Olurin would recall later, Ross Mountain’s request was absurd because the NPFL had available to it, the ports of Buchanan, Greenville and Harper as well as various ports of entry at several border crossings to convey food into Liberia.
And more besides opening a relief corridor to Gbarnga would have severely compromised ECOMOG’s defensive posture and the safety of Monrovia residents.
But this was vintage Ellen Sirleaf, attempting for the second time to starve Monrovia into submission so she could benefit from the spoils.
But Taylor, having seen through her schemes, would instead declare himself President rather than turning over the presidency to her had he succeeded.
During the 2003 peace talks in Accra, she vigorously campaigned to have conference delegates elect her as an interim leader because according to her she needed at most two years to turn the country around but she failed to prove convincing.
And businessman Gyude Bryant was instead elected to preside over a two-year interim period. But Madame Sirleaf feeling slighted would never forgive Gyude Bryant.
Two years later in 2005, she won her first presidential term of six years. During the initial period of her presidency, she dragged former Interim Chairman, Gyude to court on corruption charges, the first-ever in the history of Liberia.
The humiliation proved too much to bear for Gyude Bryant. He died a heartbroken man.
But Bryant was simply a nominal figure in a government dominated and controlled by warring factions. He did not even have the power to appoint his cabinet nor did he have control over the nation’s finances.
It became clear that the then President was exacting revenge for his perceived role in her preventing her from contesting on the ticket of the now-defunct Liberian Action Party.
Her move was to prove to the public that she had the resolve to tackle corruption and treat it as public enemy number 1, a pledge she made in her first inaugural address. But when it came to her corruption involving family members,—— ——— ——–, end of the story.
She then went on to win another term bringing it to a total of 12 unbroken years in office.
As events proved after twelve years in office and after debt relief, the country found itself again deeply mired in almost one billion dollars in debt.
She left office with 16bn Liberian dollar banknotes missing in thin air and the coffers of NOCAL completely depleted by her son by the time she left office in 2018.
She was even listed in the Panama Papers for her involvement in shady offshore safe haven banking schemes.
But what she failed to remember is by prosecuting former head of state Gyude Bryant, she threw wide open the doors to prosecution of former heads of state on corruption charges.
And because of her overriding desire to avoid at all costs sharing the fate of Gyude Bryant, she now finds herself in a desperate search for a successor to George Weah who will keep a lid on her secrets as he has done.
She realizes that George Weah may likely not win a second term and therefore a pitch to Cummings. But should a guilty verdict be entered against him, it would be no surprise to see her tilt once again towards George Weah.
But this time around, things will not be the same. She no longer has the power as President to fix results.
More besides, given the declining popularity of George Weah, chances are high that rigged ballots or stolen elections results will not go down well and could possibly trigger off a spate of violence.
And I stand by my assertions that patriotic and well-meaning Liberians will rise up to “defend this sacred heritage” in case she actualizes the threat of violence she has promised if Cummings is tried and convicted.
This is, by all means, no idle talk and if Ms. Powell or former President Sirleaf doubts this then let her try.
Ms. Powell would do herself and others of her ilk well to reflect on how Operation Octopus failed and was stopped right here in the swamps around Monrovia.
Then, like now, there was and there will be no lack of resolve to confront head-on and defeat any armed attempts by a band or bands of power-hungry and bloodthirsty renegades to return Liberia to its bloody past. And if it means laying down my life for this noble cause I am prepared to do so. That is all I can say and it goes especially to Ms. Powell and the slimy bunc
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