Society

MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia’s ruling Unity Party has expelled the country’s outgoing president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is accused by party leaders of meddling in last year’s presidential elections in which its candidate suffered a bruising defeat.

Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been in power for 12 years, denies the party’s allegations that she held inappropriate private meetings with election magistrates before the Oct. 10 vote.

Four other party officials were also expelled, the party said in a statement distributed on Sunday.

“The behaviour of the expelled persons ... constitutes sabotage and undermined the existence of the party,” said the statement announcing the decision, which was taken by the party’s executive committee late on Saturday.

A senior official in Johnson Sirleaf’s office declined to comment on the decision. The president and other officials were not immediately available on Sunday.

Former soccer star George Weah defeated the Unity Party’s Joseph Boakai in a landslide, marking the first democratic transition of power in Liberia - a nation founded by freed American slaves - in over 70 years.

Johnson Sirleaf was not allowed to run for re-election due to constitutional term limits. A split between her and Boakai burst into the open during the campaign. [L8N1N562G]

The statement said Johnson Sirleaf and the other members had violated rules, including a requirement to support all Unity Party candidates in elections.

Weah will be sworn in later this month.

Johnson Sirleaf won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for helping secure peace after civil wars from 1989-2003. But her critics say she has not done enough to ease rampant poverty - a task complicated by a 2014-16 Ebola epidemic that killed thousands of Liberians.

Her administration has also faced repeated allegations of corruption and nepotism. She denies the accusations, but they resonated with many of the voters who rallied to Weah’s call for change.

Weah, who in 1995 became the only African to win FIFA World Player of the Year, now faces sky-high expectations from his base of young supporters. Others, who see him as lacking the experience and knowledge for the job, remain sceptical.

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Rita Akana

15.Jan.2018

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Words are going round suggesting that two presidential hopefuls as are 'set to form a coalition to defeat President Paul Biya in the upcoming presidential election.' Akere Muna and Maurice Kamto met on Thursday in Yaoundé behind closed doors.

The content of their encounter has not yet been revealed. But some persons have concluded that it's a possible step towards a coalition to overpower Mr Biya.

President Biya is in his 36th year in office. He has won several controversial elections over the years. Some analysts have attributed the failure of the opposition to a lack of a strong coalition to dismantle the 'dictatorship'.

But some opposition leaders, like Edith Kah Walla, have blamed it on the absence of a second round of elections.

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Rita Akana

15.Jan.2018

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 Le Monde news site A French news site has pointed out that Cameroonians lack the desire to live together like one people. After all, they are not one, it has added.

Le Monde Afrique made the statement at the backdrop of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon.

A nation is bound by two factors: A common past and the desire to live together, the site has revealed.

But Cameroon is missing both factors. The 35-year-old regime is unable to make the people feel at home.

A great part of Southern cameroons doesn't feel as if they belong in Cameroon, the news site has said. Some observers could embrace the assertion, given that hate speeches are still commonplace in both Francophone and Anglophone Cameroon.

Words and phrases like "les Bamenda", "francofools" are yet to disappear from the lexicon of so-called united Cameroon.

This is coming at a very crucial period, when Cameroon has to organize several elections while battling with the Anglophone crisis and Boko Haram.

And it's very unlikely that Mr Biya will step down at the end of his current mandate in a bit to avoid throwing the nation into chaos.

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Rita Akana

15.Jan.2018

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The music community in Cameroon is bereaved as they lose to death, one of theirs, Marie Archangelo.

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14.Jan.2018

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The organisation representing African countries in the US, has demanded that Trump apologises for comments he made against African countries on Thursday.

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13.Jan.2018

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The lead Counsel following the abduction case of the Ambazonian Interim President and some members of his cabinet says he has had direct talks with the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs who has confirmed that our leaders were whisked off by the government.

Talking to me by telephone, the confident - breathing Counsel also said he has urged the government through the Minister of Foreign Affairs to speedily arraign the IP Sisiku AyukTabe and members of his cabinet to court.

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Rita Akana

12.Jan.2018

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