Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor invokes serious uproar here when she categorically distances herself from President Weah’s ruling Congress for Democratic Change, saying “I am not a CDCian.
VP Taylor on Thursday, March 24, 2022, caused a serious uproar while serving as presiding officer in the Senate when she refuted attribution of being a ‘CDCian’.
Responding to a joke from Grand Bassa County Senator Jonathan Kaipay, who raised concern ‘why only CDCian Senators were presiding over session in the Senate, the vice president, whose National Patriotic Party (NPP) is in a three-party collaboration that includes President George Weah’s Coalition for Democratic Change and Ex-speaker Alex Tyler’s Liberia People Democratic Party, she notes: “I’m not a CDCian; but rather a proud member of the NPP.”
Reacting to media reports that the National Patriotic Party (NPP) will not remain with the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change for the 2023 presidential and general elections,
Vice President Taylor says the NPP, LPDP, and the CDC jointly agreed to form a coalition, adding that NPP as a constituent party has no intention of disintegrating the Coalition.
She made the clarification in an interview with reporters here on Friday, March 25, 2022, after delivering the keynote address at the 16th graduation ceremony of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Business and Domestic Occupational Training Center at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville, outside Monrovia.
“NPP will remain with the CDC and will strongly campaign 2023 for incumbent President George M. Weah’s reelection”, she says.
Earlier, she called on the graduates to remain focused and strive for the betterment of their lives in order to contribute to the development of the country.
Ms. Taylor is noted for making controversial statements. In 2018, after the election of the CDC, she insinuated that not being a member of the ruling establishment, but working for the government is totally intolerable.
She additionally said that it’s biblically unacceptable while asking members of the local government in Bong County to either join ranks with the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) or be replaced.
She argued at the time that similar actions were taken during the Unity Party regime where people were made to join the ruling establishment for jobs.
However, fine-tuning her speech, Madam Taylor said she holds nothing against officials who are members of other parties, as had that been the case, she would have rather ordered the removal of all non-CDC officials, but maintained that trust is paramount and she would not be confident to express herself in the midst of non-members of the Coalition.
Vice President Howard-Taylor has been riding on rough road with President Weah and members of the President’s Congress for Democratic Change, coupled with scuffles with some officials of the NPP.
After months of speculations about her sour relationship with the President, she let the cat out of the bag on May 14, 2019, Unification Day, when she admitted her rugged relationship with President Weah on the Truth Breakfast Show.