A group of diaspora Liberians in America have protested before Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung, who is visiting the U.S., demanding end to corruption, economic hardship, extra-judicial killings and high cost of living in Liberia.
By Lincoln G. Peters
Maryland, United States, March 10, 2025—Aggrieved Liberians residing in the United States of America, especially Washington, D.C., staged a protest, resisting Vice President Jeremiah K. Koung, who is visiting the U.S. during a Town Hall meeting to demand justice for extrajudicial killings, rising cost of living, economic hardship, and corruption in Liberia. However, Vice President Koung describes the Office of the Vice President as a “park car.”
In a video footage circulating on Social Media, the diaspora Liberians were seen chanting battle cries as Vice President Koung mounted the podium to speak.
They demanded immediate justice, solutions to rising economic challenges, and an end to corruption and ritualistic killings across the country.
Following over twenty minutes of disrupted speech, the aggrieved Liberians were escorted outside of the Town hall as the program continued with Vice President Koung addressing the gathering.
Responding to questions about his involvement in decision-making for the state and whether he is a “park car” like current President Boakai said when he served under former President Sirleaf, VP Koung notes that every Vice President is a park car due to the way Liberian laws are written.
“Where I’m now talking to you people, if President Boakai calls and tells me to drop the microphone and leave this place, I will do so because that is the work of the Vice President. In fact, every vice president is a park car. Because the President said that I should be here, that is why I’m here. If you are a Vice President, before you travel, you have to tell the President, and if he says yes, you will go, and no, you will not. Every Vice President that wants to act like your head is big, the history is there and you have been seeing it; me, it will not happen to me because I know my role,” the Vice President explains.
According to him, every vice president of Liberia is a park car because the 1986 Constitution of Liberia clearly provides that the Vice President will assist the President. That means the President has to request that assistance first, but if the President doesn’t request that assistance, the Vice President can’t perform.
“Every Vice President is park car. Any Vice President who wants to be a running car, that Vice President can get in trouble. If President Joseph N. Boakai is working with me, yes. As Vice President, if I get advice and go into the room to the President and advise him whether the President takes that advice or not, my own ends in that room. If it came outside, the only thing I can do is to defend it or talk somehow around it. But, I can’t come from that room and say I tell the President and he didn’t not listen, now see what is happening. And so, with that, you undermine your boss. The power of the Executive is inherited in one person, and it’s the President,” he notes.
According to him, if anyone is a Vice President, whether popular or not, the power of the Executive is in that one person, and only that person has that authority.
On March 6, 2025, in the United States of America, Vice President Koung attended a Town Hall meeting organized by the Liberian Communication Association in the DMV area. The program, held at the Miracle Conference Center Reception Hall in Laurel, Maryland, U.S.A, was graced by several Liberians.
The purpose of the meeting was to enable Vice President Koung to engage and interact with diaspora Liberians in the region, share insights, and strengthen ties between Liberia and its global citizens. Editing by Jonathan Browne
