Former Liberian warlord announces 2011 bid

A former Liberian warlord and now senator from Nimba County Mr. Prince Y. Johnson says Liberians have petitioned him to contest the Presidency in the 2011 General and Presidential elections.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday and monitored in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . the United States, Mr. Johnson was asked if he, infact, wanted to be President and not being seen as being pushed to be President. In his response he said if the people of Liberia petitioned him he had to "obey the people of this country.

."Well, you know I am a senator in this country. I am also a revolutionary who fought to unseat dictatorship here" he told the told the interviewer, adding that "the masses, the down trodden are suffering and have observed me over the many years that I had stood in their defense."

Senator Johnson said it was good that he was petitioned to contest the Presidency rather than he unilaterally declaring his intention to run for the office of President.

Asked if he was convinced that he was the person to lead Liberia, Mr. Johnson emphatically stated that he was convinced he was the one, adding ' I am up to the task".

The former warlord Mr. Johnson who led the breakaway Independent National Patriotic Front Of Liberia(INPFL) rebel movement after falling out with the main rebel outfit the National Patriotic Front of Liberia(NPFL) led by former rebel leader and former President Charles Taylor was asked what he could offer Liberians better than President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Mr. Johnson said he would do his best. " We will address appropriately this issue of massive corruption in the country, the issue of armed robbery and a lot of things..."

Former leader of the defunct rebel INPFL, now Sen. Prince Johnson

The controversial Nimba County Senator declared that he thinks President Sirleaf means well but in an accusatory tone said, "the people around her are causing a lot of problems".

The BBC interviewer pressed Mr. Johnson on his dismal human rights record during the war including the capture, torture and killing of the late Liberian President Samuel K, Doe in September, 1990. Mr. Johnson defended his action as a "situation of dictatorship that targeted a particular county and people for total elimination. My people were led to the slaughter house like sheep and goat and butchered and mutilated and we have the right to exist"

The once and still feared former rebel commander said his county, Nimba, was militarized and he had to do what he did to survive. " If we hadn't done that, there would be no place called Nimba County today".

In conclusion he was asked what his vision was for Liberian. Senator Johnson said he wanted a Liberia free of corruption."...there can be no economic growth in the midst of massive corruption..."

Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has recommended Senator Johnson and others for prosecution for their role in the Liberian civil war which claimed and estimated 250,000 people and dislocated nearly a million others at the height of the conflagration.

He has openly challenged his sanction and says if he is being brought to trial for getting rid of former President Doe, he will put up "resistance" which has been interpreted in some quarters as returning to war.

Writes,
Emmanuel Abalo
Running Africa/WRAR-96 News
eabalo@runningafrica.com