The Aggrieved

On a dark stretch of Tubman Boulevard, Monrovia's main artery, the men and one woman sat in a tight circle on plastic chairs outside the unfinished home of the party's secretary general. They were meeting to come up with a plan of action, a response to their standard bearer's betrayal. Prince Johnson, the former warlord, popular senator and avowed leader of a so-called "democratic conspiracy" to oust President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Oct. 11 polls as the standard bearer of the National Union for Democratic Progress, endorsed the president for reelection last week without seeking party consensus. He explained to the BBC that Johnson Sirleaf was the "lesser of two evils," and less likely, as a fellow indictee of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to have him tried for war crimes. He then threatened to expel any party member who opposed his decision. "He's taking NUDP to be his personal property," one partisan complained. "This money business will only benefit the standard bearer," said another. Rumors are swirling around the deal allegedly struck between Johnson and Liberia's vice president, Joseph Boakai. Speaking to supporters in his home of Nimba County, Johnson said he had demanded a 30 percent share of government. Some local newspapers reported he was also seeking $30,000 for each of Nimba's 9 electoral districts, to help with campaigning for Johnson Sirleaf. Gbawou Kowo, the U.S.-educated former police commissioner and NUDP chair, said Johnson sold the party for $1.5 million. "Let him go. Let Prince Johnson go," Gontee Meddrics, the secretary general, said finally.