Liberia-All eyes are set on Capitol Hill today, Tuesday, mainly the House of Representatives where the fate of House Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa, is likely to be decided whether to continue in the position or be given marching orders.
Members of the House of Representatives will go to the Session today to conduct their normal business, but this is without turbulence over the planned removal of Speaker, J. Fornati Koffa who some lawmakers accused of jeopardizing the interest of the august body for personal gains.
While the Speaker was away in Italy with President Joseph Boakai, uproar erupted last Thursday between lawmakers behind the plot to get rid of him and those in support of his leadership, leading to near-fistfight and verbal assaults.
Today’s Session, according to political pundits, marks a significant moment in the political life of the Speaker, whether he will be spared, and the sanctity of the House of Representatives.
The embattled Speaker who returned home over the weekend is likely to face his accusers, but whether they would like to sit under his gavel and then muster the courage to go through the process as per the laid down procedure, including reading the prepared Resolution in Chambers and verse-versa is anyone’s guess.
Though the original number of lawmakers who appended their signatures to the list or resolution has dwindled, what happens today will either escalate the Speaker’s woes that could force him out of office, or soothe the tension.
In similar situations such as the removal of former Speakers Edwin Snowe and Alex J. Tyler, rebelling lawmakers refused to sit under their gavels, thus forcing them to throw in the towels without due process as required by law.
With no definite knowledge as to the way things may unfold today, one baffling question on the minds of political pundits in the aftermath of what centers around who might be behind the scheme to remove Koffa.
Fingers pointing, claims and counterclaims have since emerged with the main opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) accusing President Joseph N. Boakai and his Unity Party of orchestrating the plot to remove the Speaker; while the government has also accused former President Gorge M. Weah of a political maneuver to remove Speaker Koffa for his popularity in the CDC.
Press Secretary at the weekend whisked off the liability of the President to the ongoing developments at the House of Representatives, saying the President has anything to do with it.
Troubled by the fact some of its members are part of the Koffa removal fray, CDC claimed the Unity Party administration is criminally manipulating members of the House of Representatives into ousting House Speaker J Fonati Koffa.
The abortive coup is the third of its kind to remove Speaker Koffa since the UP lost the bid for Speakership in January 2024,” CDC stated, and also condemned what it called “Unity Party’s abuse of public resources to bribe lawmakers into instigating a legislative coup against the Speaker.”
CDC further averred that a time of extreme economic hardship where tens of thousands of Liberians do not have money to even enroll their children since the commencement of school in September; where the UP Government is itself struggling to pay government workers on time; where the government has been unable to make payments for goods and services to ministries and agencies; and where the government is yet to identify the resources required to increase the salary of civil servants to pre-harmonization levels, if this is ever possible: the dishing out of more than US$1.2 million, evidentially captured on video and in audio recording, is at best a flagrant disregard and disrespect for public outrage against corruption and at worst a criminal conspiracy worthy of serious investigation by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and the Ministry of Justice.
“The CDC observes that the Unity Party’s unending quest to capture the Speakership at all and any cost, betrays its abhorrence of the critical democratic balance now existing at the legislature in which the ruling party heads the Senate and an opposition party leads the House of Representative. The CDC notes that such balance is an established feature in mature democracies and henceforth must be ensconced and maintained in the crucible of legislative politics if the county is to pursue and achieve important public interests’ goals germane to the fight against corruption, infrastructure transformation and serious improvements in the quality of health and education, in the quality of public service delivery and in the quality of living standard.”
“The CDC enjoins upon all members of the national opposition community the responsibility to support its call to rally to the defense of Speaker Koffa and jettison this dangerous and pernicious age-old habit of unjustly removing legislative leaders for reasons and motives unrelated to the pursuit of public good but founded in the cesspool of greed and corruption harnessed by selfish political actors in high places. As members of Liberia’s opposition sworn to uphold the public trust by keeping the government’s feet to the fire, to surest way of upholding such public trust is to maintain legislative parity in the crafting of the National Budget and the oversight of budget execution.”
But contrary to the continued accusation by the CDC, the Government of Liberia through both the Office of the President and the Ministry of Information have repeatedly denied any involvement by President Joseph N. Boakai and warned against any of its official of the Executive Breach of meddling in the affairs of the ongoing tension at the House of Representative.
Presidential Spokeswoman, Atty, Kula Fofana, stated that President Boakai has absolutely no interest in destabilizing any breach of the government as all focus were now on the revitalization and development agenda of Liberia.
Recently, the Government of Liberia categorically rejected any link to a plot on Capitol Hill to remove House Speaker, J. Fonati Koffa.
However, the government described as preposterous, disgraceful, and unfounded accusations by the leader of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), Mr. George Weah, that it is funding such scheme. “We believe that the purported plot to remove Speaker Koffa from his leadership role looks more like an internal power struggle within the CDC orchestrated by Mr. Weah. This is why Mr. Weah has been quick to deflect attention from himself to the Boakai-led Government.”
“Mr. Weah is noted for fighting proxy battles against prominent leaders within the CDC to cement himself as the party’s demigod rather than allow others to gain political prominence. It is our thinking that Mr. Koffa’s confident leadership style scares Mr. Weah and that the emergence of other principled leaders within the CDC that will take away complete allegiance from the former President always faces such challenge,” said Acting Information Minister, Daniel Sando.
“To insinuate that the government is using public monies to influence the purported actions on Capitol Hill to remove the Speaker, as Mr. Weah has done, speaks to the depraved mentality of the former President,” Minister Sando stated.
Last week figures were pointed at both the Ministry of Transport and the Liberia Water and Seward Corporation (LWSC) of being institutions financing the abortive coup on capitol Hill, even though the claims were swiftly rebuked by Mr. Mo Ali, Director General, stressing that the accusation by the House Chairman on Rules, Order and Administration, Melvin Cole were unfounded.
A meeting called by the CDC citing all its lawmakers failed to proceed as majority of the CDC lawmakers boycotted the meeting prompting a rescheduled.
Political experts view the boycott by the CDC lawmakers to attend their leadership call as another twist in the political paradigm of the party’s political control of its caucus members.
Infect a microscopic look into the membership of the rebel lawmakers seeking Speaker Fonati Koffa’s removal are majority lawmakers of the CDC, including Deputy Speaker, Thomas Fallah, who had been the center of accusation of being on the masterminds of the abortive coup.
An investigation conducted by this paper revealed that President Joseph Boakai has no hand in the abortive coup, but rather an internal stage coup of a group of criminal enterprise wishing to undercut an audit in substantive budgets alteration.
