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Power belongs to the people who entrust their servants to exercise it with care and respect for the common good of the public. When those entrusted with the power begin to measure strength to determine supremacy; there are pros and cons to note.
Against this background, the public is being entertained with unfolding developments emanating from what has transpired of recent between Acting Monrovia City Mayor Mary Broh and the Liberian Senate. The Senate has become definitive in taking some rigid step to demand respect from Acting Mayor Broh who has been complained to the Upper House for allegedly assaulting a senior staffer of Maryland County Senior Senator John Ballout.
A declaration of ‘vote of no confidence’ in the Acting City Mayor by the Senate became a banner headline in several local newspapers in Monrovia Wednesday, June 6, 2012. The Senate seems to have taken such harsh decision due to the failure of Madam Broh to appear before the August Body on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, having been invited in connection with her alleged attack on the senior staffer of Senator Ballout’s office during one of her (Mayor) routine exercises in Monrovia recently.
There has been an argument about Mayor Broh’s absence when she was expected to appear before the Senate. The argument is that she wrote the Senate about her ailment after her invitation. Sources have claimed that the excuse from the Acting City Mayor was an attempt to belittle the Senate. But her loyalists have a different version of the situation, noting that the Senate had planned to send her to jail if she were to appear before Plenary based on the invitation extended her in connection with her alleged attack on a senate staffer. If this claim would be anything to go by, the detention of Morris Saytumah during the first regime of President Sirleaf by the 52nd National Legislature could be used as a yardstick.
Whatever the case, the interest of the public matters so much. To many the Senate may not maintain its stand on the issue to ensure that Madam Broh is subdued either by dismissal or is reprimanded for whatever wrong she might have done. Perceived to be a ‘foot soldier’ of President Sirleaf, many seem to find it extremely impossible that based on Senate’s pressure the Chief Executive would let Madam Broh slip off the gavel of authority at the MCC.
However, there has been a descending view on the Senate’s action against Madam Broh. Some Liberians say the Upper House is taking a harsh decision against the Acting City Mayor because the person being assaulted is a staffer of the Senate despite the fact that other Liberians have consistently cried foul about Madam Broh’s excessive power with no concern being raised by the National Legislature. Liberians working with the House of Representatives and the Senate appear to have come in defense of the lawmakers, arguing that the Legislature does not go out soliciting cases, but when complaints are brought before it, the body discusses the merit and demerit to determine redress.
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