Published: October 7, 2026
MONROVIA – Yekeh Kolubah, the expelled Montserrado County lawmaker who has spent more than two years as one of President Joseph Boakai’s fiercest critics, called on Liberians Tuesday to set aside their differences and reconcile. He promised to lay out on Sunday “how we believe this can happen.”
By Roseline Gbessagee
The statement, posted on Kolubah’s official Facebook page, did not mention Boakai. But it lands amid weeks of speculation that the former District 10 representative is preparing a truce with the president he accuses of engineering his removal from the House of Representatives. The same day, Kolubah said in an appearance on Spoon TV that he regrets his relationship with Boakai.
“For too long, we have allowed our differences to divide us, even years after the civil war. This continued division is one of the reasons our country remains where it is today,” Kolubah said in the statement.
“Reconciliation does not mean forgetting our differences or abandoning our principles. It means choosing peace, dialogue, and national development over division,” he said.
He said Liberia cannot make meaningful progress without cooperation.
“If Liberia is to make meaningful progress in healthcare, road connectivity, infrastructure, education, and other critical areas, we must be willing to put our differences aside, engage in honest dialogue, and work together for the common good,” Kolubah said.
“On Sunday, we will share our reasons and explain how we believe this can happen,” he said.
Talk of a reconciliation between Kolubah and Boakai surfaced in August and September. The reports originated with Kolubah’s own media operation and public relations officer. No meeting between the two men has been confirmed, and the Executive Mansion has not confirmed any talks.
A reconciliation would close one of the sharpest breakups in Boakai’s political circle. The two were allies before Boakai took power. Kolubah, who won District 10 as an independent in 2017, joined the four-party opposition collaboration in April 2019 at an event at Unity Party headquarters where Boakai was present. In 2023, the Unity Party’s Montserrado campaign team endorsed Kolubah’s re-election bid even though he ran as an independent.
The alliance frayed before the runoff. On Oct. 30, 2023, Kolubah said he would vote for Boakai but would not campaign for him. He complained that Boakai had never visited his home despite his years of opposition activism, and he rejected an appointment as deputy runoff campaign chair, saying he had not been consulted.
The rupture came quickly after Boakai won. Before the inauguration, Kolubah questioned the source of money and rice the president-elect donated after the Totota tanker disaster. In February 2024, his questions led the House to summon officials over Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Koung’s travel expenses.
In March 2024, Kolubah displayed a US$4,500 furniture coupon and accused the administration of using such payments to keep lawmakers loyal to Richard Nagbe Koon and remove Speaker J. Fonati Koffa. The government denied any plan to remove Koffa. In January 2025, Kolubah was forcibly removed from a House sitting after refusing to recognize Koon as speaker.
The feud also turned personal. In July 2024, Assistant Internal Affairs Minister Mike Jabateh was recorded threatening Kolubah over his attacks on the president, and the Liberia National Police took Jabateh in for investigation.
The House expelled Kolubah on April 17, with 49 of 73 lawmakers voting to remove him after he said territory on the Liberia-Guinea border belonged to Guinea. The House said his conduct undermined national sovereignty.
The vote came a day after the Supreme Court ordered the House to halt its proceedings. Kolubah’s lawyers argued that his due process rights had been violated. Opposition figures, including Alexander Cummings and Tiawan Gongloe, had confronted the House over the attempt to expel him.
Kolubah blamed Boakai for his removal. The president distanced himself from the vote, saying he was “not in the Legislature.” No reporting has established that Boakai directed the expulsion.
In May, a justice in chambers dismissed Kolubah’s contempt action against the House on procedural grounds, and his lawyers said they would appeal to the full bench. District 10 remained without a representative as of September.
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