By Lewis S. Teh
Bong Mines, Liberia, May 30, 2025 – The Acting Chairperson at the Governance Commission (GC), Professor Alaric Tokpah, has suggested a need to rewrite the Constitution of Liberia.
Prof. Tokpah argues that rewriting the 1986 Constitution will help the government to govern well and put system in place that will hold ministries, agencies and commissions accountable in the discharge of their duties.
“We have sent a concept note to the President, the collaboration between the
Governance Commission and Law Reform Commission.We signed along with Law Reform, we sent a concept note to the President that there is need to rewrite the Constitution of this country.”
Professor Alaric Tokpah spoke recently when the GC and Duckor Institute for Social and Economic Research sign a MOU aimed at strengthening public confidence across government.
According to both parties, the overall objective of the MOU is to increase public trust and confidence in the GC as an integrity institution.
The MOU also seeks to undertake joint fundraising with the view of supporting policy reforms across the GC core’s mandate areas; to collaboratively lead on joint research projects in support of GC mandate areas, and hold joint policy dialogue as a means of presenting new research findings on critical areas of policy.
“Let me close by saying, therefore, that even if we are under obligation to look in the direction of the review of constitutional and legal regimes in Liberia, the crisis that happened in the legislature was not without reason. If the instrument of governance in that body had been so refined to anticipate crisis like those, it would not have lingered on”, he notes.
He continues that the recent impasse would not have continued, saying “We are decentralizing. The constitution has to capture that. We want to upgrade the past procession and the Foreign Ministry. The legislature is questioning the authority of the Governance Commission. But times have changed.”
According to him, if the constitution is rewritten, it would automatically mean rearranging the governing instruments of ministries, agencies, and commissions to conform to the constitutional language that will be produced or reproduced.
He argues that no law of the land should be repugnant to the Constitution. It becomes null and void. Any law that is contrary to the Constitution becomes null and void, saying so if the President agrees and the Legislature agrees for us to rewrite the Constitution, we have to amend Act No.1 and Act No. 2 respectively, to give authority for the rewriting of the Constitution of this country.
He says the Commission has responsibility to impress on the administration areas that reforms are needed the most, nothing that the quest to have the Liberian Constitution written is not a demand, instead, it is a recommendation, it is a suggestion, but it’s an obligation to recommend where reforms are needed.
“Constitutions are not sacrosanct, they are not untouchable. It needs to be rewritten”, he underscores.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research Director, Dr. Aaron Weah praises the GC for adequately handling the government policy dialogue processes.
“The GC as you know, is the government official think tank that is engaged in policy work and research, and the Ducor Institute for Social and Economic Research is more of an academic research firm outside of government”, Mr. Weah said.
He expressed excitement for the collaboration, “We’re excited we are doing a lot of research; currently, we’ve just completed a few. We will be introducing some of the findings, as we go ahead in designing this Policy Dialogue” says Dr. Weah.
“As all of you perhaps will observe, there’s so much happening in the country, but there is no independent space to be critical of government. When I mean critical of government, I don’t just mean unnecessarily critical”
He says much of this engagement is about finding practical solutions, as the Commission critiques government. He says the partnership forging is going to be grounded in serious research, serious planning, and engaging with a range of different stakeholders. Editing by Jonathan Browne
