Profile of Vice-Chairman Wesley Johnson

Wesley Momoh Johnson, who has been appointed deputy leader of Liberia's transitional government, is an affable accountancy lecturer and Baptist church elder who has been active in local politics for the past 25 years.

The US-educated leader of the opposition United People's Party is widely considered to be a unifier who works easily with everybody.

Described by colleagues as a friendly person who mingles easily with the common man, Johnson is stout man who appears younger than his 59 years.

He loves trekking and is often regarded in Monrovia as a "walking politician".

Johnson represented his party at the Liberian peace conference in Accra and was elected by the other delegates to become Vice-Chairman of a new transitional government. This will take over from President Moses Blah on or before October 14 and rule for two years before holding fresh elections in October 2005.

Johnson will be the number two figure in the new administration, which will be headed by businessman Gyude Bryant as Chairman.

Johnson and several other Liberians who returned from the United States, helped form the country's first opposition party, the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, in 1978.

It was set up to challenge more than a century of corrupt rule by the True Whig Party and press for the introduction of a multi-party system. But the True Whig Party's hegemony of national politics was ended instead by Samuel Doe's military coup in 1980.

Johnson gained a Master's Degree in Accounting from Long Island University and went on to become a banker in the United States in the early 1970's.

"Wes", as his political comrades refer to him, subsequently taught accounting and financial management at various church-owned universities in Monrovia and at the state-run University of Liberia.

He also did a stint as consul at the Liberian embassy in Washington D.C. in the early 1980s.

Nathaniel Toe, one of Johnson's former students at the United Methodist University, Nathaniel Toe, told IRIN that he is man who spends his leisure time moulding the minds of his students to become productive citizens.

Johnson is a Baptist Deacon and an active member of the Baptist Convention in Liberia.

He served as a member of the Liberian Interim Legislative Assembly from 1990-1994 under the Interim Government of National Unity headed by Amos Claudius Sawyer.

Johnson was born in the western suburbs of Monrovia in May 1944, but his family hails from Bomi County, northwest of the capital.

He is married with two children. His wife presently lives in the United States.