By James Chester Flahn (jameschesterflahn@gmail.com)
In 2011, first time Liberian author John Milton Greaves unleashed his most telling fictionalized account of one woman’s diabolical political quest for power at any cost – a quest that spanned across three continents, ending in a blazing coup d’état that rocked the emerging democratic foundations of a proud West African nation. Dubbed “The Fist of Machiavelli”, Greaves’ novel takes place in Equatoria, West Africa, where Esther Jones Sambolah (EJS), a seemingly sadistic female protagonist, coming out of a violently bruised marriage, vows revenge by any means necessary on any man standing in her way to becoming President of Equatoria.
The beauty of the book rests not so much in its nuanced plots of political intrigue and diabolical cunning that Madam EJS weaves across Equatoria, and against those who cross her path; but the book’s brilliance is found in how Greaves’ fictionalized characters so aptly capture the essence of Liberia’s intriguing political history spanning from the autocratic twilight era of President William V.S. Tubman, to the maverick William R. Tolbert’s “Total Involvement – Higher Heights epoch, and down to the violence wrought by NCO-turned Head of State, Samuel K. Doe.
While many critics of Greaves may have termed his work as just another fairytale depicting Liberia’s ugly political past by changing the names of the book’s main players, no one can however argue that the central character, Esther Jones Sambolah or EJS, does not live up to billing as a vengeful and bitter woman whose quest to control men has often plunged Equatoria/Liberia into deep shit.
Connecting the jagged lines and dots of political chicaneries that have continued to trail EJS’ turbulent rise to political power – from her ascendancy to the presidency in 2005, to her ignominious sacking by her own political party in 2019, this writer attempts to reveal another cunning twist in the web that Lady Machiavelli continues to spin within Liberia most formidable opposition bloc, the Collaboration of Political Parties (CPP).
Many of you already know that the opposition CPP is at the verge of disintegration, as internal power conflict rocks the party, leaving it exposed to ridicule from the ruling establishment, thus sending a bad signal to the wary voting population who are eagerly looking out for salvation from the kleptocratic rule of footballer-cum President, George Manneh Weah.
It is also an open secret that the Fist of Machiavelli played heavily in Weah’s favor in 2017 when EJS ditched her Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and her own ruling Unity Party, for the footballer and his opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), on account of what she would label as being the most propitious time to effect “generational change”.
What many of you don’t however know is the depth of chicaneries that EJS employed to set into motion those events that catapulted Mr. Weah and his CDC to power. And there were three key reasons for EJS supporting the camp that pitched their tent under the sycamore tree.
- EJS had allegedly tried to cut a deal with her deputy, VP Boakai, to escape prosecution for corruption. Remember the National Oil Company which her son Rob Sirleaf ran into the ground, for which she retired him in September 2014, and ultimately took responsibility for NOCAL’s bankruptcy? Weah and his CDC took the bait from EJS and promised not to prosecute her when they came to power, a promise that they’ve been living up to.
- In an attempt to cut her own nose just to spite her face, EJS distanced herself from Joe Boakai and her own ruling Unity Party, and ending up supporting Weah and his CDC because of Ambassador Boakai’s refusal to carry EJS former Finance Minister Amara M. Konneh as his Vice Standard Bearer in 2017. That request package was also allegedly loaded with another bombshell – that Joe Boakai sacked his combustive party Chairman Wilmot Paye. Ambassador Boakai turned down both requests, and ended up getting rammed by the Fist of Machiavelli.
- Most importantly, EJS failed to support her Vice President, but rather helped an incompetent brigand of thieves to ascend to state power because she knew in her ace of hearts that Weah and his CDC would fail miserably at the presidency; and that was the perfect opportunity for Liberians to cry and keep pining for the “good old days of Ma Ellen”.
With the 2023 Presidential and General elections fast approaching, EJS, in her usual Machiavellian fashion, has been wriggling her way back into her party. Having brokered a deal to drop her expulsion, EJS is said to have muscled the UP into firing their firebrand National Chairman Wilmot Paye in a comeback payback.
CPP & the Fist of Machiavelli Connection
As you may already know, EJS thrives on conflict. Her ascendency to state power was forged through conflict, when she financed the NPFL rebel movement into Liberia to oust President Samuel K. Doe in 1989, thinking the war would have ended when Charles Taylor entered Monrovia, captured Doe and made her President, just as she once believed that Doe would have killed President William R. Tolbert, and turned state power over to her.
Not one to miss any opportunity to fan the flames of conflict, EJS is said to be stoking the ongoing imbroglio within the CPP. According to opposition insiders who confided to this writer, the so-called Iron Lady has been shuttling recently between certain influential CPP leaders with the sole intent of fomenting the ongoing conflict. From what one of my well-informed sources told me: “the CPP will definitely break up because the Oldma is now pulling the strings in favor of one of the contenders for the CPP Standard Bearer leadership”.
The source also said that EJS has been surreptitiously meeting with the embattled Liberty Party Chairman Musa Hassan Bility to actualize her plan, which does not once again favor her former Vice President.
As if the source had not already left me awestruck by these revelations, it was finally disclosed that EJS is allegedly behind Mr. Wilmot Paye’s recent ouster from the People’s Liberation Party (PLP), an assertion which cannot be independently confirmed. However, given the depth of vengefulness that inhibits the soul of Lady Machiavelli, one cannot downplay such assertion.
