The head of the Boakai Conscious Movement (BCM), Richlue O. Burphy is calling on President Joseph Boakai to expedite the submission of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget to the “Majority Bloc” in the legislature.
Burphy also emphasized the urgency of presenting the budget to ensure timely funding for critical national programs and services, arguing that delays could hinder economic recovery, development efforts and the effective running of the government.
However, his appeal comes amid rising tensions surrounding the leadership of the House of Representatives, particularly targeting Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa who said to be at the verge of losing his gavel as Speaker of Liberia.
For the past one month, the campaign to remove Speaker Koffa stems from mounting discontent within the House of Representatives, where majority of his colleagues accused him of corruption and conflict of interest among others.
This situation has since affected normal working activities at the Legislature, thus preventing the Representatives from having regular session due to lack of quorum for the past weeks.
The impasse also led to the holding of separate session by the both parties, sparking a wave of uncertainty and concern among the populace, amidst the pressing issues confronting the country that require unity and focused governance.
In an interview with this paper, Burphy said, “On the issue of the national budget and the speaker’s removal, I think I spoke to it before. But as it stands, it seems to be getting out of hand and it will hinder the operations of government if care is not taken.”
“People in high places are taking sides; some ignorantly, and there are lots of issues at play here and even some learned Liberians including Senator Augustine Chea seem to be missing the sole disposable issues, the prevailing laws and their applications.
Some of the issues surrounds the doctrine of political question, legitimacy of the speaker even if he doesn’t have a quorum, the submission of the national budget, the consideration of the majority bloc’s sessions as official or not, etc,” he said.
According to him, the two sides are being uncompromising, but the government must run and failure on their part to operate effectively would definitely affect the running of the other two branches of government.
He maintained, “And as the two sides seem to be unbending even after several interventions including from the Honorable Liberian Senate, we must move forward. Injured parties will not be left without remedy. Their remedy will be available at the court.”
“Therefore, Mr. President Joseph Boakai, I recommend you proceed to submit the 2025 National Budget to the Legislature. At the House level, let it be given to the majority of the representatives. In this case, the majority bloc.
If they deliberate on it and pass it into law and anyone including the speaker thinks that budget law is illegal, they can go to the court and the court will pass on it. That would be their remedy,” Burphy noted.
He further, “If the court says the budget passed by the majority bloc is unconstitutional and illegal, that will settle the matter and we will revert to status quo anti, and if the court says the budget is legal, we too will have our peace of minds.”
Burphy added, “The danger here is that we can’t anticipate wrong. Wrong must happen for it to be wrong and for the injured party to seek remedy. And we can’t keep arguing amongst ourselves as to who is legitimate and who is not. We are not making headways with that.”
And the court won’t come in at this point too because of the political question doctrine. The court knows that the happenings at the house is political and as they are politicians, they should handle it. Therefore, the court will only sit back and watch,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Richlue Burphy has also condemned recent report report of the vandalism of the Legislature Joint Chambers, wondering, “Now, you see why we need to be more thoughtful about the kind of people we vote to represent us?”
According to him, if what is being reported is true, then it is very unfortunate and irresponsible on the part of people we call lawmakers, recounting, “When we stand in the queue to vote, it is for them to make laws primarily and not to be lawless as this act, if true, is a high degree of lawlessness and should be condemned at all fronts.”
He however recommended, “It is time that we dedicate serious and significant time to evaluating candidates putting themselves up to represent us at the National Legislative. It’s our first branch of government and I think we need our best brains and minds up there.”
“And if it’s established that it’s actually vandalism and it was caused by the lawmakers supporting Speaker J. Fonati Koffa, the law should take its course. Our government resources should not be used to repair damages coursed by irresponsible people.
It should rather be condemned by all Liberians, but again, we are hearing that it’s not vandalism but rather renovation work ongoing at the Capitol. I hope that is true,” Burphy added.
