“Cabinet in opposition”- Former legislative candidate fears

A former legislative candidate for Nimba County electoral district eight in 2011, Melvin Saye Sendolo Garpeh, is stressing the need to recognize the distinctive mark between Legislative functions and Executive powers to avoid continuous confusion in Liberia’s fifteen political subdivisions.

In an article, Mr. Garpeh, who is a lecturer of Public Administration at the University of Liberia, ponders over the lack of coordinating team work between some key cabinet ministers and other officials of government.

“The team against itself and a complete war within as we face the Ebola battle, is one that may be termed as the cabinet in opposition to itself…,” he said.

Among other things, he blamed challenges being faced by the country to several factors, including ignorance, deceit, and dishonesty and undermining, warning that, “This is not the time to fight or prove who is working in the eye of a status quos.”

Mr. Garpeh says this is not time to see another cabinet colleague struggle and feels just to prove a point. He therefore calls for urgent unification and the resuscitation of the Liberian cabinet to protect the government’s image and the legacy of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Meanwhile, on the question of the mid-tern senatorial election, he said just as the civil war, which compelled two sets of Special Elections here in 1997 and 2005, “so we shall do so in this case to avoid a constitutional crisis of illegal 15 senators.”

“As a result of this virus that has claimed over 1,500 precious lives of our compatriots, policymakers are forced to adjust the pending midterm senatorial election. As a result, 15 senators will now be serving us in the Liberian Senate without the people’s expressed mandates as of October 14, 2014, upon the completion of their constitutional term of office,” he said.

He cautioned that there is too much at stake to proceed on personal aggrandizement, noting that “Our post-conflict economy is bleeding, potential investors are leaving day by day, and negative perception is now on the increase with the outside world which has an adverse consequence on our country’s international morality.”