The SC’s Absence from Boakai’s SONA -Separating Public Opinion from Legality

MONROVIA – President Joseph Nyuma Boakai on Monday, January 27, 2024, performed his fiduciary duties in line with Article 58 of the Liberian Constitution when he reported to the Liberian people through the National Legislature what his government had achieved in 2024 with the existing revenue envelop from the national budget, and what is expected to be achieved in 2025.

In line with the Executive Mansion protocol of the day, all guests, dignitaries, and members of both the Legislature and the Judiciary were seated by 3:45 PM to receive the President’s Annual Message by 4:00 PM. However, to the utmost surprise of everyone, not one of the four associate justices showed up for the SONA, evidenced by the empty seats they should have occupied on the podium where President Boakai delivered his hour-and-a-half long message to the nation. Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh for her part could not grace the occasion because she was participating in the Annual High-Level Meeting of Chief Justices and Presidents of Supreme and Constitutional Courts from Africa and the Middle East in Cairo, Egypt.

As The Analyst reports, the conspicuous unexplained absence of all the associate justices from President Boakai’s SONA has sparked a national conversation about the reasons why the Supreme Court justices opted to recuse themselves from participating in that auspicious occasion, with some conjecturing that the SC justices decided to recuse themselves because they did not want to jeopardize their neutrality in the conflicted House leadership case, especially after the apex court had ruled on December 6, 2024 for the feuding legislators to return to status quo ante, and that all actions taken that caused the Fonati Koffa minority bloc to run to the Supreme Court were ultra vires.

Public opinion aside, it is clear that Article 58 which compels the President of Liberia to present the administration’s legislative program for the ensuing session, and report to the Legislature once a year on the fourth working Monday in January of each year on the state of the Republic, inclusive of the economic condition of the Republic covering expenditure as well as income, does not compel the Supreme Court justices to attend the President’s SONA.

What the people say, what the law says

While some citizens continue to speculate that the SC justices “boycotted” President Boakai’s SONA because they felt unsatisfied sitting under the authority of Representative Richard Koon as Speaker, legal minds and political pundits say the Supreme Court is not compelled to attend the President’s Annual Message.

According to Atty George Mulbah, a former member of the House of Representative, “The only branch of government that is mandated to attend the SONA is a quorum of the legislature. The attendance of the Judiciary is discretional. The only forum the Justices are mandated to attend by the constitution is the inauguration of the president. In 2007 the Justices stayed away from SONA to avoid being conflicted.”

Mr. A Kpandel Fayia, a veteran administrator of Liberia’s mining and energy sector, also agrees that the absence of the Supreme Court Justices at President Boakai’s SONA did not carry any legal implications.

“Had the Supreme Court stayed away from JNB’s inauguration, that event would have been null and void and we would have had no president. The SONA is a legislative matter and once the legislature had a quorum yesterday, the case closed. Whether former presidents or justices of the SC, who are all CDC partisans, boycott the event, it is immaterial.

The constitution did not mention any of them for the SONA. Let people hear mehn! Liberia is trying to break away from the decadence of the past where anything goes,” Mr. Fayia said passionately.

As for veteran journalist and BBC stringer Jonathan Paye-Layleh Jonathan, the absence of Supreme Court judges at the SONA should not be called a boycott unless they say it was. “It’s not every time you stay away from an event you have boycotted, especially when you don’t have to be there for the event to hold. Hear me and hear me well,” Paye-Layleh said.

The Secretary-General and President-elect of the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA), Cllr. Bornor Varmah, for his part called on the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court to reject their allocations in the 2025 National Budget if the speakership of Richard Nagbe Koon, elected by the majority members of the House of Representatives, is deemed illegal.

Public Policy wonk Ambulah Mamey also agrees. “It is tricky. This same group sent their people to sit under Koon’s budget committee to defend their budget.  Was that not a recognition of Koon?” Mamey wondered.

“Their boycott didn’t stop the SONA, I mean the supreme court bench and the former presidents of Liberia. What we needed was to have a quorum of the legislature and that was done. That event was never for the supreme court/former presidents of Liberia. Will you tell me before the supreme court has a ruling to any case the executive MUST be there?” wondered Edward Karsoryan Sr.

“They created their own vacuum by not being straight to the point in interpreting the law. So, they shamefully chose to stay away from the event. They intentionally delayed explaining the bill of information and justice delayed is obviously denied. And given its executive power you don’t expect the executive branch to wait for them. After all, power moves where Justice is willfully delayed, denied and the law is frozen,” opined veteran journalist Shelton Gonkerwon.