PHOTO: (L-R) Eddie Jarwolo with excerpt of his comment and Jefferson Koijee with excerpt of his comment
The popular radio and online talk show, SPOON TALK, hosted by the owner of Spon Network based in Monrovia, Stanton Witherspon, has become the subject of dispute between former Monrovia City Mayor and Secretary General of the main opposition CDC party, Jefferson Koijee and the Executive Director of Naymote, Eddie D. Jarwolo.
A Facebook post by Jarwolo over the weekend was critical of Spoon Talk acknowledged that the show is wielding big influence on the audience but was quick to warn:
“Such influence comes with serious responsibility. Our airwaves should inform citizens, encourage constructive debate, and promote peace not deepen division or inflame tensions.”
But Jarwolo’s assertion has received a strong rebuke from Koijee, who issued a press statement circulated on the Social Media on Sunday, August 9, 2026 saying:
“THE MASK IS OFF! THE HYPOCRISY OF SELECTIVE OUTRAGE: A RESPONSE TO EDDIE D. JARWOLO This is indeed sheer hypocrisy from a man who considers himself a renowned civil society practitioner. Eddie D. Jarwolo, civil society cannot claim moral authority while its voice becomes selectively loud, conveniently silent, polluted and seemingly compromised whenever the political circumstances change”.
How can you question a genuine advocate and independent media voice whose platform appears to be informing and benefiting our noble people, while refusing to direct the same scrutiny toward those who actually control the machinery of the state?
Spinelessness in the face of national injustice is not neutrality. When civil society deliberately chooses selective outrage, it risks becoming a betrayal of the country and its people.
Today, serious questions continue to surround constitutional governance under the Boakai-Koung Gang Rape and Cocaine Regime,yet we have not heard comparable outrage from you. During the controversial removal of Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa, which critics described as nothing short of a legislative coup d’état, your voice was nowhere to be heard. When Rep. Yekeh Kolubah complained that his rights were publicly denied and violated, once again you chose to be conspicuously silent.
When allegations of wanton abuses were raised involving innocent and vulnerable university students, particularly members of the Student Unification Party (SUP) and Progressive Students Alliance (PROSA), where was your celebrated civil society courage?
When the Chairman of STAND and other citizens protesting the ills of the country alleged harassment, intimidation, arrest and wrongful imprisonment merely for exercising democratic rights, you never mustered the bold courage to speak with the intensity you have suddenly discovered against Stanton Witherspoon.
There are also serious public concerns surrounding mysterious deaths and allegations about police conduct under Gregory Coleman. These matters deserve fearless scrutiny because the Liberia National Police must remain the people’s force, never an instrument perceived by citizens as a state-sanctioned militia for intimidation or political repression.
Yet instead of interrogating those who possess guns, police authority, public resources and the coercive machinery of government, you have suddenly discovered Stanton Witherspoon’s microphone as Liberia’s great national emergency.
What breathtaking hypocrisy!
If thousands of Liberians voluntarily tune in to Spoon Talk every night, perhaps the fundamental question should not be why Stanton commands such influence. Ask instead why thousands of citizens believe his microphone is providing the questions, scrutiny and advocacy they are not hearing loudly enough elsewhere.
And let us be honest enough to recognize the few patriotic and nationalist media professionals, including Roney D. Sieh of FrontPageAfrica, Julius Kanubah, President of the Press Union of Liberia, and other courageous media practitioners and institutions, who continue to defy threats, political pressure and financial temptation and choose to stand with the people. Julius Kanubah is the current President of the Press Union of Liberia.
Most disturbing is that civil society institutions receive both international and national funding precisely to defend democratic governance, constitutionalism, accountability and human rights. Such funding must never produce comfortable silence before government and manufactured outrage against independent voices.
Eddie Jarwolo, you cannot conveniently lose your voice before the powerful and suddenly recover it before a microphone.
Civil society cannot be courageous yesterday, compromised today and credible tomorrow.
Liberia needs watchdogs, not lapdogs. It needs fearless civil society practitioners whose voices cannot be purchased, polluted, compromised or selectively activated according to political convenience.
If Stanton Witherspoon’s microphone makes Liberia’s political temperature uncomfortable, then confront the conditions producing the heat. Do not attack the thermometer because you lack the courage to confront the fire.
That is the difference between genuine civil society advocacy and selective hypocrisy. JTK.