Liberia: Whispers of a Handshake: Inside the Rumor Mill Surrounding Kolubah and Pres. Boakai

MONROVIA — Rumors move fast in Liberian politics, but few in recent memory have traveled as quickly, or generated as much chatter, as the reports now circulating about a possible reconciliation between expelled lawmaker Yekeh Kolubah and President Joseph Boakai.

By Selma Lomax, [email protected] 

No press conference has been called. No joint statement has been issued. Yet across party circles, radio call-in shows, and political WhatsApp groups, the same question is being asked is it actually happening?

Where the Rumor Started

The reports trace to a single, semi-official source from  Samson Moseray, Kolubah’s Public Relations Officer, who has told inquirers that a reconciliation meeting between his boss and the president is in the works. Moseray has framed the move in patriotic terms, saying Kolubah has decided to “mend fences and put Liberia first.”

Beyond that comment, however, the picture thins out considerably. There has been no confirmation from the Executive Mansion, no statement from Kolubah in his own voice, and no disclosed date, venue, or agenda for any such meeting. What exists, in other words, is a claim from one side of the story — enough to set tongues wagging, but not enough to call it fact.

A Silence That Speaks Loudly

Perhaps the most telling detail in this entire episode is what Kolubah himself has not said. Despite the swirl of speculation, he has offered no public explanation of whether he intends to soften his opposition posture, under what conditions he might do so, or whether “reconciliation” means anything beyond a symbolic sit-down.

FrontPage Africa editor seeking his direct comment has come up empty so far. In the absence of his voice, the rumor has been left to grow largely on its own momentum, shaped by Moseray’s brief remarks and by the political imagination of observers filling in the blanks.

Why the Rumor Is So Combustible

Ordinarily, a report that two politicians might meet would barely register as news. What makes this one different is the sheer distance the rumor asks people to travel. Kolubah has spent recent years as one of the most unrelenting critics of the Boakai administration, and he did so, by his own reported words, in absolute terms — declaring on more than one occasion that reconciliation with the president was something he could never accept.

His strongest version of that vow reportedly invoked the memory of his late mother, framing any future reconciliation as an act he equated with betraying her. Whether or not the meeting materializes, the rumor’s power comes precisely from how far it would require Kolubah to walk back his own past declarations.

The Political Backstory Fueling Speculation

To understand why so many are willing to entertain the rumor, it helps to remember that Kolubah and Boakai were once on the same side. During the 2023 election, Kolubah was among the opposition figures who campaigned for the Unity Party’s ticket, part of the coalition that ultimately unseated then-President George Weah. That alliance frayed after Boakai took office, as Kolubah accused the new administration of failing to deliver on its campaign promises and became one of its most vocal detractors.

Observers point to that earlier alliance as evidence that a political relationship, however damaged, is not necessarily beyond repair — which is part of why the current rumor has found an audience willing to believe it, rather than dismiss it outright.

The Legal Shadow Hanging Over the Rumor

Adding another layer to the speculation is the unresolved status of Kolubah’s own seat. He was expelled from the House of Representatives after remarks he made during the Liberia-Guinea border dispute, in which he suggested the disputed territory belonged to Guinea — comments that lawmakers treated as a breach of his duty to defend Liberia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, serious enough in their view to warrant expulsion.

Kolubah has challenged that decision, and the matter remains before the Supreme Court more than four months later, with the District 10 seat still vacant. Against that backdrop, some of the speculation has taken on a transactional flavor that could reconciliation with President Boakai be less about sentiment and more about strategy, timed to a moment when Kolubah’s legal fate is still undecided?

That theory remains unproven, but it is precisely the kind of question rumors like this one tend to invite.

Reading the Opposition’s Reaction — Or Lack of One

So far, there has been little public reaction from within the opposition, a silence that is itself part of the story. Kolubah’s own camp has reportedly voiced frustration with what it calls the “disintegration and unseriousness” of opposition politics generally, a comment that has been read by some as a justification, in advance, for any reconciliation that might follow. Without a formal opposition response, however, it is difficult to say whether that framing will hold up once — or if — an actual meeting takes place.

What Would Confirm the Rumor

For a story built almost entirely on secondhand accounts and a single spokesperson’s comments, the natural next question is what it would take to move this from rumor to reality. A joint appearance, a statement from Kolubah himself, or confirmation from the Executive Mansion would each mark a meaningful shift from speculation to substance.

Until one of those happens, the reconciliation remains exactly what it has been since the story first surfaced about a widely discussed possibility, resting on limited confirmation, in a political environment primed to believe almost anything.

A Story Still Being Written

Rumors of this kind rarely stay static for long in Liberian politics — they either collapse under the weight of denial or harden into fact once the parties involved step forward. For now, the Kolubah-Boakai reconciliation sits in that in-between space that is too persistent to ignore, too unconfirmed to accept at face value. Whether it becomes a defining political moment or simply another rumor that faded once scrutinized will depend on what Kolubah and the president each choose to say next — and, unlike the rumor itself, that part of the story has not yet been written.