Liberia: Dillon Wants Weah’s Extended Trip Probed

The Liberian senate has received a communication from one of its influential members with a request to subject President George Weah to a legislative probe upon his return to the country for reportedly lying to the Liberian people.

Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darious Dillon, said President Weah continues to bring the Liberian presidency to public disrepute by his actions and inactions and there is a need for the legislature, as the first branch of the government, to be put in check.

In this regard, Senator told a BBC interview that he has written the Senate to launch a legislative probe into information provided by the President about his trip to the Paris Peace Forum (PPF), which he (Dillon) has investigated and turned out to be untrue.

“The President misled the Liberian people regarding an extension of the Paris Peace Forum (PPF) for which he sought an extension of his trip outside the country,” the Senator said. “In our communication to the Senate, we provided pieces of evidence that the President lied to the Liberian people. The PPF was not extended as the President said.”

The President had initially informed that body that the extension of his trip was on the basis of the extension of the PPF. “The President said that the forum was extended, but that was a lie that was only intended for him to stay in Qatar to watch football games,” Dillon told the BBC’s Focus on Africa program.

Prior to leaving the country on November 1, 2022, the President wrote the senate informing its members that he would have attended the PPF from November 9-15, and from the 15-23 he would be at the FIFA World Cup as a guest of honor.

However, a second communication emerged in which President Weah noted that the PPF was held from the 9^th to the 18^th of November — a three-day extension. “This has however turned out to be a lie,” the Montserrado County Lawmaker said.

Asked why make an issue out of a “mere” three days extension, Senator Dillon noted, “It is a big deal for me because the President lied to the nation, and this misleading information must be investigated.” He said Liberians need to know at all times where their President is, especially [when he is] on a foreign trip.

“When the President says he is going to be at a particular place at a particular time on government’s money and it is found out to be untrue, it warrants an investigation,” he said. “So my communication is a formal notice providing reasons for which a probe to be launched so that the senate can take the appropriate corrective measures where necessary after the investigation.”

But Liberia Maritime Authority Commissioner and presidential advisor, Lenn Eugene Nagbe, said the President did not mislead the country as Senator Dillon and others are making the ordinary Liberians to believe.

He said because of the enormity of the problems that President Weah inherited upon his ascendency in 2017 and is solving, the CDC political leader is constrained to behave in a different way than a normal President would.

Nagbe, who is also on the trip with the President and spoke to the BBC in reaction to Senator Dillon’s claims, described lawmaker’s quest for a probe into the President’s extended trip as showboating and that he would do no such thing. “But if he does, it will result in nothing,” he said.

On misleading the country on the issue of the PPF, he said it is untrue. “The President left Egypt on November 9, and arrived in France at midnight of the same day.” “Adding that the PPF started from the 11^th but the President stayed in Paris up to the 18^th of November. On The 15^th, the President had several meetings after the forum.”

Nagbe said the President’s lengthy trip does not in any way violate the Constitution, and it has therefore created no constitutional crisis. On the significance of the historic lengthy trip, the President’s supporters say the trip was meant to do business on behalf of the country. But Dillon differs, asking rather rhetorically: “How can watching for over 15 days FIFA football games, where his son is playing, bring back anything to the country?” 

In response, Commissioner Nagbe said the trip is in the interest of the Liberian people and is meant to garner support for some of the infrastructural developments that the government is undertaking, adding that the CDC political leader and his entourage have already garnered over US$175 million for projects in the country.

“The trip was also meant for the President to meet with other world leaders,” Nagbe, who is also a former Minister of Information, noted.

Dillon’s quest for a legislative probe against the President comes at a time when the opposition community, led by the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), is planning a mass citizens’ rally to call the world’s attention to what the CPP calls “the miserable living conditions of the Liberian people.” 

Many believe the rally, slated for December 17, just a day before President Weah’s return to the country, will provide a hostile reception for the President. 

Who Paid for the President’s Trip?

In addition to the integrity issues raised by the Montserrado County Senator, there is a financial component to his request to his colleagues for a probe into the President’s trip. The trip, probably the longest by a sitting president in the modern history of Liberia, has garnered huge and intense discussions on street corners as well as on social and mainstream media.

The duration of President Weah’s stay out of Liberia, including a nine-day stop in Qatar to watch the FIFA 2022 World Cup, could cost the country not less than US$96,000 as his incidental allowance — more than what his government appropriated to some leading government hospital.

According to Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, the President is entitled to US$2,000 Incidental Allowance for each day of stay abroad. The incidental allowance for the President’s 48-day trip (Nov. 1 to Dec. 18) alone cost US$96,000 which excludes costs of accommodation and per diem for himself and his entourage.

He is traveling with his wife, First Lady Clar Weah; and other senior cabinet officials, including the Commissioner Nagbe; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Sr.; the Minister of National Defense, Daniel Ziankahn.

In as much as the President and his officials’ incidental and other allowances are legitimate despite the length of the trip, there is a down to the financial burden that the trip brings to taxpayers—and that is the extended period of their stay away.

The government’s Travel Ordinance says beyond seven days, any public official, including the President, will have to shoulder any financial liability accrue as a result of an extension to his or her trip.

“This means you are responsible for your own per diem, hotel accommodations and incidentals, and other expenses as stipulated by law,” Senator Dillon said.

The same law also provides that if the official can prove with documentary evidence that the extension was in the interest of the country then a case for a refund can be made.”

“But as it is now, the President is yet to demonstrate to the Liberian people that his extended stay in Qatar to watch football games will bring any benefit to the country,” Dillon said.

He has not Taken a Cent

The Commissioner told the BBC that “Mr. President does not take US$2,000 though he is entitled to that under the national travel ordinance.” He indicated that there is a fiscal overturn report that is made every time the President travels. “Though he is entitled to that amount every time he travels, he has not touched it.”

The Maritime Commissioner disclosed that the entirety of the trip was not paid by taxpayers’ money. “For example, the Mid-day Forum in Morocco was fully paid for by the organizers. They sent a plane that took the President from Liberia to the venue, and the same plane took the President to Egypt for the global climate change conference. So that saves the Liberian people some money,” he said.

However, the President’s lengthy trip has caused a huge uproar and anger among hundreds of Liberians with critics terming such a move as irresponsible, while others described the President as being insensitive considering the economic difficulties Liberians are enduring.

“Amid all of these critical situations, the President thinks it is fair to embark on this long trip taking along over 40 of his officials — where they will spend hundreds of thousands of the Liberian people’s money,” Stanton A. Witherspoon, the lead panelist for Spoon Talk, a popular online TV talk-show, said a fortnight ago. “This is unfair to the Liberian people. Weah can’t continue to treat the Liberian people, who love and have sacrificed so much for him, this way.”

People are angry that much is yet to be done by the CDC administration to reduce or alleviate the excruciating hardship and unbearable suffering of the Liberian people; the national census is in disarray; there is a surge in the prices of rice, the nation’s staple.

All of these are happening at a time when the country, according to the President’s critics, needs leadership that remains elusive while, in the words of some Liberians, the President is gallivanting.