Category: Law & Governance

Musings of a Liberian nonconformist :
Law & Governance, Politics & Elections,

Back to the “Imperial Presidency”: Unity Party’s Unsavory Assault on Ellen Sirleaf’s Defining Legacy           

By: Wonderr K. Freeman, Attorney, CFCS In Africa, it is common practice to see a leader purposely trying to undo the legacy of his/her predecessor. Often, that happens when an opposition leader takes the helm of power. If anything spells the legacy of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s presidency, it is the plethora of government institutions whose officials were given fixed contractual terms (a.k.a. tenure). This was one of

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by D.Name.U.Know13 Min Reading
Law & Governance, Politics & Elections, Regional & Global

Rethinking Law Enforcement and Public Prosecution in Liberia – The Only Fitting Response to Recurring Targeted US Sanctions (Part 2)       

Authors: Wonderr K. Freeman & Marc N. Kollie This series tackles the delicate subject of the failure of law enforcement and public prosecution in Liberia, which explains why the US government (USgov), lately, seems to prefer targeted sanctions (much to the liking of the public). Whereas, in part one, we focused on law enforcement, in this part two of the series, we focus on the failure

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by D.Name.U.Know17 Min Reading
Law & Governance, Political Economy, Politics & Elections,

Rethinking Law Enforcement and Public Prosecution in Liberia – The Only Fitting Response to Recurring US Sanctions (Part 1)

Authors: Wonderr K. Freeman & Marc N. Kollie News of additional sanctions by the United States government (USgov) on Liberian public officials have been greeted with the usual glee (i.e., opposition supporters), and scorn (i.e., by ruling party stalwarts). Liberians have a love-hate affair with corrupt politicians. They love to vote for corrupt politicians in a transactional voting system, and then when they do not get

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by D.Name.U.Know10 Min Reading
Law & Governance,

From the Code of Conduct to the New LACC Act: How Liberia’s Ruling Elites Continue to Play Politics with the Fight Against Corruption

Wonderr K. Freeman, CFCS, Attorney Fighting corruption is clearly a legal matter. In Liberia, unfortunately, there is a long history of ruling elites “playing politics” with the fight against corruption. In Liberia, the appearance of fighting corruption is far more important than actually fighting corruption. If one looks at the way things play out in Liberia, it’s not far-fetched to say that “to appear” to be

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by D.Name.U.Know18 Min Reading
Law & Governance, Politics & Elections, ,

The Farmington Whitewash: Five+ Years of Political Violence Under President George Weah Cannot be Wiped Away So Easily             

By: Wonderr K. Freeman, Attorney, CFCS     Originally Published in April 2023 President George Weah of Liberia fancies himself as a “man of peace”. And that he was ultimately elected President, I would suppose many Liberians also thought so. I suppose ex-President Ellen Johnson equally thought so when she made him “peace” ambassador. Or maybe she was “buying” the peace, since the only group carrying out repeated

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by D.Name.U.Know10 Min Reading
Law & Governance, Regional & Global, ,

The law and politics of targeted sanctions – when a drastic sore gets a dose of drastic medicine: the case of the sanctioned Liberian officials

By: Wonderr K. Freeman       Originally Published in September 2022 Liberia has been abuzz with talks of sanctions, since the US Government Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC/Treasure Department) slammed sanctions on three senior Liberian public officials. These sanctions are being widely celebrated locally, as the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) regime gets entrapped in myriad financial scandals. However, as expected, those accused have understandably protested their

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by D.Name.U.Know17 Min Reading

MUSINGS of a Liberian Nonconformist

Commentaries on Liberian Law, Governance, & Political Economy

“ It would be absurd, if Manes can live without Diogenes, but Diogenes cannot get on without Manes. ” Diogenes of Sinope, Greek Philosopher