BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS—August 18, 2022:The Global Movement for the election of Counselor Tiawan Saye Gongloe hereby calls on President George Manneh Weah to immediately dismiss all the three officials of his Government, who have been exposed by the United States Government for their involvement in the ongoing public corruption and the economic exploitation of the Liberian people. On Monday, August 15, 2022, the United States Treasury Department, through its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), imposed sanctions on Presidential Affairs Minister Nathaniel McGill, Solicitor-General Sayma Syrenius Cephus and National Port Authority Managing Director Bill Twehway, consistent with the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for engaging in public corruption which undermines Liberian democracy, national economic growth, business confidence, and deprives Liberians of public services.
After describing the sanctioning of his three close officials as “grave”, according to an Executive Mansion press release, President George Weah, perhaps not fully discerning the gravity and the far-reaching, damaging implications of the diplomatic disgrace in which his administration is embroiled, is characteristically attempting to superficially treat the benign symptoms, rather than the malignant causes of the pervasive corruption and pillaging of the national coffers, which continue to debase the Liberian society and deprive the poor masses of needed amenities.
Like President Weah, not only that we, too, believe that the actions by the United States Treasury Department against Nathaniel McGill, Syrenius Cephus and Bill Twehway are “grave”, but more than that, we strongly believe that the actions against them are highly warranted and long overdue, because their deeds, as described by the United States Government, are very perniciously nefarious and utterly disgraceful.
As our Leader, Counselor Tiawan Saye Gongloe unequivocally maintained in multiple media statements on August 15th and thereafter, although the accused officials are among President Weah’s closest allies, yet they are not indispensable to the Liberian society. If President Weah is actually sincere about instituting and presiding over a government with integrity, which espouses financial probity, there are numerous qualified, competent and capable Liberians with integrity that he could tap to render real public services for the Liberian people without any string attached, unlike McGill and his cohorts who have persistently stolen from the resources of the Liberian people for their personal gains.
By ostensibly suspending the three accused corrupt officials without swiftly sacking them, President Weah is shamelessly signaling to the world that he’s still desirous of closely interacting with his three disgraced buddies, in spite of their reprehensible deeds against the Liberian People. President Weah ought to be mindful of and readily heed the provision of the U.S. Treasury Department’s statement which says, “In addition, persons that engage in certain transactions with the individuals and entities designated today may themselves be exposed to sanctions or subject to an enforcement action.”
In our estimation, since the Fernando Po “Forced Labor” crisis of the late 1920s and early 1930s, which eventually resulted in the resignations of President Charles D.B. King and his Vice President, Allen N. Yancy on December 3, 1930, this is the most disgraceful scandal of international significance that is currently confronting the Liberian Republic. President Weah should, therefore, not treat it with his usual “don’t care” attitude.
Unless he wants to render his administration as a pariah within the international community, this is a grandiose opportunity for President Weah to come clean; to prove to the world that he has actually not been aware of the endemic stealing over the years in his government, by unshackling himself from the tentacles of McGill and his accomplices. His failure to quickly weed out those exposed alleged criminal elements from his administration will imply that he has all along, either been aiding and abetting them, or giving a blind eye to their diabolical and avaricious acts.
Meanwhile, we’re humbly urging the U.S. Government to immediately seize the known assets of the exposed corrupt officials, so as to be turned over to a future duly elected Liberian Government, to be scrupulously used for the ultimate benefit of the downtrodden Liberian masses.
At the same time, we’re urgently appealing to all the Governments of the European Union to follow the very good example of the U.S. Government, by thoroughly investigating the illicit transactions of officials of the Weah administration within their respective countries and if necessary, impose similar sanctions on all those involved, so as to bring much needed respite and economic liberation to the Liberian people. Our appeal comes against the backdrop that in recent times as the U.S. Government is now keenly monitoring their activities, some officials in President Weah’s orbit, including the President himself, have begun to escalate their activities within the European economic theater, such as buying real estate in France and other countries.
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