Lawmakers urged to resolve the crisis through a legal framework

WANEP-Liberia believes that a speedy resolution of the stalemate at the House of Representatives will demonstrate leadership between majority and minority blocs.

Monrovia, November 22, 2024: A National Non-Governmental Peacebuilding Organization (NGO) in Liberia has urged members of the House of Representatives to resolve a longstanding political crisis through the legal framework.

The West Africa Network for Peacebuilding-Liberia (WANEPLiberia) says its attention has been drawn to the ongoing political impasse at the House of Representatives who have derailed legislative functions. 

“WANEP has observed for the past weeks with keen interest, the disruption in normal proceedings at the House of Representatives,” a statement issued in Monrovia has said.

For over a month, members of the House of Representatives have been split into minority and majority blocs, in a battle to oust or maintain House Speaker Fonati Koffa.

The majority bloc announced on Thursday, November 21, 2024, that it had voted to oust Speaker Koffa, and subsequently elected and sworn in Rep. Richard Nagbe Koon as the new House Speaker.

Koffa’s removal on Thursday leaves more questions as some of those who earlier opted to get him later appear to rescind their decision.

But it remains unclear if the majority bloc considered the defections in deriving the needed number of Representatives to oust Koffa.

Meanwhile, WANEP-Liberia suggested that the crisis should be resolved in the interest of the general good of all Liberians. 

“This power contending struggle between both groups of the House of Representatives named and styled “Minority bloc” and “Majority bloc” derails Legislative functions and further delays the progress of the 55th Legislature in general, thereby stagnating the overall progress of the Country,” the statement noted.

WANEP stated that a divide in the Legislature can be equated to a divided Nation. 

It continued that this could undermine Liberia’s hard-earned peace, discourage foreign investment and donor support, ruin the confidence of international partners and erode citizens’ trust in the protection guaranteed by the 1986 Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.

This situation, WANEP added,  has the proclivity to invite chaos and undermine democratic 
development, peace, and human security. 

The NGO indicated that Liberians would never want to revert to those dark days of war years, which broke down the country’s economy and governance structure and groomed monsters that took away the lives of more than 250,000 people, mostly women, and children.

It reminded lawmakers that Liberia’s war years left over a million in refugee camps across the sub 
region and other parts of the world. 

As National Convener of Peace, the Management and Board of Directors of WANEP-Liberia has urged the “Majority Bloc and Minority Bloc” to utilize the legal framework of Liberia in resolving their internal differences.

It cautioned that Liberians deserve better after reposing trust and confidence in those elected into various offices of trust, especially at the Legislature. 

WANEP-Liberia believes that a speedy resolution of the current stalemate in the nation’s first branch of Government will not only demonstrate leadership within both blocs.

However, it believes that it will further project a positive image of the House of Representatives to the citizens of Liberia and the international community.

WANEP added that this will indicate that Liberians are indeed responsible for resolving their differences in a more professional and law-abiding manner.

 According to its press release, WANEP-Liberia is a National Network of WANEP Regional, headquartered in Accra Ghana. 

WANEP has succeeded in establishing strong National Networks in every Member State of ECOWAS, with over 700 member organizations working on peace and security across West Africa. 

WANEP has credibility and wide recognition for both internationally and locally due to its outstanding work in the areas of peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the ECOWAS region. 

Currently, it said WANEP has standing and strategic partnerships with ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) in supporting the implementation of the ECOWAS regional early warning and response network referred to as ECOWARN and the implementation of the AU’s Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), including the gender mainstreaming architecture. 

WANEP Liberia’s goal is to build sustainable peaceful coexistence among all the various sectors and groups of the Liberian community.
WANEP has a strategic advocacy-based and awareness-raising approach that have built synergies at the community level in consolidating peaceful coexistence among various sectors of society.