The Civil Society Network of Liberia (CSNL) has described plans and actions by some Unity Party executives and commissioners of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) to allegedly undermine the legitimacy of Abdullah Kamara as Chairperson of the institution as malicious and selfish. The CSNL has therefore raised serious alarm about acts that seem to subject politics over professionalism at the LTA, wherein executives of the ruling Unity Party have embarked on a fight to see Kamara removed as Chairperson of the LTA.
In a release issued Tuesday, April 21, 2025, the CSNL said, “Research and investigation conducted on the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) reveals that individuals within the UP who feel entitled to the rescue government of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai are greatly bent on undermining the government’s agenda due to their self-centered and political interest up to 2029. Like it has been in multiple state-owned enterprises (SOEs), some young UP extremists are determined to undercut the leadership of Mr. Abdullah Kamara as Chairperson of the LTA. Since President Boakai appointed the Acting Leadership at the LTA, there has been a clamor for the Chairperson position with the view that a full-fledged, active Unity Party partisan should head the institution. This formed mindset has created infighting at the LTA, wherein the current Chairperson, Mr. Abdullah Kamara, has become an object of significant media attacks and becoming a victim of negative public perception, largely orchestrated by actors within the LTA. We have seen and are seeing this same ‘active UP partisan take all mentality’ at the National Road Fund (NRF), NOCAL, NaFAA, and many other SOEs. How can former legislators, with zero knowledge or understanding in Telecommunication Management, be appointed Commissioners when they have zero specialty and impact in such a technical sector?”
According to the release, “The Civil Society Network of Liberia (CSNL) sees it as disingenuous and unfair for so-called UP executives to embark on undermining Mr. Abdullah Kamara as Acting Chairperson of the LTA, who is an experienced and result-oriented IT Professional. Mr. Kamara’s appointment and stay as head of the LTA is in line with the core statutory functions of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority. The Acting Chairperson of the LTA, Mr. Abdullah Kamara possesses over three decades of professional services within the Telecommunication Sector, as opposed to recycled political hustlers and failures at the Legislature and opposition life. It is particularly disappointing that the National Chairman of the UP, Rev. Luther Tarpeh is prompting the likes of Mo Ali, Cornelia Kruah, Patrick Honnah, Boakai Jaleiba, to influence the workings of the General Auditing Commission (GAC) and Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) by putting these institutions under undue pressure to release audit and investigative reports that will indict non-active UP partisans who are serving in the government like the LTA chairperson. The recent situation with Madam Rustolyn Suacoco Dennis at NOCAL and Madam Emma Metieh Glassco at NaFAA is a classic example of this selfish-serving attitude.
“The Civil Society Network of Liberia wants to make it unequivocally clear that maligning people’s character and undermining their workings, driven by the self-serving quest of some UP dogmatists, must be condemned by all Liberians. Clarence Massaquoi, Patrick Honnah, Mo Ali and others who feel so entitled to the UP Government need to desist from causing distraction in the smooth operations of the government. The calls for transparency and accountability in government should be holistic and within the ambit of the Rule of Law. Article 20 (a) of the 1986 Constitution clearly provides that everyone is presumed innocent until otherwise proven in a court of law, and not judgment by tribe or partisanship.
“In conclusion, while the Civil Society Network of Liberia detests all forms of corruption and bad governance in the public sector, we also believe that some corruption allegations are sometimes designed by certain covetous politicians from within the inner circle of the government to target certain professionals and technocrats who are not partisans of the ruling party like the UP. Therefore, we call for an end to a creeping grand scheme and gang at every government institution, especially at different SOEs, for the sole purpose of mischievously defaming the reputation of professional Liberians working in the government. The concept of ‘diehard Unity Partisans should be the only group of Liberians to head ministries, agencies and SOEs’ must stop!”