From one tick of the clock to another, Liberia’s first female Vice President Chief Dr. Jewel Cianeh Howard Taylor has incessantly been the subject of slander and name calling, bullying especially by those pinned by her insistence on speaking out against wrongs in society and making her voice heard on critical national issues -all in a attempt to subject her to the abyss of non communicado -reminiscent of the customary maneuvering to tyrannize women into silence. For the Liberian first female Vice President, her critics are marveled by how she has trudged through storms that have all but become tailwinds that landed her to becoming one of the most powerful women on the continent of Africa as regarded by many integrity, research and media institutions in Africa and other parts of the world.
Unlike her predecessor who scapegoat his former boss for being “a parked car in the garage”, Chief Dr. Howard Taylor is championing the desire for women’s economic empowerment and girls’ education for several decades and making tremendous impact under the George Weah led administration. Out of shock, critics of the Vice President Chief Dr. Howard Taylor are deriving a new scheme to misinform the public that she was involved in malfeasance during the regime of former President Charles G. Taylor when she served as Board Chairperson of the John F. Kennedy (JFK) hospital.
Former Commander of the dreadful Special Operation Division (SOD) of the Liberia National Police cum Representative of Montserrado District #10, Yekeh Kolubah told a news press at his Old Road residence that Vice President Howard Taylor was “thrown out of the premises of the JFK hospital by former President Taylor” for allegedly being involved into corruption.
Among other mean comments, the lawmaker who is notorious for jailing his mother said it is his dreadful deeds during the heydays of the Liberian civil unrest that Vice President Howard Taylor is riding on her way to political prominence -a tacit admittance to wrecking havor on the lives of innocent people.
Contrary to his assertion that the Liberian Vice President was involved into corruption, the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) investigated Madam Howard Taylor for alleged economic crimes and found her blameless of any economic crimes.
In a communication dated April 9, 2009, the Economic Crimes Unit of the TRC certificated Madam Howard Taylor for coming out of their investigation with flying colors and that she did nothing wrong during her time as first lady and immediately afterwards.
“Having attended several hearings before the Inquiry Unit (IU), responded to our questions and provided information and evidence , the Inquiry Unit of the Economic Crimes Unit of the TRC is satisfied that you have given us all the information we needed and there is no basis to hold you accountable or answerable further to claims and allegations of economic crimes. Our investigation have cleared you of all allegations levied against you,” the Economic Crimes Unit of the TRC said.
In spite of the TRC certification of no wrongdoing, former TRC Commissioner, John Stewart took to social media Facebook to insinuate that the Liberian Vice President is a product of dishonesty and arms from the war.
His outrage beclouded his realization of the fact that before becoming first lady, Jewel Howard Taylor served as Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Liberia (Now Central Bank of Liberia), and as President of the Agricultural Cooperative Bank (1996) and Mortgage Financing Underwriter of the First Union National Bank. Her critics think that her marriage to former Liberian President Charles Taylor makes her as guilty as ex-husband despite the abounding evidence that she has been living an impactful life and raising her voice on societal vices especially corruption by introducing a bill for the establishment of a specialized court in Liberia to prosecute those accused of corruption -a menace that is depriving the ordinary citizenry. She has consistently argued that the rule of law is the panacea to sustainable peace in any given society, as such the establishment of a corruption court in Liberia is critical to put impunity in check.
She participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s economic-crimes inquiry process, which absolved her of any responsibility for economic and financial crimes but Commissioners of the same institution are going at every length to resuscitate their failed political ploy at the expense of her reputation under the guise that she participated in the Liberian civil because she was the wife of a former warlord regardless of the maxim that crimes are not transferable.
To her unsolicited defense, some in Taylor’s former inner circle claim Jewel Howard Taylor had little influence over the president and say Taylor was capable of deep subterfuge. Peter Bonner Jallah, Taylor’s former Justice Minister, told international media that the man [Charles Taylor] was “cunning” and “secretive” and that Jewel would likely have known very little about the details of the president’s actions. “He was the sort of man who could send people to have one of your family members killed and make you feel like he had done nothing,” Jallah said. “You would never have thought he had anything to do with it.”
Jallah—who resigned in 1998 over the unsolved murder and mutilation of a former Taylor comrade, Sam Dokie, and his wife, last seen being arrested by security forces—adds that as an African wife, Jewel would have had little power over her husband. “She had to make appointments to see him,” he said.
The First female Vice President remains resolved that in spite of the barrage of unfettered bullying from those who think she should not be where she is, her work over the years across Africa and lives she has impacted must be adjudged without biases.
