IN WHAT MANY Liberians consider rare and constructive, President Joseph Boakai held a dinner meeting with the leaderships of the National Legislature and the Judiciary or Supreme Court. The Executive Mansion media team did not report the details of the meeting except for placing on its Facebook page a mere caption, “In the interest of coordination, President Boakai hosts the leadership of the Legislature, Judiciary and members of the Executive to a dinner at the Ministerial Complex.”
VIDEO FOOTAGES HOWEVER conveyed the grandiosity and colorfulness of the occasion, as the three branches of Government—the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary—were all represented around the “dinner table” at the highest level. The two wings of the National Legislature, the House of Representatives and the House of Senate, were present in full. As each head of these Constitutionally equal, separate and coordinate branches of Government, spoke to each other, however short the speeches were, Liberians are assured that political governance was on course and peace was assured.
WE JOIN MANY other Liberians in commending President Joseph Nyuma Boakai for convening such a meeting. In fact, it was reported that before this meeting, he had met with the leadership of each of the branches of Government separately. It is indeed a rare event in many years to see a sitting Liberian bringing together his counterparts from the Legislature and Judiciary to openly sit and dialogue on common national issues. We share the view of Liberians and friends of Liberia who think president Boakai broke a record and that he should continue doing so as regularly as possible, and with honesty.
IT IS HOWEVER important that while we extol the president such his move, we must also call on him to use such meetings not for mere gimmicks, not for mere political showmanship and for public relations stunts. The meetings must be intended to resolve serious national issues, be it those affecting each of the leadership groups or the country as a whole. The meetings must be not only to extract suggestions, to shake hands and dine and wine. After the fanfare, the photoshoots and toasts, there must be concrete outcomes, and all this largely rests on the shoulders of the Chief Executive, the head of the Executive Branch, the President.
FOR INSTANCE, BEFORE the meeting, the Supreme Court has alarmed about an acutely minute share allotted for its operations by the Executive-Legislature-formulated national budget. The Judiciary flatly rejected what it referred to a humiliatingly slashed allotment in the 2024 national budget. A day or two ago, the Legislature, particularly the House of Representatives, similarly came out publicly to voiced its disenchantment against poor support by the Executive towards its operational budget. Even not long before the “Dinner Meeting” news spread all over the place about an Executive-sponsored coup against the Speaker of the House of Representatives. And we also recall how the President, the convener of the Meeting, also complained about the frequent summoning of his appointed officials by the Legislature.
IN OTHER WORDS, there are sufficient, substantive reasons why the President, the Chief Justice and Speaker and President Protempare and their deputies must meet. And we heartedly welcome such meetings, particularly when they are held to resolve critical national issues, when they are held with Liberia being the center of interest for them all, and when solutions derived and agreed upon are expeditiously remedied. Our urge to them all is that such meetings must bring out issues and actions that flow from the mind, a mind that sees the biggest picture which is Liberia, and not the tendency of white-teeth-black-heart.
THE DOCTRINE OF three branches of Government, co-equal, separate and coordinate, as articulated by the Constitution of Liberia is for the good of the nation, and not for particularly public official or particular branch of government. It is the first step of the National Covenant of the people of Liberia as embedded in the Constitution to nip tyranny in the bud, to embolden our democratic governance system and to sustain national unity, peace and stability. This is why we think the Boakai Dinner Meeting is timely and good, but using it for showmanship and gimmicks will be disservice.
WE LOOK FORWARD in the coming weeks and months to see how the convener of the meeting, President Boakai, would now turn those sticky issues between amongst the branches of government from mere rhetoric and talking shop situation into concrete, enforceable, realizable reality. It is only by this that Liberians will true say, that by such a meeting, the president has turned the tide, and has cut the corner.
Comments are closed.