Liberia News: UP Regimes Noted For Removing Speakers

Liberia-The removal saga of House Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa by some members of the House of Representatives, which is getting dramatic by the day, is not unique to Liberia or the House of Representatives, as it is equally not unique to regime of the ruling Unity Party (UP).

Though it is not clear whether the UP as a structure and government has any hiding hands in the rigmarole at the House of Representatives, records have shown that all UP regimes, from 2006 -2018 had been characterized and overshadowed by Speaker removal tumults.

Those knowledgeable of developments on Capitol Hill have indicated that Liberia trekked such turbulent path of removing Speakers on two different occasions under a UP-led administration, since the country returned to pluralistically democratic form of government following the end of the brutal civil war that preceded a bloody military takeover and autocratic leadership.

According to information available to this paper, just as current Speaker Koffa is going through removal inferno at the hands of some members of the House of Representatives, so were two different Speakers in persons of former Representatives Edwin Melvin Snowe and J. Alex Tyler, who endured similar upheaval in similar fashion of a group of angry and belligerent lawmakers ganging up against them, and subsequently dethroned them.

It can be recalled that in 2006, during the first term of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberians were introduced to such a political theatre of removing sitting Speakers when then Speaker Edwin Snowe, then an independent lawmaker representing District #6, Montserrado County, was booted out of office under dubious circumstances.

With less than a year in the post, Snowe, one of the youngest lawmakers of the 51st Legislature to be elected to the tough, but lucrative position, was accused of abusing his powers, including making an unannounced trip and representation to Taiwan in a bid to suede Liberia ties away from the People’s Republic of China, in contravention of its One China Policy most countries aligned with and subscribed to.

China regards Taiwan as its territory, and has been making frantic efforts to control Taiwan’s external diplomatic ties with the outside world.

Before President Sirleaf ascendancy, Liberia enjoyed an incredibly bustling relationship with Taiwan during the reign of former President Charles Taylor, with the Pacific nation pumping millions of dollars into the Liberian economy to help the Taylor-led administration, which was largely isolated by the International community, meet its obligations.

Though, many political analysts at the time believed the accusations were trumped up and used as basis to remove him since he was not member of the Unity Party, as then President Sirleaf was not comfortable working with him.

Then Speaker Snowe denied all of the accusations levelled against him, but still did not survive the political hurricane reportedly spawned by the UP-led Executive Branch of Government.

The embattled Speaker Snowe took several steps in a bid to thwart and reverse his removal by belligerent lawmakers who reportedly received a bribe of $5,000USD as an inducement, including taking the matter to the Supreme Court.

Following review of the under-fire Speaker’s Petition for Prohibition, the Highest Court of the Land ruled that he (Snowe) returned to status quo – meaning that the matter should be resolved amongst themselves – leaving the embattled Speaker to the mercy of his political enemies who, at all cost, wanted his head.

To make matter worst, the belligerent lawmakers who had the majority bloc decided not to sit under Speaker Snowe’s gavel, and moved their session to the Unity Conference Center in Virginia, out of Monrovia, strangulating the Snowe support bloc to function as they did not have the numbers to form a quorum.

After exhausting every effort and means to find an amicable solution to the problem, including behind-the-scene lobbying and negotiations, Speaker Snowe, who swore he would not resign, was left with no option but to throw in the towel.

Representative J. Alex Tyler of Bomi County District #1, then of the Unity Party, was elected as the next Speaker of the House of Representative in a process reportedly manipulated by the UP to have its own as head of the First Branch of Government.

But not too long when Tyler started encountering stiff resistance from his own colleagues on many occasions on allegations of corruption and undermining the work of the House of Representatives because of his alleged multiple business interests.

Several plots to dethrone Tyler, who most former lawmakers described as the best in terms of his lobbying prowess and pedigree, were reportedly aborted, but his end came at the crescendo of corruption allegation regarding his involvement in the awarding of a controversial contract to Sable Mining, a South African-based Company.

An investigative task force set up by then President Sirleaf found an incredibly damaging bribery of top government officials by the Company. Those who reportedly received the highest amount later became known as ‘Big Boy 1 and Big Boy 2’, with each of them said to have received $9,050 to facilitate the deal in favor of the mining company.

Before the investigation could be concluded, Tyler was forced out of office and subsequently replaced with Rep. Emmanuel Nuquay, then chair on ways and means under Tyler. He remained in the position until the 2017 election when then former vice President Joseph Boakai chose him as running mate in the elections won by former President George Weah.

Current House Speaker Koffa is said to be going through similar fate suffered by his predecessors, former Speakers Snowe and Tyler, again under the watch of a Unity Party government led by President Joseph Boakai who was vice President when the two removal actions occurred.

Just as former President Sirleaf was accused of being the mastermind of the dethronement of the two former Speakers, so it is widely speculated that President Boakai is the undercurrent operative of the Koffa removal saga, although Presidential Press Secretary, Kula Fofana, has indicated that the President has no knowledge, whatsoever about the plot to oust Speaker Koffa.

If not the first, it is the second time Speaker Koffa’s seat has come under fire, with threats of removal. During the speakership election in January of this year, President Boakai, then President-elect weighed his support behind Representative Richard Koon of District #11,  Montserrado county and a member of the UP to become Speaker.

Rep. Koon is one of the opposition lawmakers seeking the removal of Speaker Koffa, cataloguing allegations of corruption against him, the same gimmick used by lawmakers to get at then Speakers Snowe and Tyler.

However, experts and those teed with knowledge in legislative politics are not ruling out the possibility of a Richard Koon becoming the next should Speaker bow to pressure and resign, just as Snowe and Tyler.