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ADNews-Monrovia,Liberia: Liberia is standing at a dangerous crossroads, and the threat does not come from foreign interests or market shocks. It comes from within the political class itself.
By: Roberto Miaway
The push to fragment Liberia’s port system through the so-called Liberia Sea and Inland Port Decentralization and Modernization Act and the Liberia Seaport Regulatory Act is not reform. It is not modernization. It is a calculated political project driven by selfish ambition, partisan capture, and an open assault on the national interest.
At the center of this scheme stand Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, Darius Dillon, McDella Cooper, and their political allies. What they are advancing is not decentralization for development, but fragmentation for control. Not institutional reform, but asset stripping under legislative cover.
This bill seeks one outcome: to break the unified port system of Liberia so that strategic national assets, particularly the Port of Buchanan, can be isolated, captured, and converted into a private political funding stream for Liberty Party operatives and their henchmen.
A BILL DESIGNED TO WEAKEN THE STATE
President Joseph Nyuma Boakai vetoed these Acts once for good reason. The Legislature has now returned them with cosmetic edits while refusing to address their most dangerous provisions.The resubmitted Liberia Seaport Regulatory Act still strips regulatory authority from the Liberia Maritime Authority and hands it to a newly created agency with no institutional history, no proven capacity, and no constitutional clarity. This move would reduce the Maritime Authority to a hollow shell, confined largely to a ship registry already outsourced abroad. That is not reform. That is institutional sabotage.
Even more alarming is the so-called transition clause in the decentralization Act. Under the guise of reform, it calls for the immediate removal of the Board and Management of the National Port Authority and replaces them with junior directors to oversee the entire port system during a one-year transition. No serious maritime nation governs its most strategic revenue assets this way. This is reckless by design.
Policy experts are unanimous. County empowerment can be achieved without dismantling a unified national port authority. What this bill does instead is create chaos, weaken oversight, and open the door to political interference at every major port.
BUCHANAN IS THE REAL TARGET
Let us be clear. This fight is not abstract. The Port of Buchanan is the prize.
By carving out autonomous port structures, this legislation creates parallel centers of financial control. Once fragmented, revenue flows become easier to capture, boards become easier to stack, and accountability becomes easier to evade. Buchanan, strategically located and commercially viable, becomes a political cash cow rather than a national economic engine.
This is not what the Liberian people voted for. This is not what the ARREST Agenda represents. This is not what national recovery looks like.
Dividing state assets to satisfy political agendas is economic vandalism. Weakening central institutions in the name of decentralization is governance malpractice. Turning ports into political war chests is a betrayal of public trust.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL WARNED THEM
The Attorney General already sounded the alarm. In a formal opinion, he warned that the Acts create a governance framework with no precedent in successful maritime economies. He cautioned that the Legislature’s unilateral approach, carried out without genuine Executive collaboration, risks producing laws that are ambitious on paper but unworkable in reality.
The Legislature ignored that warning. It ignored the President’s veto message. It ignored expert advice. That tells us everything we need to know about intent.
A NATIONAL CALL TO PRESIDENT BOAKAI
Mr. President, this moment demands resolve.
Liberia’s ports are not bargaining chips for political factions. They are strategic national assets tied to trade, revenue, employment, and national security. Signing these bills would institutionalize fragmentation, invite instability, and mortgage the future for short-term political gain.
You were elected to rebuild institutions, not dismantle them. You were elected to unify the country, not preside over the division of state assets. You were elected to protect the public interest, not legitimize legislative overreach.
This bill is not reform. It is a political heist.
President Boakai must veto these Acts again, force genuine reconsideration, and insist on reforms that strengthen Liberia’s port system as a single, coherent national engine for development.
History will remember this decision. The Liberian people are watching.
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