MONROVIA, Montserrado – Prince Y. Johnson, standard bearer of the Movement for Democracy and Reconciliation, says he prefers a coalition with Unity Party’s Joseph N. Boakai over Benoni Urey of the All Liberian Party.

Johnson, the senior senator of the second most populous county, Nimba, participated in the 2011 general elections as standard bearer on the ticket of the National Union for Democratic Progress and came third in the first round with 11.6 percent of the votes cast.

He made the statement on Wednesday at his Paynesville, Duport Road residence upon his arrival from Nigeria, where he had gone at the request of Prophet T. B. Joshua, general overseer of the Synagogue, Church of All Nations.

Johnson, whose party had been in talks to form a coalition with the Liberia National Union, and the All Liberian Party, cast doubts on the union ever working.

“You cannot force a woman to marry and I am the most beautiful woman in town right now,” Johnson said.

According to Johnson, he sees nothing wrong with joining forces with ‘oldman’ Boakai.

“I cannot look at the majority of Liberians pledging their support to Boakai and go against him,” he said.

Not known to shy away from tribal politics, Johnson said he is a native Liberian like Boakai and did not want to challenge the Unity Party standard bearer to divide the native votes in the upcoming elections.

“Our aim and objective is to stage a national democratic coup d’etat in the ballot box come October 11 – to remove the minority,” Johnson said, referring to Liberians who are descendants of migrants from the Americas.

“We will defeat all those minorities suppressing Boakai in the upcoming election,” Johnson said.

The Nimba senator’s stated reason for wanting to support Boakai is ironic, given that he was filmed ordering the torture of Liberia’s first native president, Samuel K. Doe, who later died in his custody.

Providing justification for abandoning the pending coalition with the ALP and LINU, Johnson said following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, he informed ALP’s Benoni Urey and others that such document did not commit anyone to the coalition.

He said the MOU signed between the ALP, LINU, and MDR was all about calls for a technical team. Johnson, however, said he feared that Urey would manipulate the process to select a standard bearer because “Urey could dish out money to anyone to go against him during the coalition convention.”

This is the third merger that Johnson has been involved in. A much larger merger, which included George Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change, fell apart months ago.

Featured photo by Ken Harper