Ramsey N Singbeh Jr
director@news.throngtalk.com
+231772641146 / 880147358
The Supreme Court of Liberia gave a recent ruling favoring embattled Speaker, Jonathan Fonati Kofa, now heading the minority bloc but the highest court’s decision was immediately rejected by the House of Representatives Majority Bloc Speaker, Richard Nagbe Koon, a member of the ruling Unity Party.
The Liberian Head of State, President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, Sr. made a public pronouncement that he would work with the side that has a quorum. The president’s statement has met mixed reactions in the public, good and bad ones at that.
This time around, an opposition Coalition for Democratic Change or CDC Senator, Nathaniel Falo McGill says President Joseph Nyumah Boakai must be careful with what he does and says as the leader of Liberia. He says he believes that the president was ill-advised.
“Look, the president was ill advised. The same way the president said during his inauguration that somebody put War Crimes Court in his speech by putting that tricky thing there say I will work with quorum because the way quorum was defined by the Supreme Court, it says anywhere a quorum is, Kofa must work with that quorum. Once Kofa is not presiding, that quorum is not a quorum, it’s an illegal body.”
He voiced out that if the president says he will work with quorum, it means according to the definition, he will work with Kofa.
He made the disclosure in Kakaka while in an interview with reporters on April 26, 2025.
According to McGill, a former minister of state for presidential affairs under Ex-president George Manneh Weah, national leaders got to be careful with the way they propagate their messages.
He said it was a mistake for President Joseph Nyumah Boakai to read a meaning into a body whose action the Supreme Court of Liberia has declared unconstitutional.
“I believe the president as he claims, he had been a law abiding person, he must maintain that position. I think it was a mistake to try to read meaning into the Supreme Court’s opinion an assertion that will suggest that he’s supporting a body’s action the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional. I think that was a slide mistake but maybe the president can clarify that. I think it’s in the interest of the president, at all times, he must be seen that he’s protecting the rule of law and protecting the constitution.”
He stated that no one, not even elected officials including him are above the constitution and the work of the Supreme Court is to interpret the constitution not to inforce the law.
The Margibi County Senator added that the government has three branches inclusive of the legislative, judiciary and executive branches and the sole responsibility of the executive is to ensure that the law is enforced.
The legislator noted that President Boakai being the current head of the executive branch of the Government of Liberia must uphold the law and make sure it is enforced.
He told reporters that as far as he is aware, Cllr Jonathan Fonati Kofa is the speaker so anything outside of that is illegal. He explained that the issue related to the disagreement between the two fashions (Majority and Minority Blocs) of the House of Representatives centers around a political conversation which requires a political solution.
The fact according to him that majority members of the House of Representatives don’t want Speaker Kofa which is their right, they must follow the procedures to remove him. Senator McGill who was seen as the most powerful official under Weah when he served as Liberia’s Minister of State for Presidential Affairs then cautioned the majority that once they follow the procedures, other conversations will be considered.
He spoke that once the majority does not really want Kofa and it respects the law, Kofa should consider that they don’t want him and he would not hold the country hostage because he (McGill) believes that nobody wants to shut the government down.
He sees it as a very bad precedent to disrespect the decision of the Supreme Court of Liberia while wanting the same court to rule into legal matters, therefore; he says the action of the majority bloc must be condemned and discouraged.
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