Every peaceful arbitration to harmonize the House of Legislature’s problematic impasse has deteriorated beyond political imagination. The ECOWAS (https://www.voaafrica.com/a/ecowas-delegation-fails-to-resolve-liberia-parliament) Parliament and the Council of Churches were painstakingly unsuccessful in their quest to bury the ashes of the lawmakers’ saga. Nonetheless, according to inside sources, some level-headed Liberian peacemakers did endeavor behind the scenes to facilitate peace and tranquility, but to no avail.
The nation’s legal architects, the Supreme Court justices, (https://frontpageafricaonline.com/front-slider/liberia-despite-supreme-courts-ruling) make several momentous attempts to approximate a footpath for a peaceful dauntlessness of the House’s growing impasse. Neither Speaker Koffa nor the separatist bloc is willing to surrender any inch of their conflict-oriented territories, while Liberians suffocate from immensely stressfulness and uncontrollable discouragement.
The Liberian government and its society have been practically besieged. A different political methodology is urgently needed to neutralize the House saga. That political methodology is enforcing a state of emergency by H.E. Pres Boakai. Though several known political pundits in Liberia may have consented to this method, others vehemently distance themselves because, according to them, the new approach to resolving the crisis may have the potential to inflame the House saga and provoke perpetual anarchy.
It is of enormous urgency to remind H.E. President Boakai that the political clock is ticking against his political expectations, the President must act now or help to bury his government indirectly. President Boakai will need to act fast in exercising pragmatic leadership by invoking Chapter IX “State of Emergency Power” under Article 85 to curb the House’s unstoppable crisis. Pres Boakai has the executive power to enforce a state of emergency through Article 86a which depicts:
“The President may, in consultation with the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, proclaim and declare the existence of a state of emergency in the Republic or any part thereof. Acting pursuant thereto, the President may suspend or affect certain rights, freedoms, and guarantees contained in this Constitution and exercise such other emergency powers as may be necessary and appropriate to take care of the emergency, subject, however, to the limitations contained in this Chapter.” (https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Liberia_1986)
Speaker Koffa and President Pro Tempore Nyoblee-Kanrga Lawrence may be consulted on the enforcement of the state of emergency by President Boakai. The President doesn’t need their official endorsement to enforce the law per the ramification of Chapter IX under the “State of Emergency Power law. However, Article 86 stresses that: “A state of emergency may be declared only where there is a threat or outbreak of war or where there is civil unrest affecting the existence, security or well-being of the Republic amounting to a clear and present danger”.
In this regard, it has been vividly clearer that the ongoing House sage poses a direct threat to national security, it undermines the stability of the nation’s fragile peace and hampers tranquility in the land. (https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Liberia_1986)
The House impasse has continued to destroy Liberia’s fragile investment climax. The nation’s national budget has been annoyingly stalled. Civil servants and their families are approaching the normal XMAS rituals. There could be the awakening of a popular upheaval throughout the length and breadth of Liberia if subtle care is not taken to resolve the House’s ongoing saga. Moreover, some government hospitals and clinics could face foreclosure and some Liberians with prolonged illness could easily face their untimely demise in some hospitals and clinics with no funds to pay salaries and no fuel to power generators to keep sick Liberians afloat which could make matter three times complicated due to the House’s unthinkable impasse. (https://www.google.com/search?q=christmas+in+liberia).
Additionally, Article 87 A went on to say: “Emergency powers do not include the power to suspend or abrogate the Constitution, dissolve the Legislature, or suspend or dismiss the Judiciary; and no constitutional amendment shall be promulgated during a state of emergency…………”
Given the magnitude of the danger engulfing the ongoing saga, the threat, and the endangerment of the nation’s sovereignty, President Boakai must move quickly to veto Article 87a head-on. Though Article 87a may endeavor to tie the hands of President Boakai, equally so, President Boakai has the executive power to veto any complicated Articles on grounds that the House of Legislature is crisis-oriented, and lawmakers exist on paper. They are conspicuously absent in the lives of the nation. In short, the House is on fire.
The government of Liberia is partially handicapped. The saga has gone on for almost two months. The fiasco should stop now so that President Boakai’s government can begin to function healthily by any means necessary. Consequently, Article 88 reminds us that: “The President shall, immediately upon the declaration of a state of emergency, but not later than seven days thereafter, lay before the Legislature at its regular session or a specially convened session, the facts and circumstances leading to such declaration…”
The President can also veto this segment of the law until a new House of Legislature is elected. The President would then put the facts and substantive rationales that led him to invoke the state of emergency declaration before the new representatives. The rest of the 87a law could also be vetoed indefinitely. President Boakai could also pass an executive order preventing the new lawmakers from questioning his state of emergency law (https://www.facebook.com/watch).
To further strengthen the rule of law and defend the state, President Boakai will need to turn himself into a dictator for at least six months to a year. During that time, President Boakai could quickly dissolve parliament, suspend the nation’s constitution, deploy the military, and impose a curfew with immediate effect. This political housekeeping would be timely and necessary for the overall safety of the House of Legislature.
It is nationally pathetic, if not politically embarrassing internationally to see the sovereignty of the Liberian State being threatened, with looming instability, almost leading to a total dysfunction of the Liberian government by lawmakers who have willfully and symbolically stalled the nation’s national budget and vehemently frightened the nation’s national security, and undermining the safety of both internal and external businesses and also creating venomous poisoning the investment climate of Liberia.
Such a terrible inside rankling by lawmakers has the propensity to inevitably prevent H.E President Boakai from addressing the joint session of parliament by 2nd January 2025 which proximity would be definitively in total limbo due to the ongoing systemic unpatriotic inner working of people who styled and classified themselves as sons and daughters of Liberia at the tearful peril of the 5 million innocent Liberians whose livelihood had been held hostage by lawmakers who were voted to parliament by the very innocent Liberians to represent their interests in parliament.
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