Liberia’s House of Representatives Speakership battles in postwar Liberia: Will it ever end?

By Nemen Martin Kpahn First Published in the Daily Observer Newspaper November 13,2024

Fonati Koffa, Alex Tyler, and Edwin Snowe have one thing in common: there have been stubborn attempts to remove them from power as Speaker of the House Representatives. For the third time in postwar Liberia, our legislature, especially the lower house, is imploding itself. In 2007, Edwin Snowe was removed as Speaker of the House on January 18, 2007. Mr. Snowe took the case to court, and the Supreme Court ultimately ruled in Mr. Snowe's favour. But having lost the support of his colleagues, Honourable Snowe was forced to resign from the powerful speakership on February 18, 2007.

A few years later, Alex Tyler, the businessman turned politician from Bomi, was again forced to resign when his colleagues turned on him in 2016. Contrast that frequent changeover with the past when speakers of the house stayed in their respective positions for a very long period because their colleagues respected them through a mixture of seniority, political cunning, resource allocations and ironclad loyalty. Richard Wiles was Speaker from 1935-1945, while Benjamin Green Freeman was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1943-1951. However, the doyen of Speakership in Liberia was the late Richard A. Henries, who mystically held the gavel in the lower house of the legislature from 1952 to 1980 until the devastation of the coup. Liberia's economy was buoyant in the late 1960s and early 1970s, driven by massive iron ore, timber, gold, and rubber exports. Foreign exports were booming, and the Liberian economy surged above most of Sub-Saharan Africa, and legislators were often powerful professional men and women, often driven by a desire for service rather than personal enrichment.

What has changed, then, that members of the Honourable House of Representatives spend more time fighting among themselves and squabbling over leadership positions than crafting laws that would move the country forward, benefiting the constituents?

A lot has changed over the years, gone are the gentlemen/women agreements of yesteryears that valued ranks and uniformity. Elections to public positions in Liberia have become extremely competitive. As Liberia's population grows, so do the constituents' demands on their elected Representatives. Instead of Representatives and Senators being elected to craft laws that will improve the country, legislature members are expected to exercise the spoil system and become a source of welfare and generosity to their constituents. As the people's Legislator, you are expected not only to make laws but to sponsor a constituent's lavish wedding ceremony, provide scholarships, build roads, pay medical bills and construct hospitals and schools. If you don't do that, you are a bad person, and a mean person which translates into being voted out during the next elections. Furthermore, the desire for personal wealth and aggrandisement, such as celebrating a wedding in Paris and going for holidays in the US, by legislators during 'agriculture breaks' creates an incessant demand to access money and wealth legislators. Liberia is a country with significant challenges. After more than 175 years of independence, Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world in every measurement. 96%of our roads are unpaved. Paved roads do not connect our county capitals, and whole sections of the country, especially in the southeast, northeast, and northwest, become impassable during the rainy season. Youth unemployment is stubbornly high. Liberians ' access to electricity is among the lowest in the world. There is just one doctor for 20,000 Liberians. Security challenges remain as many murders go unsolved. The country has a growing drug problem, with many youths addicted to illicit drugs—the population of these young drug addicts, known as zogos, continue to flood the streets in increasing numbers. However, in spite of those tough challenges, our politics have turned parochial, and we have not found solutions to those problems.

According to Liberia's recast budget 2024, the National Budget for the Legislature is US$57,915,145, making that august body the fourth highest recipient of Liberia's recurrent budget expenditures behind health, education, and security/the rule of law. The legislature receives more money than spent on roads and agriculture by a wide margin.

Being the Speaker means getting access to a significant amount of money to travel, spend, and hire people. Imagine your colleagues in the same house wanting to access more and more of that power that the Speaker has. ?For his part, the Speaker must constantly try to balance the competing monetary and power demands from diverse factions and interests both within and outside the legislature. The stage becomes set for envy and resentment toward those who perceive themselves excluded. In such a scenario, it is far easier for those feeling aggrieved or slighted by the Speaker to rebel and try to remove them. Bhofal Chambers was only able to bulk that trend of being removed as Speaker by being subservient to President George Weah and the then ruling CDC party, something which Fonatti Koffa, although being a shrew operative, lacks as the legislature is now more fragmented than before. The question then is how the changing of speaker saga will end so that our elected Representatives can, in the words of former President Sirleaf, make laws and not noise?

As long as Liberians have very high, and some may say unrealistic, expectations of their elected Representatives in the tradition of Tubman-style politics of the big man or woman with the magic wand to solve their personal and financial problems. As long as so much money and power is concentrated in the hands of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and other elected officials, Liberia has a battle on hand to retain a Speaker. As long as access to such power and resources is so limited, Fonatti Koffa may not be the last Speaker who has a rebellion on his hands by his colleagues or is removed by impatient colleagues wanting to get their man or woman to the speakership to gain some of the spoils available to the winner.

About the author

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Nemen Martin Kpahn is a Liberian currently residing in Australia. He holds a master’s degree in communication from Griffith University and a Master of Science degree in research from the University of Southern Queensland. Kpahn is pursuing a PhD at the University of Southern Queensland and writes regularly on Liberian politics and society. Mobile number +61457621390 or [email protected].