NORMALLY, GOVERNMENT APPOINTEES are expected to work together to actualize the programs of their principal – in this case the President – but it becomes a matter of serious concern when such appointees are now at each other’s throats, in what often seems like supremacy battle.
ON MONDAY, JUNE 3, a serious altercation erupted between the director of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), Abraham Kromah and his deputy, Hassan Fadiga, at the agency’s head office in Monrovia, leading to tension.
THE CONFLICT IS said to have escalated to both loyal supporters of the two LDEA heads, prompting a scene which attracted onlookers. It required the intervention of Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman to end the fight between the two top officials.
THIS IS THE second time Kromah and Fadiga have been embroiled into a public disagreement. On Monday, April 15, Fadiga is said to have walked out of a meeting Kromah had convened with staff of the agency on grounds that he did not want to hear what Kromah was talking about.
SOURCES HINTED FRONTPAGEAFRICA that Kromah was expressing his dislikes as to how Fadiga was bent on taking unilateral decisions without his approval.
FRONTPAGEAFRICA LATER gathered while Fadiga was walking out of the meeting, Kromah reportedly stated that Fadiga was setting a bad example by disrespecting him in the presence of junior officers and should not expect those junior officers to respect him (Fadiga).
TO MANY, THE conflict between the two officials of the LDEA was a simple issue that the President’s minimal intervention could have resolved. But as it has turned out, it thus seems like a plague that may not go away.
ONE THING THAT is central to this scenario, however, is that both Kromah and Fadiga were appointed by the President. Thus, to some observers in Bong County, for these appointees to be fighting brazenly in public without noticeable rebuke from the president seems to lend credence to a statement made by Eugine Kollie, lawmaker of Bong’s District Five.
IN A POST addressed to the president last week, Rep. Kollie said, “Our nation is like a ship stranded on the high seas, rudderless and with broken navigational aids.”
THIS BELIEF, SHARED by some others, has been emboldened by the recurring infighting at the LDEA, and it’s arguably unprecedented in recent history.
SADLY, SUCH INTERNAL rife does not only question the firmness of President Boakai, it sometimes pushes good governance to the back seat as is the case of the LDEA saga, where the fight against narcotics may be far from achieving because of the infighting at the agency.
WE HAVE SAID it several times that it appears the President has abdicated his supervisory responsibility, because he appointed these people and he’s responsible for their actions, inaction, commissions and omissions in the discharge of their duties.
