After Some Ruling Unity Party Lawyers Apparently Dissuaded The New Liberian President
PHOTO: Liberian Lawyer, Cllr. Johnathan Massaquoi
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
This news outlet has reliably learnt that Liberia’s new President Joseph Nyuma Boakai put a hold on the nomination of Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi as Justice Minister and Attorney General after facing serious objection from some lawyer of the ruling Unity Party.
Sources said the UP lawyers had met with the new Liberian leader and prevailed on him not to nominate Cllr. Massaquoi for their personal reasons and differences they have with the well-known Liberian lawyer.
President Joe Boakai
The Reporter understands that President Boakai later withheld the nomination in question.
But this news outlet has however, not been able to independently verify this information.
Instead, the name that later emerged from the Executive Mansion is Cllr. Cooper Kruah, the Chairman of Senator Prince Y. Johnson’s party, MRD, which supported the UP in the 2023 elections. Up to the October 10, 2023 elections, Kruah served as Post and Telecommunications Minister in the former CDC government of President George Weah. At the time, Sen. Prince Johnson’s MDR party was an ally of the CDC.
A fortnight ago, Cllr. Massaquoi’s name was among four others, including Abraham Kromah to head the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA), Amin Modda, Minister of Commence, Sarah Baslow, Foreign Minister and Dorbor Jallah, Liberian Revenue Authority (LRA). And that list was said to have been leaked from the camp of the ruling establishment and was widely circulated on Social Media and elsewhere.
During the discussion, our source said wide ranging issues of concern were expressed regarding the legibility of Cllr. Massaquoi and his current status as General Manager of the Liberia International Law Group (LILG), which is jointly owned by the new House Speaker Fonati Koffa, who is a stalwart of the now main opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC).
The source said, those at the meeting informed the president that if Cllr. Massaquoi were to be nominated, he would be easily influenced by the new Speaker.
Though they did not doubt the professional qualification of Cllr. Massaquoi, our source said that they were afraid that he (Cllr. Massaquoi) would be influenced by Cllr. Koffa’s.
Another issue that was said to have been raised was the credibility of Cllr. Massaquoi’s judgment on national security, since he is a young lawyer, despite the fact that he has been a practicing lawyer in the country for over ten years.
According to the source, the issues of Cllr. Massaquoi full involvement in the campaign period of President Boakai was also raised with those in the meeting expressing concerns about Massaquoi’s failure to vigorously campaign against President George Weah’s re-election bid, due to his proximity to Speaker Koffa.
UP officials are yet to publicly comment on the claim that the nomination of Cllr. Massaquoi was withheld.