By Lincoln G. Peters
The Liberian Government and the opposition Unity Party (UP) have shared opposing public statements against the government’s claim that it has initiated contacts to help following reports that former Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai was ill.
On Friday, 13 January 2023, Mr. Boakai was discharged from the ELWA Hospital after almost three days of precautionary medical observation there.
On the same day that he was discharged, the Government of Liberia through a press statement expressed concern following reports of the ill health of Amb. Boakai.
The statement issued under the signature of Information Minister Ledgerhood J. Rennie said as a statesman and political leader of a national party, Mr. Boakai’s well-being is of utmost interest to the country.
“In view of the foregoing, the government has initiated contacts with family members of the former Vice President and offered to help in whatever way they deem necessary, while also wishing him a speedy recovery,” the government statement said.
In reaction to the government’s statement, the opposition Unity Party issued a statement rejecting the government’s claim.
Through its National Secretary General’s Office, the Unity Party on 13 January alleged that the government’s statement that it had initiated contacts with Mr. Boakai’s family members was a diabolical lie.
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UP Secretary General Amos Tweh explained that on the 12 January 2023 edition of the Spoon FM night show, a certain fellow that goes by the Keff, reported that President George Manneh Weah had called Amb. Boakai offered to fly him out of the country.
But Tweh said the Unity Party and the family members of Amb. Boakai rejected the ‘criminally contrived propaganda.’
He suggested that it was a childish, irresponsible, and desperate attempt by the presidency to play politics with the health condition of a statesman.
UP considers the government’s release as yet another callous attempt to save face and create the false impression that Amb. Boakai’s health condition is anything very serious and he is unable to pay his medical bills.
The opposition party claimed that the failed and visibly out-of-favor government of President Weah has made no official contact with any member of Amb. Boakai’s family neither has a family member requested government assistance.
The party continued that the man poised to rescue Liberia at the hands of the alleged failed Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government is in a positive state of health and mentally alert to hit the ground running when elected as President of the Republic of Liberia in 2024.
“The Unity Party warns the government and its surrogates to desist from the desperate and heartless effort to use the health condition of a statesman to redeem their lost image,” the party said.
It alleged that the CDC government has failed to deliver on its promises and that the man on a mission to transform Liberia, Amb. Boakai is developing ideas and necessary strategies for the upliftment of Liberians from the shackles of poverty.
“Unity Party calls on its partisans, supporters, and Liberians everywhere, to remain upbeat and unperturbed as the mission to elect JNB continues unabated,” it noted.
