The mouthpiece of the government of Liberia, the Ministry of Information, Culture Affairs and Tourism, has sharply reacted to criticisms attributed to two stakeholders in the Country.
Nobel Peace Lauret, Laymah Gbowee and former associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia, Kabineh Ja’neh, recently brought the Unity Party led government under the microscope for her performance in the last 18 months.
In a fierce criticism, former associate Justice, Kabineh Ja’neh registered his frustration and regrets supporting the presidential bid of Amb. Boakai in the 2023 elections.
He expressed deep frustration with the current administration for failing to address the ECOWAS Court ruling which mandates the government to either pay his legal benefits or re-instate him to the full bench.
The court also ordered the payment of $200,000 to Ja’neh as reparation for moral prejudice due to the violation of his rights, but the government deliberately refused to honour such rulings.
The former associate Justice was impeached by the 54th Legislature in 2019 under the watchful eyes of then President George Weah.
His impeachment was widely classified as unlawful, politically motivated, undemocratic and unconstitutional by the Unity Party.
Up till date, the Joseph Boakai UP-led administration has not made any attempt, whatsoever to address those legal issues.
“It’s disappointing that the Boakai-led government has not had the decency to even talk to me about the ECOWAS court’s ruling. The judgment allows me to choose retirement, but they have not communicated with me regarding the compensation I was awarded or my plans moving forward”, Janneh stated.
Meanwhile, Nobel peace Lauret and former Peace and Reconciliation Commission ambassador, Laymah Gbowee classified the regime of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as “Diamond” in comparison to the workings of President Boakai.
“I was wrong in my criticism of Ellen,” Gbowee confessed in an interview with Front Page Africa newspaper.
“She did exceptionally well. We have two other governments to measure her government with, and they make her government look like a diamond”, she said.
“I believe that if we begin to elect leaders that love the people more than their foreign bank accounts, we’ll begin to see progress.”
Boakai’s government hit back saying Gbowee’s comment is “absolutely unrealistic and completely out of order”.
On Tuesday, June 24, 2025 at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism regular news conference, deputy Information Minister, Daniel Sando said Laymah Gbowee’s comparison that mirrors both Joseph Boakai and former president Sirleaf’s administrations is “imbalanced and unrealistic”.
He cautioned the stateswoman and the opposition community to stop drawing the attention of the people towards what he calls, ‘fruitless arguments’ that have the tendency to sully the image of the government to her global partners.
“Some of you wanted President Weah to stay here-regardless of the disastrous leadership that his administration was bringing to the Country. Yor (you) wanted him to say here-yor took to your social media pages, you, madam Laymah Gbowee, stating that Boakai was too old as a result urged him to abandon his quest to the presidency”, Sando said.
In his remarks, the deputy Information minister noted, despite the criticism, time and circumstances have proven the assertion of madam Gbowee wrong.
He told the MICAT news conference that the sole intention of Mr. Boakai is to move the government forward and not to be drawing the attention of government into fruitless arguments.
Responding to the impeached associate justice, Sando is quoted as saying, “I thought to say to the former associate justice that he’s wrong in his declaration of mistakenly voting for Ambassador Boakai”, whilst noting that the one and half year achievements of the government is never a mistake to have voted Boakai into power.
“Apparently the former associate justice had his own ulterior motives that have not been realized, and so he’s frustrated. Maybe, the former associate justice is disappointed on a personal note, which is his right, but says Liberia as a Country is not regretting her decision”.
“What is he disappointed about, that the people who illegally removed him from the Supreme Court Bench are being prosecuted, and that he represents them without seeing his way to win the case, is that has disappointment”, Daniel wonders.
He noted that contradiction is often considered a normal part of dialogue for the former associate justice, but described it as not ultimately beneficial. He urged Justice Janneh that the country must move beyond personal interests to achieve progress.
