Senate imbalanced

-Sen. Wesseh 

A River Gee County Senator has disclosed to this paper that the leadership of the Liberian Senate is totally imbalanced, saying such does not show any respectable sign of sound leadership.

Senator Conmany B. Wesseh told this paper in an interview Thursday in Monrovia, that the President Pro Tempore and statutory committees heads were focused in one direction, making the rest of the counties to be out of the leadership.

 He said such practice of leadership was troubling and could cause the Senate not to be effective in delivering to the Liberian people.

Wesseh- a former Minister of State without portfolio in the office of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, added that the newly elected President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate should consider such practice as unhealthy for the democratization of a country  emerging from a protracted civil conflict.
According to him, the approach was a wrong precedence set by them (senators) that younger generation would emulate.    

He noted that after the Pro Tempore election, which occasioned the emergence of Senator Armah Jallah of Gbarpolu County  against Senator Joseph Nagbe of Sinoe County, the Senate must be a beckon of reconciliation, where the two blocks should have formed a single front, but the Jallah camp chose to divert, knowing that the numbers were in their favor, leaving out the rest of the senators from southeast and other counties out of the leadership.

Currently, the Senator of Maryland County is only senator on the leadership of the senate. Senator H. Dan Morias is the Chairman on Foreign Relations.  

Senators Geraldine Doe Sherif of Montserrado County, Chairman on the Executive, while both Senators H. Varney G. Sherman and Edward Dagoseh of Grand Cape Mount County are Chairmen on Judiciary and Ways, Means and Finance respectively. Senators George Tengbeh and Steve Zargo of Lofa County are Chairmen on Rules, Order and Administration and National Defense, Security, Intelligence and Veteran Affairs respectively and Nimba County Thomas Grupee is Chairman on Internal Affair.  

Meanwhile, Senator Wesseh has written the Plenary of the Liberian Senate, requesting that august body to make available to them copies of the President’s Annual Message.

“Regrettably, since the President’s address, many colleagues and I have not received copies of the report to enable us do a detail reading to prepare ourselves for a much needed informed debate of the issues therein. I am kindly requesting that the President’s Report be circulated to all senators for our proper reading; and that a schedule be set for the debate of the many issues covered by the report,”  the River Gee County lawmaker pointed out.

He maintained that the Liberian Constitution made it mandatory for the President to report to the Legislature once each year at the beginning of a Legislative session because it was felt that legislators would represent their people to properly evaluate the work of the executive before it took on new tasks and programs. 

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor