Stop Fighting -WANEP: “Make Use of Legal Framework to Resolve Conflict”

MONROVIA –  A prominent civil society organization, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding-Liberia (WANEP-Liberia), is calling on factions within the House of Representatives of the 55^th Legislation to stop the power struggle by making use of available legal frameworks.

The group, in a press statement, said it has observed for the past weeks with keen interest the disruption in normal proceedings at the House of Representatives – a crisis that should be resolved in the interest of the general good of all Liberians.

“This power contending struggle between both groups of the House of Representatives named and styled ‘Minority bloc’ and ‘Majority bloc’ derails Legislative functions and further delays progress of the 55th Legislature in general, thereby stagnating the overall progress of the country,” WANEP said. “A divide in the Legislature can be equated to a divided Nation. This could undermine Liberia’s hard-earned peace, discourage foreign investment and donor support, ruin the confidence of our international partners and erode citizens’ trust in the protection guaranteed by the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.”

The civil society organization which is reputed for its peace role that culminated into the 2003 peace accord said this situation in the House has the proclivity to invite chaos and undermine democratic development, peace and human security.

“Liberians would never want to revert to those dark days of war years, which broke down the country’s economy, governance structure and groom monsters that took away the lives of more than 250,000 people, mostly women and children; leaving over a million in refugee camps across the sub region and other parts of the world,” the group lamented.

“As National Convener of Peace, the Management and Board of Directors of WANEP-Liberia urge and calls on both the ‘Majority Bloc and Minority Bloc’ to utilize the legal framework of Liberia in resolving their internal differences,” the group said, adding: “Liberians deserve better after reposing trust and confidence in those elected into various offices of trust, especially at the Legislature.”

WANEP-Liberia believes that a speedy resolution of the current stalemate in the nation’s first branch of Government will not only demonstrate leadership within both blocs, but will further project a positive image of the House of Representatives to the citizens of Liberia and the international community, indicating that we are indeed responsible in resolving our differences in a more professional and law-abiding manner.

WANEP-Liberia a National Non-Governmental Peacebuilding Organization (NGO) in Liberia is a National Network of WANEP Regional, headquartered in Accra Ghana.

WANEP has succeeded in establishing strong National Networks in every Member State of ECOWAS, with over 700 member organizations working on peace and security across West Africa.

WANEP has credibility and a wide recognition both internationally and locally due to its outstanding work in the areas of peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the ECOWAS region.

Currently, WANEP has standing and strategic partnerships with ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) in supporting implementation of the ECOWAS regional early warning and response network referred to as ECOWARN and the implementation of the AU’s Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), including the gender mainstreaming architecture.

WANEP Liberia goal is to build sustainable peaceful coexistence amongst all the various sectors and groups of the Liberian community; thereby creating an enabling environment for national growth and development. Please note that our efforts to engage both parties will commence immediately after the release of this statement through sustained advocacy, mediation and back channel discussions.

WANEP has a strategic advocacy based and awareness raising approach that have built synergies at the community level in consolidating peaceful coexistence amongst various sectors of our societies. Visit www.wanepliberia.org for more details of WANEP-Liberia.