Nimbaians should decide on ‘President or VP’

By Lincoln G. Peters 

Presidential hopeful Dr. Jeremiah Z. Whapoe has called on his countrymen in Nimba to decide if they want the county to produce a president or a vice president.

He has branded the vice presidency as an errand and office boy job, challenging Nimba to decide between producing a president and a vice president.

Dr. Whapoe’s kinsman Senator Jeremiah Koung is standing as running mate to Liberia’s main opposition leader Amb. Joseph Nyumah Boakai, leader of the former ruling Unity Party (UP).

Meanwhile, Dr. Whapoe said he has no problem with Senator Koung standing as running mate to Amb. Boakai.

Citizens in Saclepea, Nimba County Electoral District #7 over the weekend endorsed Dr. Whapoe’s bid for the Liberian presidency in the pending October 10, 2023, elections.

Addressing his kinsmen, Whapoe said Nimbaians and Liberians in general, didn’t send him to America to acquire better education to become an errand boy for anyone. 

Locals reacted to Whapoe’s argument with excitement and dancing, chanting: “We want the president, we don’t need [the] vice president.”

Based on his people’s acceptance of his message, Dr. Whapoe said he will be on the ballot in October.

“The people who say Nimba County is not ready to produce [a] president yet, when they [are] ready, it’s in this same county they can look for their running mate,” Whapoe lamented. 

“When you, the Nimba and Liberians in general, send me to go to school in America and I learned and came back, I didn’t come to Liberia with the establishment of this party to look for [a] vice president job,” he maintained. 

The opposition Vision for Liberia Transformation Party (VOLT) political leader said his mother didn’t birth him to be the tail.

“I was born to be the head. Nimba County didn’t school me to be somebody’s office boy. Vice president’s job is an office boy’s work,” Dr. Whapoe noted.

Without giving evidence, Whapoe accused the government of trying to cheat in the just-ended voter registration process to reduce Nimba’s population.

But he said the county still has 308,000 registered voters. With that number, Whapoe believes that if Nimba is united and puts all its votes behind one of its sons, that person can be the next president. 

The VOLT political leader explained that his quest for the presidency is not because he is handsome or educated.

Instead, he said it’s because of the suffering and the violation of the rights of Nimbaians and Liberians in general.

Dr. Whapoe said he is contesting because he is tired of hearing people provoking Nimba County that it is not prepared to produce a president.

“This is a serious presidential election that is coming and everyone of you will see people coming. But it’s left with you to know who loves you and [is] willing to transform this country.”

“Nimba has produced too many representatives and Senators, but … Nimba is looking this way. If your sons and daughters don’t fight and labor hard to build their private houses, nothing [is] going to be here,” he stated. 

He alleged that nothing is coming from the government for the people of Nimba to benefit.

He believes that it’s time for the people of Nimba to make their own president to attract something meaningful to the county. 

He described Nimba County as the greatest County in Liberia. 

Dr. Whapoe said he is excited that Jeremiah Koung is serving as running mate to Amb. Boakai because he loves, respects and holds Boakai in very high esteem.