MONROVIA – Strong indications have emerged that President Joseph Boakai is planning to rejig his cabinet to ease out underperforming ministers and ministers accused of corruption.
By Selma Lomax [email protected]
The Liberian leader has been facing increasing pressure from within and outside his party, the Unity Party, to sack ministers, some of whom appeared to have been inactive, and also take actions against officials accused of corruption.
Sources in the Presidency told FrontPageAfrica that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent. The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter, revealed that some ministers would be dismissed, while others would be reassigned to other ministries for improved effectiveness.
However, the sources did not disclose the ministers likely to be affected. “What I can tell you is some (ministers) will go. A few will swap positions, then new people will be brought on board. But the President will be focused more on capacity now; on people who can easily add value to his government”, a source stated.
Another source disclosed that Boakai’s close associates agreed that the President required a stronger cabinet to implement his policies effectively.
The source stated, “The general concern among some of his aides, friends, and even the public is that the cabinet can be far better than this. There is a consensus among his (Boakai) close friends that he needs a stronger cabinet to push through with his policies. It is one thing to announce policies and it is another thing for your ministers to deliver the outcomes you want. Oftentimes, it is the capacity of your cabinet members and heads of agencies that determines how you will deliver on those outcomes.
“If the past nine months have not been eventful, he cannot afford to waste another year. It is the next year that will define the government.”
Time to shake up, says Sen. Dillon
Meanwhile, Monsterrado County senator Abraham Dillon, an ally of the current regime, posted to his Facebook page, assuring that the President is about to make critical changes to his government: “JNB (Joseph Boakai) assures that “honeymoon “is over! Time for strategic, drastic and timely actions … reschuffle, suspensions, dismissals and more prosecutions for accountability! No more ‘babysitting’, no more excuses!!
“And I am excited!! We recommit and renew our undiluted support as well as robust legislative oversight where necessary!! Our country and people deserve better; service to people, not self,” he added.
EFFL to Boakai: Act now on corrupt officials, or…
Also, the Economic Freedom Fighters of Liberia (EFFL) has sounded a caveat to President Boakai against provoking its members and supporters to early actions if it fails to dismiss corrupt public officials.
According to the party’s Commander-In-Chief, Emmanuel Gonquoi, President Boakai is presently being tested by a corrupt few in his government. He observed that the collective struggle of Liberians is now becoming the “accommodation house for greed and grandstanding.”
“President Boakai’s administration has witnessed few scandals now and they are all linked to people considered by facts or myth untouchable. It’s now time to see the President’s anger against corruption because his promise to fight corruption brought him to power.”
Gonquoi called on President Boakai to with immediate effect dismiss those who are linked to various reports of corruption upon his return to the country.
“For EFFL to support this Alliance, we were clear about prosecuting former officials of government including ex-President George Weah who became an overnight millionaire. The UP Alliance can’t afford to betray our people in the fight against corruption.”
Gonquoi observed that many people believe that President Boakai is “old and is not running for office again”.
As a result of this, he added that, these individuals do not see themselves having the same opportunity any time soon and would do everything at the cost of the UP Alliance to get rich, noting that, “some of us will not accept such behavior – no; not today, not tomorrow.”
“If we have to make enemies because we want to keep our commitment to our people, so be it, but we have a future here and wouldn’t compromise our people’s future to accommodate criminals.”
‘UP’s officials’ actions similar to Weah’s’
Meanwhile, Liberian journalist, Shelton Gonkerwon, said the UP-led government is highly perceived as being experienced and wise regarding governance matters, and as such its officials should work in conformity with those expectations.
“It’s a government that’s expected to behave like a caring mother who will leave hunger in her stomach and strive to quench that which is in the stomach of the hungry kid. It’s a government which is expected to remember the pains and suffering of the nation and people over the past years under the pro-poor administration. It’s a government that’s expected to know that a political accident occurs whenever a few greedy individuals prefer to reap the yolk of the land and breed poverty, lawlessness and mysterious killings, amongst other things.”
“It’s pathetic however that most of those calling themselves rescuers are taking advantage of the old age of President Joseph Nyumah Boakia and they’re on merrymaking spree. This was the similar situation in the George Weah administration where most of his followers took advantage of his political ignorance and massively siphoned the wealth of the land personal gains.”
‘We expect nothing good from Boakai, opposition members’
Meanwhile, opposition political parties have said they are not expecting anything good from the Unity Party-led government.
Reacting to a story published by FrontPageAfrica regarding President Boakai’s Anti-corruption fight, Derrick Peters of Monrovia, said President Boakai sacking or replacing cabinet with new people is an extension of state capture. “He will only be replacing them with his loyalists which we know will be a strategy. But if he is really serious about improving the performance of his governance at the moment, he can start considering reshuffling his cabinet. Quite a number of the ministers are not measuring up to expectations,” he said.
On his part, Nukai Kpangbai, a partisan of the Congress of Democratic Change, attributed the ministers’ woeful performance to Boakai’s lack of empathy for Liberians.
Kpangbai said, “So, what is the foundation of his presidency? That is the crux of the matter. We are not expecting anything good during this period of divine grace, that God will keep him in power.”
Alex Flomo, another partisan of the Congress of Democratic Change, cautioned Boakai against making the same mistake as his predecessor, George Weah, by keeping his ministers for six years.
He said he was not surprised by the failure of Boakai’s ministers, adding that a responsible government would have dismissed them long ago.
He argued that for Boakai to succeed, he must “weed out” ministers underperforming. He described some of Boakai’s appointments as “jobs for the boys” and called on the President to urgently part company with underperforming ministers.
“Most of the ministers are not performing; they are just noise makers and they seem not to understand the job they have been appointed to do. “The President needs to weed out more than most of the crowd he put together as his cabinet. If he has 48 ministers, we are saying that he should weed out a minimum of 10 of them, so that we will know those that are the performing ministers.”