With Ekena Nyankun Juahgbe-Droh Wesley
Liberia’s footballer President, George Weah is unwisely on a wild goose chase with his latest unprecedented political appointments. George Weah has already dismally dragged the small West African nation into the abyss. He has achieved total nothingness! He modeled recklessness and ordained political mindlessness.
The once perceived former wealthy footballer, otherwise propagandistically worth a non-existent $80 million, will be remembered as his country’s most celebrated president in absentia. Weah simply carried a title as a figurehead, who miserably failed to manifest the ethos of the Office of President. Worse still, the outgoing President was a man empowered by the people to lead but failed miserably.
George Weah was given a job that he was never prepared for as it were. Ironically, his blockheaded loyalists think otherwise. Such is the history of nations; even clowns ascend to the pinnacle of leadership at the behest of the masses. Invariably, the masses act on impulses. But when reality sets in, they become bewildered – essentially to their own detriment.
Surely, it is within President Weah’s prerogative to appoint or fire as and when he deems fit. But the latest appointments by Weah at the neck of time when he is on his way out, are just concerning. Weah’s Justice Minister and Attorney General, who a Liberian historian vociferously described as being awarded owing to his ordained act of cowardice – has been nominated to the Supreme Court Bench.
Cllr. Frank Musa Dean is President George Weah’s controversial pick for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court – to replace a health-battling Joseph Nagbe who opted for early retirement. Critics of the rogue regime argued that while it is mind-boggling President George Weah could not accept Justice Nagbe’s request for early retirement but was quick to nominate his poodle-Justice Minister. Hmm! Something fishy in the offing if you may. Only time will tell.
No one says Cllr. Musa Dean, a founding member of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) of the late Gabriel Baccus Matthews is not a fine lawyer. It is one thing to be a good lawyer by training while it is prely another to stand for principles. Cllr. Musa Dean became a man of no scruples as Justice Minister. Even to the extent that as the only member of the Cabinet who can ‘disagree’ with the President on the basis of law, he proved spineless!
On Capitol Hill, Cllr. Musa Dean’s former client in the Sable Mining Saga, is Grand Cape Mount County’s disgraced and sanctioned senator – Cllr. Varney Sherman. Sherman is supposed to preside over the confirmation of a politically incorrect and untenable nominee for the position of Associate Justice of the Honorable Supreme Court. Does that really matter to Cllr. Sherman? As a political sinner, it doesn’t make any sense to sanction-embattled Varney Sherman.
Senator Varney Sherman is in so much hurry to execute the President’s agenda in a rubber-stamped senate. On the Supreme Court bench already, there’s glaring partisan consternation instead of the law taking precedence. While one Justice is calling for a conference regarding Cllr. Musa Dean’s nomination, an arm-twisting cum politically-motivated maneuvering has seemingly trashed what should be the wit or substance of the law.
Cllr. Varney Sherman owes the nominee and former Defense Counsel in the Sable Mining saga, Cllr. Musa Frank Dean a payback. The unprincipled trappings of ‘you scratch my back, I scratch your back’ gimmick is on the horizon. Integrity is nowhere! Value systems are nothing to write home about. We cannot expect anything responsible and patriotic from Cllr. Varney Sherman, a man already at the whims and caprices of outgoing President, George Weah.
Any decision, let alone attempt to impose Cllr. Musa Dean on the Liberians people through dubious means or ‘fly by night confirmation’ will be resisted aggressively. Senator Varney Sherman sheepishly is on his last hustle out of the public space especially so as he remains embattled by the claws of U.S. imposed sanctions.
Currently, Capitol Hill appears engulfed in a series of protests by legislative staffers over unpaid wages. On Friday, Senator Varney Sherman was seen desperately trying to calm tension down at the Capitol but without success as angry protestors’ heels remained dogged in their unbending demand for pay. With less than two weeks to inauguration, it is not clear whether Liberia’s kleptocratic senate will prove Liberians right in their dogmatic crave for brown envelopes. One can imagine what in-coming President, Joe Boakai is poised to grapple with amid his philosophy of “Love, think and Build Liberia…”
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
