Why is LNBA Mute in House Speaker Debacle? -Dr. Tipoteh Ponders If This Means Contempt or Consent

MONROVIA – One of Liberia’s surviving revolutionary icons, ace economist Togba-Nah Tipoteh, is wondering over the graveyard silence of the umbrella organization of the country’s lawyers in the vexing national discourse and conflict bordering their profession and vocation – the law. Liberians, in the last eight months, have been teetering on the brink of political paralysis occasioned by the misuse, misunderstanding and disinformation over national laws, both statutory and constitutional, governing legislative disputes, and yet this group of citizens which pride itself as the maestro of the law and advocates of it is scurrying in silence. The lethargy has provoked the inquiry and lamentation of a patriarch, as The Analyst reports.       

Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh, perhaps inclined to the proposition that “it is only when it is dark that one can see stars” has alarmed over what he sees as the silence of the Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA) while the country edges towards deep crises bordering the interpretation and enforcement of the law in the dispute about House Speakership at the Legislature.

The dispute is in its eighth month and the citizens continue to wallow in uncertainty over what the law says, as principal branches of government, Executive, Judiciary and Legislature proffer conflicting and mixed interpretation and narratives without an independent source, the civil society, to broker a truce—at least intellectually or academically.    

Dr. Tipoteh says as the incoming leadership of the Liberian National Bar Association (LNBA) was inaugurated over the weekend, one expects that the promotion of the Rule of Law would continue under the LNBA in 2025 and beyond, since it is the most widely known voice of the voiceless about the Rule of Law.

He said his concern is prompted by the fact that the people of Liberia have not heard the LNBA’s familiar advocacy voice since the new LNBA leadership got elected in 2025.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives issue came a long time running now but “we heard nothing about it from the LNBA”.

“The absence of the Supreme Court of Liberia from the SONA 2025 came about but we heard nothing from the LNBA. Does this silence mean contempt or consent?” Dr. Tipoteh quipped, adding: “Such has not been the practice of the LNBA. Is this a new LNBA or do we have to wait and be patient as the rule of outlaw rules the day?”

According to the veteran politician, the past LNBA President from 2016 to 2020 spoke in promotion of the Rule of Law but “he did not speak in the name of the LNBA because he has no right to speak in the name of the LNBA and he acted accordingly”.

He added: “The people have the right to speak in their interest at all times. Whenever the Truth is spoken, the people have spoken. The people of Liberia have spoken on the Speaker issue. The people of Liberia have spoken on the absence of the Supreme Court issue. The people of Liberia said that the Speaker must be placed through the Due Process of Law just as the Rule of Law requires. The people of Liberia have spoken about the absence of the Supreme Court issue. The people of Liberia have said that Supreme Court is correct by ruling that the complainants should go back to follow the Rule of Law.”

Dr. Tipoteh further noted that the people of Liberia have spoken by raising the awareness of the people of Liberia, raising of awareness has been done through the Rule of Law, and it has motivated the people of Liberia to take actions to transform the unfair prevailing electoral system into the fair enduring electoral system within the Rule of Law as found in the Constitution of Liberia.

“It is only through this transformation that persons with good records can get elected to bring in the system of Justice, the indispensable ingredient of Peace and Progress in Liberia and in any other country, he said. “It is only this transformation that can give credibility to the LNBA as it comes into office in 2025.”

1 Comment
  1. Jake Doe says

    The LNBA is mute on the House Speaker debacle financed through bribery from looted state funds by Boakai and Koung, and other lawlessness by the very Boakai and Koungs Executive Branch, because the leadership of the LNBA AND ITS BANDIT MENTALITY DULL PRESIDENT the nincompoop Bornor Varmah HAVE BEEN BOUGHT BY BOAKAIS PRESIDENCY,, as evidenced in Varmahs stupidity that the Supreme Court should side with the criminal and corrupt actions of Joseph Boakai, because the Supreme Court has an allocation in the FY 2025 budget.

    We doubt that clown Bornor Varmah making a pass in any formal elementary civics exam, talk less of an exam in introductory courses as Evidence.

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