LIBERIA’S LONG-DELAYED quest for justice for the atrocities of its civil wars stands again at a defining crossroads. The establishment of the Office for the Establishment of the War and Economic Crimes Court (OWECC-L) was never intended to become a theater of confrontation. It was designed as a national instrument of healing—one that must carefully guide a fractured society toward accountability, reconciliation, and closure. That mission is too important to be derailed by distraction.
YET, INCREASINGLY, THE national conversation around OWECC-L is shifting in a troubling direction. Instead of clarity of process, institutional coordination, and measurable progress, the public is being drawn into a cycle of disputes, accusations, and counter-accusations emanating from the very office tasked with shepherding justice.
AT THE CENTER of this concern is the posture of the Executive Director of OWECC-L, Cllr. Jallah Barbu. In recent weeks, his engagements have not been limited to defending the mandate of his office. They have extended into open confrontations with key national figures, including National Security Advisor Samuel K. Woods II, Justice Minister Oswald Tweh, and fellow legal practitioner Dempster Brown, among others. The pattern is becoming unmistakable—any disagreement is met not with measured institutional engagement, but with sharp, public rebuttal.
THIS IS NOT the temperament required to midwife a national healing process.
TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE is not a battleground of personalities. It is a painstaking, collaborative undertaking that demands restraint, diplomacy, and the ability to build consensus across institutions with differing mandates but shared responsibilities. The Ministry of Justice must harmonize legal frameworks. The Legislature must pass enabling laws. The security architecture must maintain stability. Human rights institutions must ensure compliance with standards. None of these actors can be bypassed, diminished, or publicly antagonized without consequences.
TO REDUCE THIS complex architecture into a series of public clashes is to misunderstand the very nature of the work.
THERE IS ALSO a tone that must be addressed. Leadership of a process rooted in justice and reconciliation requires a disposition that reflects those values. The language of confrontation, the reflex of escalation, and the tendency toward personalized exchanges risk projecting an image not of a steward of justice, but of a combatant in a political contest.
LIBERIA DOES NOT need a militant approach to justice. It needs a man of peace—one who understands that accountability must be pursued with firmness, but also with calm, discipline, and strategic patience.
THE VICTIMS OF Liberia’s wars are not served by noise. They are served by results. They are served by a system that is carefully constructed, legally sound, and institutionally supported. They are served by a process that commands confidence, not controversy.
TO BE CLEAR, urgency remains valid. Liberia has waited too long for accountability. But urgency must not become agitation. The louder the rhetoric becomes, the weaker the coordination risks becoming. And without coordination, there will be no court—only another failed attempt at justice.
CLLR. BARBU MUST now pause and reflect on the direction of his leadership. The responsibility he carries is not to win arguments in the public domain, but to build a system that will endure legal scrutiny, political pressure, and historical judgment.
THIS REQUIRES Recalibration.
OWECC-L MUST RETURN to its core mandate: preparing the legal, institutional, and operational foundations for a credible War and Economic Crimes Court. That work demands quiet engagement with stakeholders, careful negotiation of differences, and disciplined communication that strengthens—not strains—relationships.
HISTORY WILL NOT remember who issued the sharpest rebuttal. It will remember whether Liberia finally delivered justice.
THAT OUTCOME IS still within reach. But it will not be achieved through confrontation.
IT WILL BE achieved through coordination, restraint, and purpose.
CLLR. BARBU MUST choose which path to lead.