Author: Contributing Writer

ANNUAL MESSAGE TO THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FIFTY-FOURTH NATIONAL LEGISLATURE OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR. GEORGE MANNEH WEAH PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA THE CAPITOL BUILDING CAPITOL HILL MONROVIA, LIBERIA 27 JANUARY 2020 Madam Clar Marie Weah, First Lady of the Republic of Liberia; Madam Vice President and President of the Senate; Mr. Speaker; Mr. President Pro-Tempore; Honorable Members of the Legislature; Your Honor the Chief Justice, Associate Justices of the Supreme Court and Members of the Judiciary; The Dean and Members of the Cabinet and other Government Officials; The Doyen, Excellencies and…

Happy New Year. The last year was momentous; many things happened. Well, you know in my case I am more interested in what happened for 49% of the population according to the 2008 Census. Not that the other 51% are not important, but this 49% normally pays so much attention to the 51% that they have no time left for themselves. All hail the women! The #Weareunprotected Campaign moved into its second year; #ThursdayinBlack Campaign gathered momentum and speed and for the first time in our nation’s history, the political leadership acknowledged the problem of violence against women in elections.…

A COMMON THREAD: All of these protests or demonstrations have something in common—citizens or a marginalized section of the population feel excluded, ignored, or irate about the excesses and abuse of power—through the various instruments of the state—wherein, there’s an outcry for economic, social, and political justices. For the most part, the demand is about the authority meeting the physiological, security, and safety needs of its people—rightly articulated in Abraham Maslow’s basic hierarchy of needs—mainly food, water, air, sleep, and shelter, followed by safety and security—health and wellness, financial security, job, safe community, etc. Artemus W. Gaye, [email protected], Contributing Writer…

Antwerp, Belgium – Attorney-At-Law Lamii Kpargoi I respectfully disagree with the piece you publish in Frontpage Africa tin which you argue among other things that “the Liberian Constitution does not guarantee anyone tenure completion.”

Whatever may be the criticisms of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf related to her leadership of Liberia, it is difficult to recall a situation where a group of aggrieved Liberians decided to get in the streets and protest against the government, and Madam President refused to engage the aggrieved citizens and listen to their grievances or sent the police to brutalize them. Even when a crowd of protesting students once encircled her motorcade, she did not let the presidential security teargas the students to scatter them. Gabriel I.H. Williams, [email protected], Contributing Writer During the course of recent weeks, Liberia has made…

There is no national emergency that necessitates the issuance of a press release on national issues by four big foreign missions. Because of their weight, they would be more efficient if they were doing their work in the background and let Liberians take credit for the positives. But being the ultimate agenda setters, they eclipse both government and opposition. Democracy will suffer. The Editor, Just days ago, I wrote that Liberia was losing control of its affairs, by allowing foreign diplomats to be arbiters of national political disputes. This is something that the Council of Churches, the Muslim Council and…

The Editor,My former boss, Benjamin Sanvee, was on a live video, crying over spilled milk. Ha!But Mr. Sanvee, alongside Musa Bility, Harrison Karnwea, Kanio Bai Gbala, now LACC’s co-chair, Israel Arkinsaya, now LTA commissioner, amongst others, gave the then standard bearer of the Liberty Party, the late Cllr. Charles Brumskine, the biggest political heartbreak of his political career when they crossed carpet to the Coalition for Democratic Change, in a fashion so hasty that even Usain Bolt wouldn’t win. What was perhaps even piercing to the heart of Cllr. Brumskine was, the runaway partisans used his picture, duping partisans of…

The Editor, Lately the Council of Patriots have been in the local and international media highlighting the need for Pres. Weah to step down because of the failing Liberian economy. According to Henry Costa, leader of COP, “President Weah has failed to make any public statement or address the nation about the current economic hardship in the country” (https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberia-council-of-patriots-refuses-dialogue-with-religious-council-says-the-body-has-been-compromised/, retrieved December 29, 2019.) Therefore the COP has said it will remain on the streets on December 30. “Costa noted that the situation faced by Liberians under the Weah-led administration is not religious or political, rather terrible human conditions. He accused…

Liberians can’t blame the ‘international community” in the days to come for taking away their sovereignty, their government gave it away. What ECOWAS, UN and a certain number of diplomatic missions are doing is not what diplomats do traditionally. They are not to get involved in local affairs and their interlocutors is the state, not non-state-actors. Foreign diplomats are now turning into colonial governors. Liberia has never been so close to being in total receivership and well-deserving the moniker “Banana Republic” since the 1990s, when the country’s survival depended on the goodwill of ECOWAS and the international community. Back then,…

The Perspective launched a debate recently on the situation of our national economy upon the publication of the report by the Liberian Economy Group (LEG) –headed by the veteran politician and economist, Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh. We applaud this effort. During the same period an article appeared also in the FPA: “Liberia: Govt. ‘Presents the Fact’ in Response to Ex-Auditor General Morlu’s 400 CBL Jobs’ Revelation”