By Festus Poquie
Deputy House Speaker Thomas Fallah has publicly urged fellow members of his native Lofa County to back President Joseph Boakai’s rumored 2029 re-election bid, a move critics say risks reviving dangerous ethnic and regional loyalties in Liberia’s national politics.
“Your own is your own. We will stand with Joseph Boakai,” Fallah, who represents Lofa District 1, told supporters in Lofa County where he launched what he called the Independent Movement for the Support of Joseph Boakai.
Both Fallah and the President hail from the Foya region of Lofa and are speakers of the Kissi language.
Fallah has framed his support in explicitly local terms, declaring that Boakai is “our own” and urging kinsmen to take the campaign into “streets, corners” and across counties to rally support.
“We will put all of our energies and resources to make Joseph Boakai if he wants to be reelected.
He formed the movement after breaking with the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), following his expulsion for alleged disloyalty and for aligning with the ruling Unity Party Alliance.
Critics and civil-society observers say Fallah’s language and the formation of an avowedly local support vehicle risk deepening tribal and sectional divisions at a sensitive moment, potentially undermining national cohesion as the country looks ahead to a highly contested presidential cycle.
Tribalism, sectionalism and Liberia’s civil wars
Political appeals that emphasize ethnic, regional or familial ties have a long and painful resonance in Liberia. Analysts and historians note that tribalism and sectionalism were among the factors that fueled Liberia’s civil conflicts beginning in 1989.
Competition for political power, perceived marginalization of particular groups, and the exploitation of local loyalties by armed leaders helped turn grievances into large-scale violence.
Factional leaders recruited along ethnic and regional lines, and atrocities were often carried out between communities that had been pitted against one another.
While today’s political landscape is different, observers warn that overtly ethnic appeals can deepen mistrust and make peaceful national politics more difficult, especially in a country still bearing the social and economic scars of decades of conflict.
Who are the Kissi and how large are they?
The Kissi are one of Liberia’s smaller ethnic groups, concentrated primarily in northern counties such as Lofa, and with communities across neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Most estimates place the Kissi as a minority group — representing a single-digit percentage of the national population — considerably smaller than the country’s largest ethnic groups such as the Kpelle and Bassa.
Because the Kissi are regionally concentrated, their political influence can be significant within parts of northern Liberia, even if their share of the national population remains modest.
That dual reality—local strength combined with national minority status helps explain why appeals to kinship and shared origin can carry considerable weight in counties like Lofa.
Political analysts say Fallah’s appeals may yield short-term mobilization in parts of Lofa, but they also risk alienating voters elsewhere and intensifying suspicion between communities.
For a country that needs cross-regional coalitions to govern effectively, emphasizing tribal affiliation as the basis for political support may hamper broader consensus-building.
Civil society groups and some political leaders have in the past called for restraint and for campaign messages that emphasize policy and national unity rather than ethnic ties.
