MILES ACROSS the Atlantic from Monrovia, Liberia, Jerry Manneh, a Liberian national employed with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority(MTA) was forced to resign after he told his employers that he had lost his lost his iPhone.
AFTER A CAREFUL investigation, the MTA uncovered that Manneh had actually given the phone to a girlfriend during a trip to Liberia — then trying to switch his busted personal device for a fresh one.
SADLY, MR. MANNEH, a computer analyst, whose job duties included managing the cellphones of MTA executives, “implausibly” feigned ignorance about the unique features of an MTA-issued iPhone.
MR. MANNEH was also discovered to have lied about the length of his vacation, and receiving pay for five days he never worked. He returned the stolen device on Jan. 29 and resigned on July 7, after a disciplinary hearing recommended he be fired.
MR. MANNEH exchanged what he claimed was his damaged MTA-issued iPhone 8 Plus on Jan. 8 — only for officials to locate the actual company phone in Liberia, six days later, according to MTA Inspector General Carolyn Pokorny’s office, in a report released Wednesday.
INVESTIGATORS LATER determined that Manneh’s girlfriend had registered the government-issued phone under her own Apple username on Dec. 5, 2019. The damaged decoy, meanwhile, was first activated using the MTA’s Verizon account on Dec. 29 — the same day Manneh returned from his month-long trip to Liberia, IG sleuths determined.
THE IRONY OF THIS is that had Manneh been in the employ of the Liberian government, he would have gotten away with a slap on the wrist and told to go his merry way.
SINCE ITS FOUNDING, Liberia has been struggling to progress due to the selfish arrogance of rulers and leaders who simply refused to do what is right when it matters most.
TAKE THE CASE of the situation with the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission( LACC), whose embattled Chair, Ndubusi Nwabudike, who was recently nominated by President George Manneh Weah for the post of Chair of the National Elections Commission.
CLLR. NWABUDKE’S reputation has been shattered since he was rejected for the NEC position.
DURING THE CONFIRMATION it was discovered that Nwabudike, a Nigerian by birth had conflicting nationalities after claiming to be a Liberian by naturalization, but couldn’t authenticate documentations of his naturalization in Liberia.
SINCE THE REVELATION, Nwabudike has continued his position at the LACC, an integrity institution tasked with the responsibility of investigating, prosecuting and preventing acts of corruption of public officials in Liberia.
IN FACT, Section 6.3 of the Act creating the LACC calls for only qualified and eligible Liberian citizens to serve on the commission: “Each member of the commission shall be a Liberian and not less than thirty years of age, of good moral character in the community and with proven records in anticorruption advocacy or professional training and or experience in law, law enforcement, auditing, accounting or related field. The membership of the commission shall also be drawn to reflect the broad spectrum of society; provided further that no two commissioners shall have the same county of origin and all five shall not be of the same gender”
DURING THE COURSE of Nwabudike’s confirmation ordeal, the Nigerian failed to demonstrate or prove that he is a Liberian. More importantly, the manner of acquisition of his Liberian citizenship, as he claimed before members of the Liberian Senate during his confirmation hearing, was proven to have been obtained fraudulently.
THIS IS WHY we continue to remain baffle as to why President Weah and his advisors would see nothing wrong with what is unfolding with the Nwabudike dilemma.
ADDING INSULT to injury, Cllr. Nwabudike this week sent out invitations under the banner of the LACC, for a meeting meeting on today, August 21, 2030 at 11:00 a.m. in the Executive Conference room situated on the 3rd floor of the Commission.
THE MEETING, according to Nwabudike’s invite, is intended to provide update to heads of the National Anti-Corruption progress thus far in the planning process of the National Anti-Corruption Conference. “It will also provide opportunity to discuss further details of the conference activities. The conference is schedule to take place from September 16-17, 2020 at the Ministerial Complex in Monrovia and would be formally opened by the President of the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency Dr. George M. Weah. Regional Consultative Meetings across the country leading to the National Conference will commence on August 26, 2020.”
CLLR. NWABUDIKE SIGNED off his invite by saying that “the LACC renews its commitment to the fight against corruption and looks forward to increase collaboration and support.”
THE INVITE from the controversial and embattled LACC boss shows how unserious the Weah administration is about weeding or curbing graft in Liberia.
THIS IS A PRESIDENT, who in his inaugural address said: “It is my belief that the most effective way to directly impact the poor, and to narrow the gap between rich and poor, is to ensure that public resources do not end up in the pockets of Government officials. I further believe that the overwhelming mandate I received from the Liberian people is a mandate to end corruption in public service. I promise to deliver on this mandate. As officials of Government, it is time to put the interest of our people above our own selfish interests. It is time to be honest with our people. Though corruption is a habit amongst our people, we must end it. We must pay civil servants a living wage, so that corruption is not an excuse for taking what is not theirs. (To) those who do not refrain from enriching themselves at the expense of the people, you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
HOW CAN President Weah truly convince the world that he is sincere in what he said on inauguration day when he cannot muster the courage to take a stand on Nwabudike?
TO FATHOM, THAT the President is even considering attending or gracing an occasion hosted by the LACC boss, speaks volumes and shows that this government, like those before, have truly accepted corruption as the norm and has no intentions of ever working toward putting the brakes on graft, at least not in this generation.
MAYBE THIS IS how Liberia is meant to be, a country as lawless as they come, that no matter where its citizens find themselves, they feel obliged to break the law, just as Tamba did, thinking that he would never be caught and ended up losing his job and potentially, his source of livelihood.
PRESIDENT WEAH and his advisors need to seriously rethink their handling of the corruption issue. If the head of an integrity institution has integrity problems, no serious donor or stakeholder will take that entity seriously.
HOW CAN Cllr. Nwabudike and his team at the LACC seriously expect anyone to take them seriously about upholding, protecting and defending the integrity and credibility of the LACC, when the integrity institution is itself riddled with question marks of its own?
WITH SUCH attitude, one can safely say that anti-graft fight is dead on arrival in Liberia. May the next generation of Liberians can give it try because from the look of things, perhaps its time to lock the door on corruption in Liberia – and throw away the keys.