Published: September 2, 2026
MONROVIA — The special assistant to Justice Minister and Attorney General Cllr. N. Oswald Tweh has mounted a strong defense of his boss amid allegations seeking to link the minister to individuals associated with Liberia’s massive US$317 million drug case, warning that legitimate scrutiny of public officials should not become character assassination without credible evidence.
Atty. Siafa Bahn Kemokai described Tweh as “a good man of exceptionally high character and integrity,” arguing that political disagreements over the minister’s policies, decisions or leadership should be separated from allegations of personal wrongdoing.
Some individuals have directly and indirectly accused the justice minister of receiving gifts from alleged drug traffickers, but Kemokai said such claims have not been backed by evidence establishing wrongdoing.
In a lengthy, legally framed commentary posted to his official Facebook page Monday, August 31, under the title, “A Tale of Two Narratives: How They See It vs. How We See It,” Kemokai pushed back against what he described as a growing culture of unsubstantiated accusations and character assassination in Liberia.
“Disagreement should never be weaponized into an indictment of his character without credible evidence. Public office demands scrutiny, but scrutiny must be anchored in facts, not conjecture or political expediency,” he wrote.
Kemokai argued that Liberia’s public discourse has increasingly become hostile to facts, allowing allegations to spread rapidly and reputations to be damaged without evidence.
He said lies can proliferate, characters can be assassinated and reputations dragged through the mud without facts establishing wrongdoing.
Kemokai, a veteran of student leadership in Liberia and Africa, also lamented what he sees as the deterioration of politics from a contest of ideas into sensationalism and personal attacks.
He partly blamed the rise of social media, arguing that online platforms increasingly reward sensational content rather than factual public discourse.
“The attention economy needs constant red meat to feed into its cogs. Who are the easy targets in a low-trust, cynical society? Government officials are fair game. As the algorithms reward such a toxic behavior, one has to promote lies and make arguments that are illogical to stay relevant and trending,” Kemokai stated.
He argued that some individuals also appear to believe Liberians are gullible enough to accept unsubstantiated claims without demanding evidence, warning that free speech loses its ethical and moral value when information is driven by deception and lies.
Kemokai also rejected what he characterized as attempts to portray everyone serving in government as corrupt, incompetent or acting against Liberia’s interests.
“I know of people who work every day to ensure the living standards of citizens are improved. These are people who work up and down the state bureaucracy: some at the junior and senior managerial levels and others way down the line,” he said.
“These people want a better Liberia, like most citizens outside government want. They want a decent society, which most Liberians aspire to. They want a fair and transparent judicial system, like most people would imagine,” Kemokai added.
According to him, there are public servants who want government institutions to work for everyone and remain committed to improving conditions for ordinary Liberians.
He therefore rejected what he described as a false narrative that people outside government are inherently good while those serving in government are evil or corrupt.
He said claims that everyone in government is focused on accumulating wealth, making questionable deals or bending rules for personal interests ignore the sacrifices being made by public servants working to keep Liberia peaceful and stable.
“The allegation of incompetence is, of course, exaggerated and is mostly meant to score cheap political points. But I understand that some would rather bury their heads in the sand than acknowledge this fact because they are afraid of it. The fact makes them small and irrelevant. It unmasks their sinister agenda,” he maintained.
Kemokai also accused some government critics of displaying what he termed a “crab mentality” — an attitude he described as seeking to undermine others simply because they are occupying positions or leading initiatives that critics themselves are not controlling.
“If I am not the one at the center of things, all other individuals who are there are evil and corrupt,” he said in describing the mentality.
“If I am not the one leading change, the others at the forefront of it are not good enough,” Kemokai stressed. “Complemented by the main character syndrome, the crab mentality is a destructive force that drowns good initiatives.”
He argued that such thinking encourages people to condemn others for personal satisfaction while ignoring evidence that contradicts their preferred narratives.
According to him, the mentality creates false outrage, makes public officials easy targets for insults and reprisals and ultimately degrades public office.
Kemokai also turned his criticism toward people who present themselves as leading anti-corruption voices, accusing some of failing to meet the standards they demand of public officials.
“Isn’t this hypocrisy on steroids to make demands of others that you yourself otherwise cannot meet?” he asked.
“To lie about others habitually, when the same is dished out to you, you cry foul? Isn’t it also fascinating that some of these folks condemn others without evidence for imagined wrongdoings but they themselves don’t pass the smell test for simple misdemeanors?”
Kemokai maintained that while public officials, including Tweh, should be subjected to scrutiny over their decisions and conduct, allegations questioning their integrity must be supported by credible evidence rather than conjecture, political disagreement or social media narratives.
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