Published: May 26, 2026
MONROVIA — The Boakai administration fired civil servants and pushed out tenure-protected officials for wearing party colors and showing loyalty to the previous CDC government during the 2023 elections. This weekend, the director general of the Civil Service Agency did exactly that, and his job appears safe.
Sen. Amara Konneh posted side-by-side images on Facebook: one of Civil Service Agency Director General Josiah Joekai in a National Independent Movement for Boakai (NIMBO) T-shirt at Saturday’s launch of the pro-Boakai movement, and another of former NaFAA Director General Emma Glassco in a CDC T-shirt during the 2023 elections. The Boakai administration suspended Glassco, had the Ombudsman fine her, and ultimately forced her out — in part for that. Joekai, meanwhile, remains in his seat, overseeing the very agency whose rules he visibly broke over the weekend.
“Political parties seek power only for their own benefit,” Senator Konneh wrote. “The goal of power is power itself. And when power shifts, what makes us think it won’t follow the same pattern again?”
The 2014 Code of Conduct Act, the law Liberia’s Office of the Ombudsman administers, explicitly bars presidential appointees from engaging in political activities, using government resources for partisan purposes, or serving on any campaign team. The CSA’s own standing orders require that certified civil servants take leave without pay during election campaign periods. Koekai oversees compliance with both frameworks.
Earlier in Boakai’s term, the administration dismissed staff from the Executive Protection Service and the Monrovia City Corporation after they attended political rallies in CDC regalia. The government said those dismissals were necessary to enforce conduct policy and stop civil servants from breaking the rules. Konneh noted that a Senate letter requesting the reinstatement of those MCC workers remains stalled in the Labor Committee.
The Glassco precedent is the most documented example of how the same Code has been applied under Boakai. Emma Metieh Glassco, the then director general of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority, was suspended in February 2025 after the NaFAA Board passed a resolution citing managerial and financial inefficiencies. The Office of the Ombudsman, which was operationalized under Boakai in August 2024, ruled against her six days later and imposed a US$500 fine for Code of Conduct violations. She was accused of participating in political activities while serving, including support for the CDC during the 2023 elections.
Joekai’s appearance at Fallah’s Nimba launch now raises the question of whether the Ombudsman, led by Cllr. Finley Y. Karngar will apply that same standard to a sitting government official appearing in party colors on behalf of the sitting president.
Senator Konneh did not call for Joekai’s dismissal, but his post made clear that the stakes extend beyond any one official. “I wonder what will happen to their jobs and livelihoods when power changes again,” he wrote, recalling that UP loyalists who lost their positions when the CDC took power in 2018 now occupy some of the same government seats from which they are disciplining CDC supporters today. “History doesn’t always have clear endings,” he added, “but one thing everyone knows is this: Power will eventually end. The real question is, what do you do with it while you have it?”
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