Editorial: CDC must name appointees in double standards

Monrovia City Mayor and secretary-general-elect, for the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Jefferson Koijee, is angry. He vaguely claims that some presidential appointees of the government are playing double standard games, lying in bed with the opposition to work against the CDC-led government they serve.

Koijee maintains that government officials, particularly presidential appointees, who are engaged in double standards, need to be warned about their activities, and that therefore, government ministries and agencies will be monitored to ensure they act accordingly.

The warning from the CDC Chief Scribe is unwarranted, because, by deductive reasoning, the opposition CPP officially wrote the government via the Ministry of Youth and Sports since November 16, 2022, and obtained permission long in advance, to peacefully rally on December 17, 2022, in front of the SKD Sports Complex in Paynesville prior to the ruling party’s pronounced petitioning ceremony for President Weah.   

Mayor Koijee did not reveal specific names, but the warning comes after the Ministry of Youth and Sports granted permission to the opposition Collaborating Political Parties (CDC) to stage a peaceful rally right in front of the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville on December 17, 2022, the same date and venue the ruling CDC has planned a petitioning ceremony for the re-election bid of President George Manneh Weah. 

The CDC was constrained to postpone its planned petitioning ceremony for President Weah’s re-election to avoid confrontation with the opposition, which is no doubt, the wise thing to do as a governing Coalition.

But for the Mayor to insinuate because of this that there are presidential appointees such as ministers, executive and managing directors, among others that are working for the opposition against the government without being specific, is an unsubstantiated, blanket allegation. The warning is clear intimidation and threat from the ruling CDC that had previously summoned all government employees here to report at its headquarters in clear breach of the rights of those officials to hold diverse opinions regardless of serving in government.

While presidential appointments are discretional, it does not mean that anyone President Weah appoints is automatically a member of the CDC. In other words, being a member of the ruling party should not be a pre-condition for any qualified Liberian to serve the Motherland, as Koijee tries to imply.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports under Minister D. Zeogar Wilson acted in line with law in granting the CPP permit to rally peacefully on December 17, and neither the Minister nor any of his deputies should be portrayed as working against the government’s interest by responding to a law-abiding citizen or a law-abiding institution’s request as guaranteed under the Constitution.

The CDC should be reminded that it enjoyed similar rights to rally and protest during its days in opposition. Now that it has become the ruling party, it should not deny parties in opposition from exercising the very rights it benefited, while it sat on the other side of the political landscape.

Threatening presidential appointees for doing what is required by law clearly undermines the very Constitution that the CDC-led government took oath to defend and protect for the sake of peace, stability and harmonious co-existence irrespective of tribal, political, or religious affiliation.