FOR ABOUT TWO MONTHS NOW, the National Legislature mainly the House of Representatives has been a theater where lawmakers think it is fun for Liberians to go at the Capitol every Tuesdays and Thursday to see them trade barbs and engage in other offensive exchanges like street peddlers.
FROM THE NATIONAL LEGISLATURE where the House of Representatives is now divided into two bloc-pro-Tyler and anti-Tyler the disgraceful virus has now spread to the Liberian senate where the senator also feeling that the childishness at the House of Representatives is something good to emulate have also created two blocs taking separate decisions.
LAWMAKERS WHO ARE PAID LUCRATIVE salaries and other incentives and at the same taking ‘bribes’ before passing every piece of legislation have reduced the first branch of government to a University palava hut or a street intellectual discourse where they behave like kids on every Tuesdays and Thursdays when there are serious problems confronting the country to be discussed.
FOR MANY UNEMPLOYED Liberians they now see the lawmaking body as the next entertainment center where they go every Tuesdays and Thursdays to relief their stress than see these comedians playact.
WHAT MUCH MORE MUST a country as striving like Liberia do to have a group of people perform some duties with seriousness-paying a boy comparing 103 members more than US$12,000 a month to individuals, many of whom only go to work two days a week while these same highly paid guys sit and ratify concessions that do not benefit the people simply because every concessionaire has to play some kind of lobbying money before getting the agreement ratified.
AS IF THEIR PILLAGING OF the resources of the country by taking lobbying fees for every piece of legislation is not satisfactory, these groups of individuals are now bickering over leadership, thereby holding the country hostage.
THE NATIONAL BUDGET FOR 2016/2017 is nowhere near passage into law because two separate blocs at the House of Representatives are deliberating the same budget while the Senate has now seen its own split into two.
THE CRISIS HAS CLAIMED LOCAL and international attention with Farid Zarif, United Nations Special representative to Liberia briefing the UN Security Council warning that the political wrangling at the Legislature possesses potentially serious consequences.
ZARIF WARNED OF THE POTENTIALLY serious consequences of “political wrangling” in the Legislature, speaking specifically about delay in adopting the national budget for the 2016-2017. The UN envoy spoke of the financing of the National Elections Commission and preparatory activities, including those related to security for the October 2017presidential and legislative elections as some major programs current stalled as a result of the legislative impasse.
MANY LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS HAVE all spoken on this matter but the lawmakers turned comedians have refused to listen to the Liberian people and holding the country hostage as a result of their naked creed for power.
THERE ARE OTHER WAYS TO GAIN PUBLIC attention than holding the entire country hostage, the wicked desire for stolen wealth cannot be used to strangulate over four million people.
WHAT MUCH MORE IS WORSE TO DO than holding an entire nation hostage for a power that some of these lawmakers do not really merit have it not been for an uneducated voting population-the same people they are depriving of quality education, health care and other basic services through their allotments during the budgetary process.
FOR THE SENATE TO ALSO JOIN THE House of Representatives in further intensifying the legislative impasse means the entire group of individuals are no other than jokers, who are belly driven and only want power to satisfy their egos.
FOR TWO MONTHS NOTHING HAS been done by these lawmakers and there is no reason why they should continue to take salaries and other incentives when they are only bickering over power and not doing the jobs for which they were elected.
A COUNTRY JUST RETURNING FROM crisis and the United Nations Mission in Liberia yet to fully leave the country, the warning from the UN envoy that the legislative crisis has a potential of becoming a crisis is just too disgraceful for the country.
THESE ARE THE SAME LAWMAKERS who should be helping to ensure that the country is peaceful, here they are fighting and turning the lawmaking building into boxing ring.
WHEN THE LAWMAKERS ARE FIGHTING, who will help to ensure that the country is peaceful?
THIS IS JUST DISGRACEFUL AND somebody needs to have some senses in their head that there is no dividend in holding an entire country hostage because of mere power.