Speaker Koffa Fights Off Loyalist’s Critique -Taa Wongba In Defection Mode, Placing House Speaker Under Fire
MONROVIA: The ‘Capitol Hill’, everywhere in the ‘power kingdom’, is a fierce and nasty zone of politics, where friendship today means seamless enmity tomorrow or vice versa. Even the most audacious Julius Ceasar centuries ago tasted and popularized the intrigues associated with the “Capitol”, and since that time a countless more politicians on the ‘Hill’ have fatally fallen to the fluidity and mirage of political marriages particularly within ‘Capitol Hill’ ecosystem. Liberia has had its own share of the weaponization of political alliances, and right now Grand Kru Representative Jonathan Fonati Koffa is in the furnace of it. His “non-conformist son”, Nimba County Representative Taa Wongba, who his “put neck on the line” for the House Speaker to be elected head of the First Branch of Government has picked up the ‘guns’ to push him ‘do the right things’. As The Analyst reports, the Speaker, like Julius Ceasar, has been asking in a riposte, “et tu, Brute?”
Lingering internal imbroglios within the House of Representatives have spilled over the bounds of the Capitol, landing in the public space, on the social media, with the Speaker of the House, J. Fonati Koffa, fighting off a barrage of censures fired by his ally—or former ally—who is faulting what he seems to see as a couple of leadership ‘mishaps’ of the Speaker.
Nimba County Representative Taa Zogbe Kartoe Wongbe, who claimed to have exposed himself to biting criticisms for aiding and abetting the election of Koffa as House Speaker, was reportedly on international tour with President Joseph N. Boakai when he used his Facebook page to bemoan several leadership actions of the Speaker, including being too soft and flirtatious with the Executive Branch.
Wongba charged the Speaker Koffa with conniving with the Executive, drawing his evidence from what he said was the Speaker’s alleged betrayal of his promise to hold the Executive accountable as an opposition Speaker and to be independent.
“We are learning that you are in bed with the Executive as a consultant to the Minister of State and the President,” he Nimba lawmaker said. “This compromises you and dilutes your independence, and we must know the details.”
He opined further, referring to Koffa: “The proximity you enjoy with the President allowed you to boldly say to him in front of the leadership of the House, Senate, Executive, and Judiciary, ‘Mr. President, anything you want, and I mean anything you want, you will get from that House as long as I am Speaker’”.
He also alleged the Speaker was doing little or nothing regarding reports of alterations of the ratified 2024/05 budget, perhaps his further proof that the Speaker is dinning and winning with the Executive.
He said: “We are hearing about budget alterations by the MFDP after the approved budget and nothing has been done. We are seeing an apparent 4.7M budget line shifting and 20M that was taken from the budget to deal with presidential projects. This is gross disregard for the LAW and you are presiding over this as a lawyer. We need to understand this and the appropriate action!”
Wongba also took aim at his ‘political godfather’ for dragging feet in fulfilling a promise to bring greater transparency to the House by ensuring its audit.
“You promised transparency and a full audit of the House,” he said. “To date, ZERO! People are now assuming that you are protecting the former Speaker or yourself and other people. Hon. Speaker, why has the audit stalled?”
According to him he had consistently engaged Speaker Koffa privately to be the leader he promised to be but “my attempts have gone on infertile grounds”.
“I have done the same in our 55th group chat and you sent your stooges and minions to insult me and call me names. You also called me a rebel for being bold to stand up to you. You also threatened in our group chat to take my leadership position because I am holding you accountable.”
Speaker Koffa Retorts
The Speaker of the House is not taking the Wongba Facebook critique of him lying down largely because, according to him, Wongba is a “ranking member of the House of Representatives with unhindered access to me, you felt a need to use Facebook to get redress for your concerns”.
On allegation of the Speaker’s “reckless remarks at working dinner” with President Boakai, where he alleged the Speaker promised 100 percent cooperation with the Executive on anything, Koffa said he was “greatly misunderstood or intentionally misrepresented and misquoted.”
“At that function,” he said, “I boldly told the President to stop trying to push bills in the House through a partisan outfit dubbed ‘Rescue bloc’ and reminded the Chief Executive that the 1986 Constitution requires us to coordinate and that the right thing to do is to send Executive Bills to the Leadership of the House which controls agenda.”
He denied that at no time did he commit to pass everything that was sent to the House without scrutiny or regards to the interest of the people and the rule of law.
“As you may recall, my exchanges with the executive on this matter emanated from a complaint filed by the House Committee on Executive,” the House Speaker clarified. “How can we be conniving with the Executive and be on the frontline of the ‘yellow machine’ issue which I first raised at the dinner you referred to and which pressure subsequently led to presidential response.”
To date, Representative Koffa asserted, “the only official response to this issue has been from the house under my gavel in the relentless pursuit of transparency and accountability.”
He said he would be interested in hearing the bill or instrument that his administration has passed on the floor, which Wongba does not think is in the interest of Liberia and represents connivance with the executive.
“My management of the plenary is usually void of bloc or partisanship, and it is quite unfortunate that you present no support for this unfounded claim.”
On Rep. Wongba’s concern about promise for Audits and Transparency Issues, Speaker Koffa replied: “Also, on the issue of audits and transparency at the Legislature, you will be hard pressed to show me another Speaker in our history that signed up for audits of the House.
“If you were following developments around this issue carefully, you would know that the Auditor General advised that a system be put in place before the actual audits are conducted. I have no control over the pace of the GAC work, and I am assured that steps are being taken to ensure audits are done.”
Speaker Koff advised his Nimba County ally, who is a member of leadership, to familiarize himself intricately to the issues, adding, “And while we embrace open governance, it would be chaotic to try to run government by Facebook. Our people are counting on us to do right by them, work together across all branches of government, and turn all that we do into tangible progress for them.”
The House Speaker also addressed himself to his ally’s lamentations about benefits and how his leader is not doing much to resolve the issue.
He said: “Yes. Members’ benefits have always been an issue at the legislature. As a matter of fact, I have entertained countless members from the 53rd and 54th on benefits outstanding. I have even threatened to shut down the house on this benefits issue. As the House Committee on Ways, Means and Finance has developed a schedule and briefed the plenary in executive on last Thursday, I am sure all the remaining benefits will be paid soon. Unfortunately, you did not attend session and so you are not informed.”
As if endeavoring to lecture his “political son”, Koffa saidL “Hon. Wongbe, the constitution provides for three separate but coordinate branches of government. Therefore, I will continue to coordinate with the executive and judiciary.
“As long as a measure or legislation is in the interest of Liberia, I will work to see it comes to fruition no matter who the proponent is. As I often remind all, I am the speaker of the national legislature, not a speaker for a bloc or party. I am a CDCian and a proud one too, but I am also patriot who tries to reach across the aisle to ensure that the work of the Liberian people is carried out and that our people’s suffering is not made worse by our partisan rivalry.”
He pointed to the conflicted mode of Rep. Wongba when he said: “Similarly, when you recently traveled with the president to South Korea and genuflected before him in Abuja, were you conniving or collaborating? Were you performing a statutory role? As the 4th ranking member of the House, did you raise the benefits issue with him?”
Speaker Koff’s final rebuttal of Wongba was on his allegations of budget tempering, stating that he (Koffa) also raised the issue with the Ministry of Finance when the final budget was published and presented.
He noted: “Because there were discrepancies in the House’s budget, we instructed the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) to conduct an analysis of the entire document to find additional discrepancies because my concern should not just be the house’s budget but the entire document and process.
“We then notified the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) of the initial findings, which led to them removing the document from the website. As soon as LBO finishes its analysis, plenary will be informed. Sorry Hon. Wongbe, but my training as a lawyer and my experience as a Legislator will not allow me to proceed with half-baked information.”
He called on the Nimba County Representative to “participate more to avoid juvenile tantrums and public outbursts,” as he is not “perturbed by the baseless and reckless claims that you made because I understand this is what Facebook politics require, and it’s the nature of this business.”
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