KAKATA, Margibi—Unity Party members in Margibi have expressed disappointment in how President Joseph Boakai’s government has made appointments in their county.
Some 15 stakeholders, including 2023 campaign manager John Buway, Stanley Nyumah, Joshua Robinson, Levi Piah, Tellewo Jallah, Eric Kollie, and Danny Moses, issued a statement on April 30 expressing dissatisfaction about how local county officials were nominated without their consultation.
They disclosed that following sacrifices to bring the government to power, President Boakai’s Unity Party has willfully ignored calls to appoint their members to key positions despite their qualifications.
In the statement, the stakeholders expressed concern that no Margibian was appointed to a cabinet position despite the county being the fifth largest by population.
The ruling party officials in Margibi believe that the ongoing appointments conflict is partly because too much power has been given to former Margibi representative Ben Fofana, now the Unity Party vice chair for intergovernmental affairs. As a result, the presidential appointments are made with little consultation from the rest of the Unity Party Margibians.
They cited one instance of Fofana’s undue influence over the appointment of local officials where B. Lewis Caine was appointed by the president as county administrative officer on April 24 and then later appointed as county development officer on April 25, exchanging positions with Togea Samu Zarwea.
A letter recommending that the two individuals’ positions be swapped was later addressed to Deputy Minister of State for Administration Cornelia Kruah-Togba. It was authored by Cecelia Doe, Unity Party’s county chair, and signed by Fofana. Both Doe and Fofana confirmed that the letter was authentic.
Leaked Letter to Minister Kruah-Togba.
Besides Fofana’s undue influence over appointments in the county, the group also mentioned that the appointment of local officials has not adhered to the long-standing tradition of balancing geographic power between the people of the lower and upper regions of the county. This principle united Marshall and Gibi territories as a single county in 1984. Typically, the county superintendent and the development superintendent are selected from separate regions, and care is taken to ensure that other local government officials are equally drawn from the two regions.
The Unity Party members said their call does not seek to question the president’s appointing power; instead, it is about the stability of the county.
“While it remains the constitutional right of a sitting president to make such appointments as enshrined in Article 54 of the Liberian Constitution, suffice it to say, the very nature of our constitution requires the government to adopt policies that strengthen the integration and unity of the Liberian people and promote positive culture as an integral part of the growing needs of the Liberian people,” they wrote.
They warned that these appointments could only undermine the peaceful coexistence among Lower and Upper Margibi citizens.
The Margibi partisans of the ruling party have since called on the Senate not to confirm any local officials recently nominated by the president. Of all the local Margibi officials appointed by Pres. Boakai, only County Superintendent Victoria Wolubah Duncan has been confirmed by the Senate.
Attempts were made to reach Kruah-Togba, the deputy minister of state for administration, but no response was received before publication.
Featured photo by Emmanuel Degleh
