corruption

Her first novel Nervous Conditions won the African section of the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1989. Other award-winning credits include Neria, Zimbabwe's most successful film released in 1993. Her latest book, This Mournable Body, is on the Booker Prize longlist, which was unveiled earlier this week. It is a sequel to Nervous Conditions, and "channels the hope and potential of one young girl and a fledgling nation to lead us on a journey to discover where lives go after hope has departed", the Booker Prize website says.***

Famed Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga released on bail

August 2, 2020 admin2corruption, Writer, Zimbabwe0 comment

Tsitsi Dangarembga, an award-winning Zimbabwean author and Booker Prize nominee, has been released on bail after her arrest during an anti-government protest. Eleven other people detained on Friday – including Fadzayi Mahere, a lawyer and spokeswoman for the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance party – were also freed on Saturday. They were ordered to return to court on September 18. Dangarembga was charged with incitement to commit violence and breaching anti-coronavirus health regulations after staging a two-woman demonstration in the capital on Friday, the day of planned protests against corruption…

ANC does need its male or female equivalent of the diabolical and noxiously ignorant Eugene Fangohn, We reminded steadfast in our condemnation of the ill-treatment and threats Mr. Cummings and Hon Kolubah received. It is a good thing the ANC has taken the high road for now and seeking proper redress through the right channel.

Public Policy

Alternative National Congress—ANC, must grow balls & call out Mouna Farhat, now!

August 1, 2020 admin2corruption, Liberia, Mouna Fahart0 comment

By Paul Jackson The Alternative National Congress—ANC, leadership needs to grow some balls or put on its big girl drawls and directly call out Mouna Farhat for her insensitivity and callous threatening statement. Although she made a half-baked apology, the post continues to remain on her page; that alone should tell us that she doesn’t give a damn! A lot of Liberians see Mouna through the lens of ANC and we must unconditionally disassociate the party from the nonsense she wrote. I find it appalling that the post…

Altogether it cost 3.4 billion Kenyan shillings - that is, $35 million, or £26 million. At 10km long, that works out to around $3 million per kilometre. To put it in perspective, the BBC's Ferdinand Omondi in Nairobi notes that this is more than double the amount of money the Kenyan government has put aside for its strategic food reserves this year. It is also about a million dollars more than it is spending on universal healthcare, and three times the amount it has set aside for affordable housing. Story was first publish in 2019, March.

Public Policy

SCANDAL: over Kenya’s border fence that cost $35m for just 10km

July 24, 2020 admin2corruption, Kenya0 comment

BBC—Kenyan MPs have asked how a 10km wire fence built along the country’s border with Somalia cost $35 million. government had originally promised to build a complex wall to run about 700km (435 miles) along the border. But the “wall”, which was meant to stop al-Shabab militants from crossing into Kenya, has ended up being a wire fence that is only 10km long. Kenya’s parliament has now suspended construction, and is demanding an investigation into the project. What was the original plan? When the plan was first announced…

Report by Henry Karmo frontpageafricaonline.com

Public Policy

The Curse Of Leadership In Liberia: A Review Of The Legislature In Liberia

July 21, 2020 admin2corruption, Legislature, Liberia0 comment

By S. Karweaye For any society to prosper, it needs to have a government to run its affairs. The government helps to sustain the social contract that binds every member of the state. Thus, the price that is paid for a state to be prosperous is for it to have an established government that enforces the social contract. Members of an ordered society, called a state, must pay taxes sufficient to carry out the functions assigned to the state. In Liberia, costs associated with the running of government have increased…

Lawmakers, who are furious with the Speaker’s action, have been holding closed door discussions to plan his removal. Over the weekend, more than 22 of them gathered in the Port City of Buchanan to begin making their move – the kind that will involve massive political maneuvering and bickering. This is expected to be a long haul and probably a redux of past incidents that also saw the removal of two very influential House Speakers – Edwin Snowe and Alex Tyler.

News

Liberian legislators selling themselves to George Weah Approves Budget, Receive $17K Each

May 21, 2020 admin2Budget, corruption, Liberia0 comment

The purpose of the US$17k given to each lawmaker is yet to be explained but according to sources in the legislature, it is part of inducement or agreement reached between them and Executive branch of government to waive six months of arrears owed them in petroleum coupon. When asked what the purpose of the US$17 was? One of the lawmakers who refused to speak to this paper on record said; “wait until you are a lawmaker then you will know why we are being given the check.” Over the weekend, President George M.…

Disclosing to the public the disbursement of funds at the Liberian Senate, declaring his assets, subject himself to double pay cut, influencing fellow Senators in debates and votes on critical national issues at the Liberian Senate such as the rejection of NEC Chairman nominee Nwabudike, interventions in distressing conditions of poor people are only a few examples of his leadership, faithfulness, and vision. I urge all well-meaning Liberians as well as CDCians to reject the negative propaganda scheme launched against Senator Dillon by the corrupt Weah CDC government and their surrogates.

News

Prince Johnson Contradicts AB Dillion, says Weah gave $200,000 bonus for SoE

April 29, 2020 admin2corruption, Legislature, Liberia0 comment

Staff Report As public outrage mounts in the wake of revelations by Nimba County Senator Prince Johnson that Legislators have received payout bonuses of US$6,000 as an inducement to affix their signatures of approval to the resolution authorizing the imposition of a State of Emergency, several legislators (names withheld) have shrugged off the charges claiming that the US$6,000 paid to each legislator was actually “operational funds” which have since gone unpaid for a little over two (2) years. This has left the public confused about who is indeed telling…

Senator Cooper added that Liberians need to maintain the peace and stability of the country, and President Weah must take the lead. The Legislature is the first branch of government that makes law; with the Senate being the only body in the Legislature responsible constitutionally to confirm appointed officials who are subject to confirmation. Senator Cooper is, therefore, a member of the Senate through whom public officials subject to confirmation have passed through to occupy public posts such as the Ministry of Finance.

Public Policy

Today, The Legislature Is responsible For Liberia’s Governance Problems

January 13, 2020 admin2corruption, Governance, Liberia0 comment

A staunch critic of the George Manneh Weah-led government, Senator Oscar Cooper, has said that the National Legislature plays key roles in the declined state of the country and not the Executive alone. He said for over forty years now the Liberian presidency has been an area of focus for transforming the Liberian governance structure—which has come with little or no success though many heads of state have lost their lives in the process. This is now time, he added, that Liberians focus on the legislature, which is the…

the former chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Cllr. Jerome Verdier, responding to a VOA Day Break Africa report on the case, welcomed the civil lawsuit against former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf specifically

Public Policy

The Sad Disconnect: The Corrupt Legacy of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

January 10, 2020January 10, 2020 admin2corruption, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf0 comment

ROME, Italy – Over the past period, every day, especially today, is a sad day in Liberia. Our entire country is a joke. While youth in other countries are talking about, engaged in and undertaking the next best thing in technology, sharpening their skills and preparing their analytical minds, what is happening (continuous but understandable anti-government protests, lateral and vertical incompetence, economic paralysis and social meltdown, endemic mismanagement and misrule) in Liberia is exactly what Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her core humanly insensitive crew wanted, and this…

Weah: “What was damaged during the 14 years of civil war,” he said, “cannot be fixed in a day’s time. This government is focused on rehabilitating Liberians whose lives were damaged. I want you not to join those who are undermining the country through protests. Join me to rebuild the country.” As part of his development plans, President Weah said the government was exerting efforts to change the lives of Liberians, by building concrete homes in place of the huts they have been living in over so many decades.

Op-ed

Liberia – The Incompetence, Naïveté, Treachery And Recklessness Presidency

January 6, 2020January 6, 2020 admin2corruption, Liberia, Weah0 comment

By Francis Nyepon George Weah is an ineffective and incompetent president who surrounded himself with a network of sycophants and unpatriotic double-dealing traitors that are looting the Liberian treasury for their personal gain while enabling poverty to remain rampant and unbridled corruption ruthlessly stains the daily lives of Liberians. Over the past two years, President George Weah has failed to accumulate material economic gains of Liberia’s abundant natural resources, favorable climate to ensure food security and a vibrant youthful workforce to boost sustainable growth and socio-economic development.…

The cracks are increasing and becoming visible. CIC Weah is in a state of perplexity while the masses are in the state of paranoid. There is no answer to looming catastrophes in the motherland. The masses are left to hopelessly wander in the wilderness! The bubble might burst anytime soon – history will be made – and the masses will reshape their socio-economic and political destiny.

Op-ed

Economic Paralysis vs. Resignation conundrum – Is CDC Cracking?

November 30, 2019 admin2corruption, Liberia, Weah0 comment

The Editor, Neatly dressed in his white pro-poor gown, President George M. Weah marched to the podium to be sworn in as Africa’s first footballing Head of State on January 22, 2018. Greeted by a jam-packed stadium, he was not cheered this time around for scoring a goal as a Soccer Legend, but was cheered after taking the oath of office “to preserve and defend the Constitution of Liberia and faithfully execute the law”. As the masses continued to queue and troop their way to SKD Sports…