His Excellency President Joseph Nyuma Boakai has shockingly disregarded the rule of law protecting people with tenure positions and willfully nominated individuals to replace them even though their tenures have not expired.
Several institutions of the Liberian government, including the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), National Bureau of Concession (NBC), Governance Commission (GC), National Lottery Authority (NLA), National Road Fund (NRF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are protected with clauses that provides tenures for their heads.
For instance, the EPA boss holds a 7-year tenure, NRF boss, 5years; NBC boss, 4 years; NLA boss, 4 years; LAA, 5 years. But in flagrant disregard to the law, President Boakai has resolved to replace several tenure-position occupants.
It can be recalled that ex-President George Manneh Weah struggled to cancel tenure positions, and introduced “An Act Prohibiting the Tenure of All Public Officials Within the Executive Branch of Government, Liberia”. Unfortunately, the instrument did not make it through the National Legislature.
Also, President Boakai has nominated several persons to institutions with tenure positions, instigating conflict and statutory crisis.
On Tuesday, February 20, 2024, the President appointed Abdullah Kamara as Chairperson of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), Patrick Honnah as Commissioner, Clarence Kortu Massaquoi as Commissioner, Ben A. Fofana as Commissioner and Angela Bush Cassel as Commissioner.
Unfortunately, all these positions at the LTA are still being currently occupied by Edwina Crump Zackpah (Chairperson), Israel M. Akinsanya (Commissioner), Zotawon D. Titus (Commissioner), James Gbarwea (Commissioner) and Osborne K. Diggs (Commissioner).
Feeling threatened by the new appointments, the occupants of the positions officially wrote President Boakai on February 20, 2024 to draw his attention to their roles at the LTA.
The letter, signed by the Chairperson and all commissioners, said, “As you are aware, we currently serve under tenure within the organization, each of us having two-plus years remaining in our terms. However, it has recently come to our attention that new appointments have been made to the same positions we occupy, notwithstanding our existing tenures. While we appreciate that such decisions are often made with careful deliberation and in the national interest, we believe there may have been a misunderstanding regarding the status of our tenure.
“As members of the Board of Commissioners of the LTA, we feel compelled to remind Your Excellency of our tenured status.”
They cited that the term of office for the commissioners is four years, and expressed hope that President Boakai will recognize their tenureship.
In addition to the LTA, President Boakai announced Hanson S. Kiazolu as Chief Executive Officer of the National Road Fund; Ciapha Saah Gbollie as Director General of the National Lottery Authority; Prof. Alaric K. Tokpa as Chairman of the Governance Commission; and Theodore Momo as Director General of the National Bureau of Concessions.
Supporters of the Boakai administration are arguing that, except for those protected by the Constitution: National Elections Commission (NEC), General Auditing Commission (GAC) and Civil Service Agency (CSA), the President has the authority to dismiss all other tenured positions created by the National Legislature, except that under the theory of sanctity the President is legally obligated to pay such person for the unexpired period of the contract.
But on the other hand, critics are of the opinion that it is ludicrous for the Boakai administration to pay all the unexpired tenure occupants to leave office and pay other individuals to occupy the positions, which they considered paying two persons for the same term for one position, and that such fund could be diverted to solve pressing matters at the Liberia National Police (LNP), University of Liberia (UL), etc.
Critics however agreed that the President could dismiss tenure-position holders for a cause, but pointed out that the issues should be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction, as anything else points towards arbitrariness and poor governance.