By Bill W. Cooper
Members of the Legislature constitutionally go to the poll on the second working Monday of a preceding general election year to elect a Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Senate Pro-Tempore, who are to lead that august body for the next six years.
The process of selecting a Speaker, Deputy Speaker, or Pro-Tempore, has often been subjected to caution, due to Presidential influence through intense lobbying with and amongst the legislators themselves.
It is the sole obligation of members in both chambers to internally partake in the election, which is done through the casting of votes for the candidates of their choice.
Meanwhile, for the 55th Legislature, several names have popped up, especially from within rival political parties, such as the UP, CDC, and independent candidates, and all have been expressing their intentions.
Given the responsibilities and authority vested in the Speaker and Senate Pro-Tempore and their key positions to influence the country’s trajectory in various areas, this piece is intended to delve into the profile of the main contenders vying the various positions.
The Senate Pro-Tempore:
![Senator Karnga-Lawrence]()
Senator Karnga-Lawrence
With few more days to the Pro-Tempore elections, many have thought that the Senate Pro-Tempore position would have witnessed intense competition from both the outgoing CDC, in-coming UP and other opposition political parties’ legislators.
But from all indications, it seems clear that the new comers and those reelected senators are poised to make unprecedented history by electing Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence of Grand Bassa County as the first elected female Pro-Tempore.
The Grand Bassa County Senator will be the second female Senate Pro-Tempore in the history of the Liberian Legislative politics, following the footsteps of former Pro-Temp, Grace Beatrice Minor, who was not elected but was appointed to complete a colleague’s tenure.
Sen. Karnga-Lawrence is poised to replace outgoing Pro-Temp, Albert Chie of Grand Kru County, who is not seeking re-election, after serving a six-year term, but what is unnoticeable is that Karnga-Lawrence’s election will place Grand Bassa ahead of other counties in occupying said position.
Sen. Karnga-Lawrence, after delivering the country’s Presidency to President-elect, Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party (UP), when she served as his campaign manager, was earlier facing a major challenge from Margibi County Senator, Emmanuel Nuquay, for the Pro-Temp position.
But that did not materialize due to his recent sanction from the United States government for corruption and abuse of his Legislative office, and thereafter, it was rumored that Senator-elect, Milton Gbehzohngar Findley of Grand Bassa County had contemplated throwing in his hat, but it remains a decision unhatched.
Nyonblee stands a chance of going on a white ballot as President-elect Boakai earlier committed to supporting the Grand Bassa County Senator during his campaign for ensuring his victory during the just-ended Presidential election.
Senator Karnga-Lawrence is currently serving her second term as the Bassa Senator and chairs the Rules, Order, and Administration Committee at the Senate.
Who, then, is Senator Karnga-Lawrence?
Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence is a two-term senator and the first female senator of Grand Bassa County. Born and raised in Liberia, she has endured significant adversity, including surviving a 15-year civil war that engulfed her homeland.
A renowned women’s rights campaigner and social justice activist, Nyonblee was first elected to the Senate in 2013 and reelected during the 2020 midterm elections.
Throughout her first term, she stood as the only female in a Senate comprising 29 men, and despite facing attempts by male chauvinists in the Senate to distract her, she persisted, earning nicknames such as the “lioness” and the “iron lady of the Senate.”
As a senator, Nyonblee has dedicated her time, energy, and resources to amplify the voices of Liberians, particularly those at the lowest socio-economic levels. She continues to confront powerful forces that threaten the economic and social well-being of the Liberian people.
As a native of Grand Bassa, Karnga-Lawrence she was politically mentored by the late venerable politician, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine. Before his retirement from politics after the 2017 elections, he picked her from the many males in the party to become his anointed successor.
In 2018, she was elected as political leader of the Liberty Party at its convention, but lost her political leadership position due to internal wrangling, which led to her expulsion. Lawrence, who developed the political bug early, worked as a field organizer for Brumskine in three failed attempts for the Presidency in 2005, 2011, and 2017.
She came to the Boakai campaign, not just with a political base accumulated over the years as a senator, but with an in-depth understanding of the inner workings of Liberian politics, drawing from her experience of Brumskine’s three failed attempts at the Presidency.
One of her most notable glass-breaking moments as a senator came when she championed the passage of the Decent Work Bill in 2016 after it had lingered for nine years on the shelf of the Senate’s conference committee.
Under her chairmanship of the Senate’s conference, the Decent Work Bill became law, paving the way for thousands of workers in Liberia to have fundamental rights at work, including freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively. It also ensures the right not to be subject to forced or compulsory labor.
Outlining her vision, Sen. Karnga-Lawrence vowed to work with her colleagues to rebrand the entire Liberian Senate, ensuring that they become more transparent to their constituents; talking about an open Legislature that will witness the construction of the Senate’s website, performing proper oversight and the overseeing that the staffers are taken care of.
The Speakership:
The race to who becomes the next speaker is seriously steaming between representatives of UP and CDC.
With the competition at its peak, intense lobbying has been set afloat as J. Fonati Koffa, a representation of the CDC, pushes against UP’s Richard Nagbe Koon, for the third highest position in the country.
Koffa, a Liberian lawyer, many believe comes with the ability to cut across political and ethnic divides to accomplish national goals and objectives as he served as the Deputy Speaker of the 54th Legislature for three years.
Cllr. Koffa was born in then Sasstown Territory (now Grand Kru County). The son of a military officer, his family relocated to Monrovia, Liberia where he grew up and began his educational journey.
He is a founding member of the opposition Liberty Party (LP), where he served as the chairperson from 2011 to 2014 and oversaw its growth and expansion, including winning legislative seats for the party and ensuring that its lawmakers led ranking committees in the Legislature.
But Koffa later resigned from the LP and joined the CDC where he serves as a member of the Executive Council.
He began his legal career in the United States in 1998 in private practice and moved to Liberia in 2009 to become a founder and Managing Partner of the International Law Group (ILG), now one of the emerging corporate and government firms in Liberia.
He was admitted to the Supreme Court Bar of Liberia as valedictorian of its Class of 2014. Koffa was educated at the University Of North Carolina School Of Law at Chapel Hill, where he obtained a Juris Doctorate (JD) degree in Law.
He also holds a Master Degree in Public Administration (MPA) from Raleigh, North Carolina State University, and a Bachelor of Public Administration (Cum Laude) with a concentration in Urban Planning, from Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Deputy Speaker Koffa vowed to ensure a robust but cooperative Legislature once elected as Speaker, promising to restore the sanity of the House and ensure its independence in adherence to the Liberian Constitution.
His opponent, Richard Nagbe Koon, with an extensive academic background and a rich history of service, graduated from the Everett Jonathan Goodridge High School and pursued further education in Bookkeeping and Accounting at the Lincoln College of Professional Studies.
Fleeing to Nigeria during the Civil War, he continued his education at Mile-Two Community Junior College of Business, earning an associate degree in “Cost and Financial Accounting.”
Returning to Liberia, Koon sought higher education at the University of Liberia, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Management and subsequently, he pursued a master’s degree in accountancy at Cuttington University Graduate School.
Later, he earned a second master’s degree with an emphasis on public finance from Grand Canyon University in the United States.
Koon’s legislative journey began with notable bills, including the New Election Reformed Law, showcasing his commitment to legal and electoral reforms.
In his quest for transparency, he investigated revenue generation at Pan African Plaza and questioned the dissolution of the National Transit Authority in favor of Senator Saah H. Joseph’s buses.
In addition to his legislative work, Koon serves as an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Liberia, where he imparts knowledge on Governmental Budgeting, Accounting, Advanced Accounting, and Cost Accounting.
Engaging in social responsibilities, Koon serves as a part-time Professor at the University of Liberia Graduate Program and is actively involved with the Trustee and Finance Committee of Providence Baptist Church.
Currently representing the people of Montserrado County District 11, Koon is known for his many developmental initiatives coupled with his advocacies for social justice and change across his district and the country at large.
Rep. Koon is recorded to be the first legislator to have unveiled a comprehensive agenda aimed at instituting meaningful reforms within the legislative body.
Key amongst Koon’s promises is a commitment to unrealistically audit the Legislature and reduce the Speaker’s budget by 20 percent, emphasizing the need for an independent and coordinated relationship among statutory committees that will operate their budget free from resource constraints.
The Deputy Speaker:
The Deputy Speaker is the second highest seat at the level of the House of Representatives, and whoever assumes said position is responsible to aid the Speaker in the discharge of duties, ensuring the proper management of that August body.
There are prominent figures within rival political parties who have all expressed their intentions to compete.
The floodgate introduces Bong County District 6 Representative, Moima Briggs-Mensah; Lofa County’s Thomas P. Fallah; Nimba County District 7 Representative, Musa Hassan Bility, and Montserrado County District 6 Representative, Samuel Enders, among others.
Reps. Thomas Fallah, Samuel Enders, and Moima Briggs-Mensah, are all from the same camp of Deputy Speaker Fonati Koffa, and according to an inside source, there is an ongoing negotiation which is expected to be climaxed this weekend, intended to put forth a consensus candidate for the Deputy Speaker position.
Our sources further disclosed that from all indications, both Reps. Fallah and Enders are expected to let go of their ambition for the Deputy Speaker post, ensuring that Briggs-Mensah emerges as their candidate as a means of promoting women’s participation at the helm of the Legislature.
Without a political base, Briggs-Mensah, won election victory in 2017 abd got reelected as an independeent candidate in 2023, has been a lead advocate for female rights at the Legislature, ensuring that women, including girls, form part of the country’s decision-making process.
Briggs-Mensah is the current Chairperson of the Bong Legislative Caucus, Co-Chairperson of the House’s Committee on Post and Telecommunication, Member of the African Parliamentarian Union (APU), State Owned Enterprise, and Concession.
Briggs-Mensch braved the storm during the 54th Legislature in 2020 by challenging her competitors as the lone female candidate in the race for the deputy speaker position, but got defeated by Rep. Koffa by a record margin.
Briggs-Mensah has carried on serious of projects in her district, including the completion of 68 major projects, while nine are currently ongoing; she built several markets for her constituents, including women centers, motorcyclist centers, bus stops, schools, and town halls across her district, and at the House, she sponsored the Tradition Midwives Sustainable bill, Konawolala Administrative District Bill, National District Emblem Bill, and co-sponsored several bills, to include the Domestic Violence Bill, among others.
She too has plans as Deputy Speaker to ensure a responsible and robust Legislature that will be respected by the Liberian people through the performance of that body’s constitutional duties, with openness, accountability and hard work, and vigilant oversight.
She added that her vision is to also ensure gender balance, breaking the barriers for women across Liberia and those who have passed through and within the Legislature, as well as willing to create a gender balanced Legislature from the leadership, which will impact their general actions during the 55th Legislature.
Musa Hassan Bility of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), who, during the October 10 polls, defeated incumbent Representative, Rodger Domah, in Nimba County District 7, is perceived to be a novice to Liberian legislative politics.
Though it is no secret that he detests the UP-led administration under Boakai, he announced that he supports the Speakership of Koon.
Bility, a successful businessman, has served as the Board Chairperson of the National Port Authority (NPA), Board Chairperson of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), as well as the Liberian Airport Authority (LAA).
He also severed as the president of the Liberia Football Association (LFA), and is currently the CEO and Board Chairperson of Srimex Oil and Gas Inc. and the Renaissance Communication Inc., which operates Truth FM and its affiliate stations in Liberia.
Bility was, in 2019, banned from all FIFA activities for stealing the organization’s money meant to save lives in Liberia, a decision he appealed but lost and is facing a 10-year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
FIFA’s Ethics Committee brought down a guilty verdict in February 2019 against Bility, after he failed to explain how FIFA funding earmarked to save lives during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia was expended and was also mandated to pay a fine of €455,000 ($500,000) fine.
Despite his ‘criminal record’, amidst other shady political deals, Bility too vows to ensure a robust, transparent, and open Legislature, through the execution of their cardinal responsibilities which are lawmaking, oversight, and representation.
Meanwhile, eyes are now placed directly at the Legislature, awaiting to see who becomes the country’s next Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Senate Pro-Tempore, and that will define the caliber of leaders to appoint on executive committees and other key positions in the Legislature.
The decisions will also have far-reaching implications for the nation’s governance, legislative priorities, and international standing, and stands as a moment that captures the attention of citizens, policymakers, and observers alike, underscoring the significance of these positions in shaping Liberia’s future political direction under a Boakai-Koung-led administration.
