MONROVIA – A sharp new commentary by former Monrovia Lord Mayor Jefferson Koijee has reopened questions about the independence and consistency of Liberia’s civil society voices. The dispute pits an unnamed writer against activist Eddie D. Jarwolo over who truly deserves public scrutiny. At issue is whether criticism of broadcaster Stanton Witherspoon reflects principle or political convenience. The exchange matters because civil society credibility rests on applying one standard to the powerful and the independent alike. It also unfolds against the cocaine-trafficking controversy that has badly strained public trust in state institutions. How these competing claims are weighed could shape perceptions of who genuinely defends accountability in Liberia. The clash therefore reaches beyond the two men at its center. THE ANALYST reports.
In a strongly worded commentary, Congress for Democratic Change Secretary General Jefferson T. Koijee has accused prominent civil society practitioner Eddie D. Jarwolo of hypocrisy and “selective outrage,” arguing that his criticism of broadcaster Stanton Witherspoon reflects inconsistent moral standards. The Koijee contends that civil society cannot claim moral authority while its voice becomes selectively loud in some cases and conveniently silent in others as political circumstances change.
The commentary situates its argument within Liberia’s cocaine-trafficking controversy, which it says has left young people exposed to the destructive consequences of narcotics. The writer questions why Jarwolo’s once-prominent civil society voice has, in the author’s telling, gone quiet at a moment when courage, independence and moral clarity are most required.
Koijee argues that silence in the face of national injustice should not be mistaken for neutrality. “Spinelessness in the face of national injustice is not neutrality,” he states, contending that deliberate selective outrage risks becoming a betrayal of the country and its people.
CHARGES OF SELECTIVE SILENCE
The commentary lists several episodes in which, it alleges, Jarwolo failed to speak out. These include the removal of Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa, which the author says critics described as a “legislative coup d’état,” and complaints by Representative Yekeh Kolubah that his rights were publicly denied and violated.
The CDC Chief Scribe also cites allegations of abuses involving university students, particularly members of the Student Unification Party (SUP) and the Progressive Students Alliance (PROSA). The commentary further references claims by the chairman of STAND and other citizens of harassment, intimidation, arrest and wrongful imprisonment for exercising democratic rights.
On governance, Koijee raises what it calls serious questions about constitutional governance under the Boakai-Koung administration, which it criticizes in sharply worded terms. The commentary also points to public concerns over reported mysterious deaths and police conduct under Liberia National Police (LNP) Inspector General Gregory Coleman, arguing that these matters deserve fearless scrutiny.
He maintains that the police must remain what it calls the people’s force, never an instrument perceived by citizens as a state-sanctioned tool for intimidation or political repression. The author contends that those wielding state power and coercive authority, rather than an independent broadcaster, should be the primary focus of civil society scrutiny.
DEFENSE OF SPOON TALK
Central to the commentary is a defense of Witherspoon and his nightly program, Spoon Talk. Koijee further argues that if thousands of Liberians voluntarily tune in each night, the relevant question is not why Witherspoon commands such influence, but why so many citizens believe his platform provides the scrutiny and advocacy they are not hearing loudly enough elsewhere.
He praises journalists it describes as patriotic and nationalist, including Roney D. Sieh of FrontPageAfrica and Julius Kanubah, President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), for defying threats, political pressure and financial temptation.
The commentary contends that civil society organizations, which receive national and international funding to defend democratic governance, accountability and human rights, must not use that support to produce comfortable silence toward government while directing manufactured outrage at independent voices.
‘WATCHDOGS, NOT LAPDOGS’
Koijee concludes with a direct challenge to Jarwolo, insisting that civil society cannot be courageous one day, compromised the next and credible thereafter.
“Liberia needs watchdogs, not lapdogs,” the commentary states, calling for practitioners whose voices cannot be purchased, polluted, compromised or selectively activated according to political convenience.
Koijee urges critics of Witherspoon to confront the underlying conditions driving public frustration rather than the broadcaster himself.
Comparing the situation to a thermometer registering heat, he contends that one should confront the fire rather than attack the instrument that measures it, before signing off simply as “JTK.”