A Patriot’s Diary
With Ekena Nyankun Juahgbe-Droh Wesley
At Drug Enforcement Agency, War on Illicit Drug Aborted! Gangsterism Besets Higher Ups…
Last week, veteran Liberian writer and journalist, Dr. Abdoulaye Dukule wasted no time in dissecting the Joseph Boakai-led administration- weighing in objectively on the ‘highs, lows, missteps and challenges as it were.
Dr. Dukule is no stranger to the politics of the small West African nation let alone the subregion. His perspectives carry weight if you may. President Joe Nyuma Boakai bags 40 years of experience and so he wouldn’t childishly see Dr. Dukule as ‘enemy of the state’ but as a journalist – with more than 40 years of experience – who would go to any lengths as the late Tom Kamara. Could that be too much for Dr. Abdoulaye Dukule? Perhaps not!
One of the trending issues that drew Dr. Dukule’s attention in passing, amid his perspectives, was the madness and sheer gangsterism visited on the premises of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) by the agency’s two deputies on the one hand and its Director on the other. Our pre-analysis promo ahead of this commentary was greeted by some kind of schooling on the Act creating the LDEA, which we considered immaterial! Why? No damn Act told the trio to engage in stupidity!
When sitting President Joe Boakai reckoned his sarcastic analogy that “You cannot give a boy a man’s job, ” the cap at the time aptly fitted former President George Manneh Weah. For six years our country became a theatrical political circus. Liberians had elected former President Weah to lead but the former Liberian leader sought to outsource the presidency due to incompetence and lack of self-confidence.
On President Joseph Boakai’s watch the trappings of the very analogy have started to show early signs. But we are reminded by former Presidential candidate, Cllr. Taiwan Saye Gongloe’s election slogan that “Government is a place to serve not to steal or for child’s play.”
Amid a dangerous aura of drug-addiction permeating the country, a little known and under-resourced Drug Enforcement Agency has opted to be in the news for all the wrong reasons.
The LDEA metamorphosed into a notorious boxing ring last week when the Agency’s two deputies took matters into their own hands in a show of hooliganism against their boss. The debate on this score anchors competing views as to who is or isn’t in error. Such is our human complexity.
The acrimonious cum explosive situation at the DEA’s office happened while President Joe Boakai was on a foreign trip out of the country. Pursuant to the gravity of the ugly situation, President Boakai with immediate effect suspended indefinitely the trio without pay and ordered an immediate investigation. Critics think the President should have fired the three lawless officials. Well, an investigation will help unravel what happened and make further recommendations.
The faceless brutality that occasioned the LDEA has attracted criticisms from across the divide. Irrespective of which school of thought, public service is guided by a code of conduct. In this case, President Boakai somehow unconsciously gave a man’s job to boys. Really?
Service in government is anchored on integrity, professionalism, and suitability.
Whether we would want to accept or disagree, management systems are conditioned by established protocols. There are laid down procedures for settlement of disputes or disagreements. Everyone cannot be the boss. Ethical and professional standards must at all times inform the conduct of public servants.
What is even more childish is the action by the two deputies who chose to complain their boss to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General on the one hand and selected to engage in banditry and thuggery in the absence of appropriate redress. It sucks!
Granted the LDEA’s suspended boss allegedly committed an Unpardonable sin. Notwithstanding, it does not give his two deputies any right or reason to resort to insanity. Raining invective on the boss as a recourse to seeking redress only exposed the immaturity and lack of professionalism in a place of work. In any instance, immediate dismissals should have sufficed but in the interest of determining the merits and demerits that will allow for an informed decision whatsoever, an investigation has become obtainable!
Ekena Wesley
Darby
Delaware County, PA
+16107650305
Email: wes.critic@gmail.com
“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” – Che Guevera
