WELCOME BACK home Mr. President, from your trip, which took you and your delegation to China to attend the Forum on China-Africa Corporation (FOCAC). In case, you have not been properly briefed, Mr. President, the Internet or social media in Liberia went into frenzy on Friday night and continued throughout Saturday and Sunday. What happened in your absence is going to be on all the talk-shows today and for many days.
AGAIN, IT WAS NO ONE ELSE, but loud-mouth Eugene Fahngon, whom you have as your Deputy Minister for Press and Public Affairs at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT).
PRESIDENT WEAH THERE ARE SEVERAL recordings, including videos and audio clips, making rounds on the internet since Friday night. In all of these recordings, Mr. Fahngon can be conspicuously heard and seen ranting out invectives and even boasting of his actions at his opponents.
IT INVOLVES MR. FAHNGON AND ONE OF your long-time friends Representative Edwin Melvin Snowe on one hand and Mr. Fahngon and another close friend of yours, Representative Moses Acarous Gray on another hand.
PRESIDENT, THE VIDEOS AND audio clips so far on the Internet, do not say or clearly show Rep. Snowe in any of the acts that Eugene is heard accusing him about. But your employee, Mr. Fahngon, is not mincing his words as he used the f%&$ words on Rep. Snowe and even on Rep. Gray, who came in later.
REP. GRAY tried to calm Eugene down by urging him to back off. But your Deputy Press and Public Affairs Minister ignored all attempts by a senior partisan of your Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) to back off, declaring that he was not ready to stoop to conquer.
MAYBE AFTER LISTENING TO THE exchanges between Mr. Fahngon and Rep. Snowe, you might consider pardoning him because of partisanship and for somehow trying to make your administration look good in your eyes and ears as he barked at his Bomi County lawmaker.
WE HAVE NO DOUBT that after listening to Mr. Fahngon’s outburst against Rep. Gray, you are not going to spare him another day at the Ministry of Information.
MR. PRESIDENT, IN THOSE TWO instances Mr. Fahngon crossed the line and was completely out of control. Even if you consider forgiving him in the face of those two gross insubordination, there is one part of the audio, which some may try to keep from your ears, one in which Mr. Fahngon mentions something nasty about your Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER boastfully declared how Vice President Taylor had called him at some point during the 2017 Presidential Elections campaign so that he could help defend her character against some purported compromising video of hers. We do not think this was a forum for a discussion concerning such purported favor you might have done the Vice President.
MR. FAHNGON HAS BEEN BASHED FROM every nook and cranny of the Internet for his outburst against Snowe and Gray.
WE DO NOT TRY TO DEFEND WHAT Mr. Fahngon said Snowe allegedly did. According to the deputy minister, Rep. Snowe had tried to forcefully fight his way to remove from the custody of officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) a gentleman who had allegedly photographed him (Eugene) dancing in a public entertainment spot.
IN VIDEOS ON THE INCIDENT, including the ones shot by Mr. Fahngon himself, we do not see Rep. Snowe in any tussle with police officers. Maybe that part of the recordings might come out one day. The imagery the public has seen shows a calm Rep. Snowe versus a wild animal in Mr. Fahngon shouting and trying to flex his muscles although some officers in the recording attest to what Mr. Fahngon alleges of Rep. Snowe.
IF REP. SNOWE EVER DID TRY TO forcefully remove a suspect from police custody, his colleagues in the House of Representatives should not cover him, neither should the Judiciary.
AS MR. FAHNGON EXPRESSED HIS aggression in Rep. Snowe’s face, he named the kind of dance he (Eugene) was doing. Something he referred to as Tajay. We don’t know what kind of dance is this or how he carried about his steps. If it is true that someone actually took his picture or video recorded him dancing than it could be that the dance moves are done in ways unbecoming of a public official, who are to be mindful of the Code of Conduct for all public officials in all branches of the Liberian government and Mr. Fahngon did not want his dance moves to go public in this form and manner.
UNDER CONSTITUTIONAL, CIVIC Responsibilities and Professionalism, which is part four of the National Code of Conduct for all public officials and employees, including deputy minister Fahngon, Reps. Snowe and Gray, they are urged:
“MAINTAINING DIGNITY OF THE Public Service: All Public Officials and Employees of Government shall exhibit good conduct at all times, both at work and off-duty. He or she shall be honest, faithful and just, and shall not act in a manner against the honor or dignity of the public service.
“CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT: All Public Officials and Employees of Government shall act professionally and impartially at all times to promote and sustain public confidence in Government.”
MR. PRESIDENT, WE FEEL STRONGLY that Mr. Fahngon does not deserve to hold any public posts in this country until it can be sufficiently proven that he has done anger management and that he can be able to tame his tongue.
LIKEWISE, WE URGE THE LEADERSHIP of the House of Representatives to launch an investigation into the actions of their colleagues.