MONROVIA – For about eight months a group of lawmakers of the House of Representatives in the 55th Legislature decided to stand against what was then called a ‘Capitol Plot’ to unseat Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa as Speaker of that august body.
For those lawmakers, the decision to politically remove the former Speaker from office did not meet the criteria set aside by the 1986 Liberia Constitution and the House’s own Standing Rules. In defiance to their colleagues’ action, these group of lawmakers, including Reps. Dixon Seboe, Abu Kamara, Papie Flomo, Marvin Cole, Saah Foko, Yekeh Kolubah, among many others decided to legally resist the removal of former Speaker Koffa.
They stood the test of time and supported former Speaker Koffa’s fight to respect the rule of law in removing him from office. Some of these Koffa’s loyalists even got suspended and their salaries, benefits and other incentives withheld for many months.
The ‘Rule of Law Caucus’ stood its ground against the reported Executive’s clear attempts to destabilize the country’s democracy and compromise the independence of the Legislature. Speaker Koffa and a coalition of patriotic lawmakers, unwavering in belief and fortified by conscience, charted a course history will never forget.
According Rep. Musa Hassan Bility, the ‘chairman’ of the Rule of Law Caucus’, former Speaker Koffa has altered the trajectory of governance in Liberia. “You have redrawn the lines between the Executive and the Legislature and anchored them in the constitution. You have written your name in the pages of Liberian history—not just as a speaker, but as a patriot whose gallantry upheld the law when silence would have been easier.”
In all of this, the sustained fight for rule of law to prevail in the Legislative saga came to an end when former Speaker Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa tendered his resignation on Monday, May 12, 2025 at 12 noon amid mixed reaction from the public and Koffa’s loyalists’ lawmakers.
As the former Speaker spoke to the media to inform Liberia about why he had taken the decision, the facial expressions and body postures of the former speaker’s loyal lawmakers portrayed dejection, frustration, gloom and shock. Their facial expression signaled a message that their fight to uphold the rule of law in keeping with democratic tenets had to end due to political undertones reportedly masterminded by the Executive.
In their minds, were they thinking as Koffa spoke to the media about his decision to resign, that their almost eight months of legal resistance to protect the rule of law failed, or were they thinking that their action has placed them in the history of Liberia for respecting rule of law, protecting the Constitution and being patriotic? Were these Koffa loyalists’ lawmaker regretting supporting Koffa for all those months at the detriment of their own jobs? These questions were presumably answered by each of Koffa’s loyal colleagues in their minds as the former Speaker spoke to the media regarding his resignation. Were they thinking about Yekeh Kolubah vs the 54th Legislature scenario? Some bodies’ postures show bewilderment and confusion as if their “Messiah” were leaving them in the cold. All in all, political pundits will argue that they fought a good fight as far as the Liberian constitution is concerned.
