By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor
It is not clear by the stance of the lower house of parliament that Speaker Emmanuel James Nuquay will not recuse himself of the functions of his office as Speaker of the House of Representatives. The plenary of the House of Representatives have overwhelmingly voted to trash request from fellow lawmakers and debate the Speaker must recuse himself since he is now vice standard-bearer of the Unity Party.
The Plenary is the highest decision making body of the House of Representatives. It on Tuesday, July 18, during session voted that the request by Maryland County Representative, Dr. Bhofal Chambers and Montserrado County Representative Acarous Moses Gray does not have any constitutional basis or statutory magnitude and should therefore be treated as though, it has never existed.
The motion by the Reps. Chambers and Gray was precipitated by the appointment of Nuquay by Vice President Boakai to serve as Vice Standard-bearer on the Unity Party ticket. Nuquay was named vice standard-bearer on July 10th after he previously rejected the suggestion because he said wanted to serve in his current position as Speaker of the Lower of House of Parliament of Liberia.
Now Boakai’s running mate for the 2017 Representatives and Presidential elections slated for October, the two lawmakers wants him to recuse himself so as to be focused on his campaign for second position of the country.
Dr. Chambers had written the plenary seeking the endorsement of that august body for the speaker to step aside from presiding over legislative business during the course of the elections. Chambers believes it is the best option for the House and he beseech his colleagues to support his petition.
“Speaker Nuquay is now the vice standard bearer of the ruling Unity Party of which the current Vice President of Liberia Joseph Boakai is the standard bearer,” Chambers noted, “the speaker should see reason to rescue himself from presiding over the plenary for conscience’s sake and to further avoid the temptation of compromising the interests of the Liberian nation, especially in instances where the presiding officers of both Houses have to sit and make decision on critical matters or issues that require independent minds, objectively, and balance in the best interest of the Liberian people.”
According to him, as lawmakers directly representing the citizenry across the length and breadth of the cherished nation, it behooves him to act with swiftness and sagacity to protect the sacred institution and the noble state, without fear or favor.
Rep. Moses Gray earlier accused Rep. Nuquay of betraying the trust of those who supported him to be Speaker to take over from former Speaker Alex Tyler.
“There is strong distrust in his ability to reunite the legislature and such action demonstrates his administrative ineptitude to run the legislature,” Gray said.
Specifically, he promised the Liberian people he will unite and bring dignity the legislature and for the fact that his action has brought disunity to the legislature he must be removed on the basis of administrative ineptitude which was his commitment.
Gray further said, “It is not a quest to remove him but one that is intended to ask him to recuse himself as someone who has presided over the budget and appointed the presiding officer on the budget we are afraid that the budget will be tampered with.”
Gray said Nuquay’s action is not only destructive, greedy but one that shows disrespect to those of his colleagues who stood by him to be speaker.
