By: Matthew Turry
MONROVIA: Montserrado County district #9 Representative Frank Saah Foko has outlined some missteps of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai in his first one month of leadership of the country. The Liberian leader took over the mantle of authority January 22, 2024 with 100 days deliverables promised.
Speaking to journalists Monday, February 26, 2024, Rep. Foko said President Boakai has shown some level of missteps in governing the affairs of the state.
According to him, on two occasions the president was not able to represent Liberia at the level of the region. He noted that President Boakai failed to attend the ECOWAS Summit where Presidents and heads of the governments from the regional economic community agreed to lift the sanctions on Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali at the ECOWAS headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said the President also did not attend the 37th Session of the African Union Summit that was convened, but rather sent the Foreign Minister on February 17-18, 2024 and went on a mere trip without tangible reasons.
“There are several issues happening around the region, and other Presidents have gone to make decisions about the region but yet President Boakai was absent. Two times the President did not represent the country out of Liberia. What is happening? There are a lot of things happening”, he questioned.
On the issues of the Central Bank of Liberia, the Montserrado County lawmaker stated by saying “the President just make an open statement that they should audit the Central Bank of Liberia, yes it is good audit, but is it the prerogative of the President to give instruction for them to audit the CBL? Do you know what the CBL comes with, there are different private accounts within the CBL, and the President lacks the legal authority to unilaterally mandate audit of the CBL.
He said for instance on some of the missteps, is the appointment of the Buchanan Port Manager that should have been done by the National Port Authority (NPA) Manager. He added that it is not in the preview of the Liberian leader to appoint someone at the Buchanan Port.
Foko maintained that within a month the President was breaching almost all the statutory laws of the country just to satisfy partisans’ pleasure with disregard for the law of the country. He added the President is doing everything possible to remove people from tenure positions because they were appointed by the past regime with no respect for the law protecting those positions.
“Also the National Road Fund, the president deliberately appointed someone while the Woman still had her tenure. No president should appoint anyone at the Road Fund. The woman is five years old, and she just turned six months old and the president appointed someone. If you are not satisfied with the person who works there, it should be done through a legal process, not removing them ceremoniously”, he asserted.
He further said that recently the Legal Advisor to the President Office admitted through his press briefing that he called those from the justice system seeking them to withdraw the case of Julie Endee, and that was wrong.
“We cannot allow Liberia that has tried, be it citizens, government, or past governments to get Liberia to where we are today, it comes from everybody.
“The President has to do the honorable thing, he should not witch hunt people because, and he wants to replace them to disregard the law. It is not about the people in these positions, but these positions are protected by the law and should be respected”, Rep. Foko concluded.
Boakai is an embarrassment, and a disgrace. This is very shameful. Law is not arithmetic, nor are courts or judges, traffic lights!!!
In other words, even if Boakai did not have legal advisers, it beats the imagination and disgusts the conscience and the intellect, that one who claims to have earned a degree in pubic administration in a case of this nature and character, his Boakais position is AN ABSURD AND FRAUDULENT application of the law.
Tweh and Keita, unless you two are blind as Boakai, you need to beat into that head of his that
(1) THE SOCIAL PURPOSE RULE UNDER LEGAL METHODOLOGY THAT A STATUTE SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO EFFECTUATE THE SOCIAL PURPOSE (NOT THE UNETHICAL, ABUSIVE AND THE ARBITRARY CONDUCT OF BOAKAI) IT WAS DESIGNED TO ACCOMPLISH, AND
(2) THE EXCEPTION TO THE PLAIN MEANING RULE providing that where FUNDAMENTAL VALUES (eg. non arbitrary acts, honesty, fairness, legitimacy, human rights, sobriety, etc.) are involved, the plain meaning rule does not and cannot override as Boakai ignorantly and fraudulently believes the word ” pleasure” should override here.
INTELLECTUAL INSIGHT
Law is not arithmetic, nor are courts or judges, traffic lights!!!