Boakai Hands Tweh Defense Ministry | Security

MONROVIA — Barely days after his removal as Minister of Justice created uncertainty over his future in the Boakai administration, Cllr. N. Oswald Tweh has resurfaced at the center of Liberia’s national security establishment — this time as Acting Minister of National Defense.

President Joseph Nyuma Boakai on Friday, September 11, named Tweh to head the Defense Ministry as part of a new round of appointments and changes affecting several government ministries and agencies.

The appointment represents a remarkable return for Tweh, whose removal from the Justice Ministry was accompanied by an Executive Mansion announcement that he would be reassigned.

Rather than move the former Attorney General completely outside the security sector, however, Boakai has placed him in another of the government’s most sensitive portfolios.

Outgoing Defense Minister Geraldine J. George, according to the Executive Mansion, is also to be reassigned.

Tweh’s appointment is particularly noteworthy because, although he is best known as a lawyer and former Attorney General, national security is not entirely unfamiliar territory to him.

As Minister of Justice, Tweh occupied a central role within Liberia’s national security architecture, including leadership responsibilities within the National Joint Security structure, which brings together the country’s principal security and law-enforcement institutions.

His move to Defense therefore changes his position within the security establishment, but does not remove him from an environment in which he operated extensively as Justice Minister.

There has been no official explanation for why President Boakai ultimately chose the Defense Ministry for Tweh. But the decision raises an intriguing question about whether Tweh’s experience coordinating with Liberia’s security institutions while at Justice helped shape the President’s decision to keep him within the national security establishment.

Any suggestion that members of the Joint Security recommended Tweh for the Defense portfolio would be speculative. What is clear, however, is that Boakai’s decision represents a significant vote of confidence in a former minister whom the President had removed from one of the most powerful positions in government only a short time ago.

The appointment also puts a different light on the Executive Mansion’s use of the word “reassigned” when Tweh left Justice.

At the time, the announcement left open questions about where the veteran lawyer would next serve and whether his removal represented a loss of presidential confidence. His appointment to National Defense now suggests that whatever considerations prompted his departure from Justice did not end Boakai’s willingness to entrust him with major national responsibilities.

Tweh’s tenure at Justice had placed him at the center of some of the administration’s most difficult law-enforcement and security matters. His leadership style was often characterized by a deliberate and meticulous approach to legal questions, even as the Ministry operated under intense political and public pressure.

His transfer to Defense now places him in charge of a different institution with a different mandate, including civilian oversight of the Armed Forces of Liberia and responsibility for defense policy.

The reshuffle also brings changes at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, where President Boakai named Stephen Marka Yekeson Jr. as Acting Minister. Outgoing Commerce Minister Magdalene E. Dagoseh is to be reassigned.

At the Ministry of Local Government, Christopher Ben Bailey was appointed Acting Superintendent of Grand Gedeh County.

The President also appointed Mike Khailelu B. Jabateh as Acting Deputy Director General for Publicity at the National Food Assistance Agency, while Daniel Frank Gould II was named a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission, subject to Senate confirmation.

In a separate action, Boakai suspended Frederick S. Cooper, Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, for 60 days without pay for what the Executive Mansion described as “acts incompatible with his status as a public official.”

The Mansion provided no further details about the conduct that prompted Cooper’s suspension.

Boakai used the action to warn officials that public service requires discipline, integrity and responsible conduct, stressing that public office is a position of trust.

But the headline appointment from Friday’s shake-up is Tweh.

His departure from Justice briefly appeared to close an important chapter in his service in the Boakai administration. His appointment to National Defense suggests something considerably different: Boakai may have moved Tweh from Justice, but he has not moved him away from the center of Liberia’s national security establishment.