By Sidiki Fofana | Truth In Ink
From recommending executive appointees to influencing revenue structures and procurement, Senate Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence is leading a dangerous expansion of legislative power that threatens Liberia’s constitutional order.
A silent constitutional coup is underway, and it is not being staged by a colonel or a general, but by a lawmaker at the highest echelon of the Liberian Senate: Senate Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence. Under the guise of decentralization and reform, she is now leading a systematic power grab that not only distorts her role as a legislator, but threatens to undermine the very constitutional framework of the Republic.
A government elected on the mantra of “competence, integrity, and quality leadership” is now dangerously flirting with the abuse of power. What began as quiet deviations from constitutional norms has evolved into a visible trend of legislative overreach, one that risks undermining Liberia’s fragile democratic architecture.
At the center of this growing crisis is Senate Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, whose recent proposals and actions point to a disturbing disregard for the limits imposed by the Constitution.
At the center of this emerging crisis is her recent proposal to decentralize revenue collection, placing it directly under the control of counties, circumventing the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA). On its face, this may sound like decentralization. But Liberia is not a federal state.
It is a unitary republic, where counties function as administrative arms of the central government. Any move to restructure fiscal authority must be done within the legal limits of the state
And so while her call for revenue decentralization is but only the ammunition needed for the war, it is not the real offense. The constitutional coup lies in Madam Pro-Tempore’s alleged proposition that legislative caucuses should nominate individuals to serve in these newly proposed county revenue authorities.
Article 54 of the Constitution is explicit:
“The President shall nominate and, with the consent of the Senate, appoint and commission…” key officials.
Article 3 reinforces this:
“No person holding office in one of these branches shall hold office in or exercise any of the powers assigned to another.”
Nomination belongs exclusively to the Executive Branch. The Senate’s role is to provide consent, not to pre-select or recommend candidates for executive positions. When senators act as both nominators and confirmers, they have destroyed the very principle of checks and balances they were elected to uphold.
This is not an isolated violation, it is part of a growing pattern. During the formation of the Boakai administration, credible reports revealed that the President turned over critical aspects of his government-building process because of pressure from senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence and others thereby usurping and combining both the nomination function of the presidency and the confirmation duties of the senate.
These legislators recommended cabinet and sub-cabinet officials, individuals they later sat in judgment over during confirmation hearings.
How can you objectively vet someone you handpicked? The result is a broken process and a compromised Republic.
Even more troubling is the behavior of Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung, the constitutional President of the Senate, who was recently seen leading a delegation to procure yellow machines, a function reserved for the Executive through the Ministry of Finance and the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC).
Section 24(1) of the Public Procurement and Concessions Act states:
“The procurement function shall be carried out by procurement entities within the Executive Branch under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance and the PPCC.”
Section 10 of the Public Financial Management Law adds:
“Only the Minister of Finance or persons authorized under this Act shall commit public funds.”
For the Vice President to actively engage in procurement and budget execution is a blatant breach of the law and a direct violation of the constitutional separation of powers. A confirmation of the coup against the constitution
And now, with the newly passed National Port Authority (NPA) Law awaiting the President’s signature, the same unconstitutional trend appears poised to continue. If this law contains provisions allowing lawmakers to influence or control port appointments or operations, it would amount to legislative treason, a calculated dismantling of the Republic’s executive authority.
This is not a mere political move of influence . This is a silent coup in plain sight.
As Justice Louis Brandeis once warned,
“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
The actions of the Pro-Tempore and her allies are not just misguided, they are corrosive. They strip the presidency of its constitutional powers, distort the function of the Senate, and turn governance into a power-sharing cartel rather than a rule-of-law-based democracy.
If left unchecked, these actions will collapse the constitutional order one appointment, one procurement deal, and one “decentralization” proposal at a time.
When the Legislature becomes the Nominator, Confirmer, and Executor, the Republic is no longer governed by law, it is governed by collusion.
Senate Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence may not wear a military uniform, but her push to expand legislative authority into executive territory is nothing short of a constitutional coup, and it must be called what it is.
Liberia’s democracy cannot survive if we remain silent. The time to resist legislative overreach is now, before the Constitution becomes nothing more than a an artifact of a lost Republic.
