06/10/2025
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Liberia: Is Traveling With Boakai a Curse? As Unity Party Plots to Remove Deputy Speaker Thomas Fallah
By Sidiki Fofana | Truth in Ink
It was supposed to be a routine statesmanship, the Deputy Speaker joining the President abroad to present a picture of unity and competence of the country’s image.
Instead, Deputy Speaker Thomas Fallah returned from an international mission with President Joseph N. Boakai to find his political footing under threat. What looked like partnership now appears to have been the staging ground for betrayal.
Reliable House insiders say Unity Party power brokers, working under the quiet but unmistakable influence of the Party’s National Chairman, have been counting heads and trading promises to strip Fallah of his gavel with the goal to install a more obedient, dyed-in-the-wool partisan before the House reopens.
At the center of this maneuver is Representative Prince Toles of District 8, currently chairing a special recess committee, a “temporary” leadership fix born of Speaker Koon’s compromise but now repurposed as a testing ground for Unity Party dominance.
Fallah’s offense? Refusing to kneel. He has been deliberate in aligning with President Boakai’s “Rescue Agenda” while publicly avoiding full party membership. "I am of no party, but I am hundred percent committed to support the President'" Fallah said during a Townhall meeting with citizens of Foyah district in Philadelphia , USA. "
Inspite of his open support to President Boakai's rescue agenda, Unity Party seems to want more from the Deputy Speaker. "You cannot say you are with the President but stand outside the Party,” one senior Unity Party operative told Truth in Ink. A blunter young partisan called it not good enough ; “Fallah is eating from the victory but won’t call himself one of us.”
Even some party leaders whisper worry about how close Fallah has grown to Boakai while remaining politically unclaimed. “His proximity to the President is concerning,” a source close to Senator Moyer said. “To be that close and yet unaffiliated, that’s a no-no for us.”
The Unity Party has no commanding majority, barely a dozen lawmakers, and must negotiate with shifting coalitions to achieve its purge. The first target is the “Rule of Law Caucus,” an opposition-leaning bloc angry with Fallah for past legislative battles but unwilling to hand his seat to the ruling party.
“If Fallah goes, his replacement should come from our own,” one member told Truth in Ink. The Independent Bloc is pushing the same claim, seeing a power vacuum as an opportunity to grow. " A vacant Deputy Speaker's seat must go to no party, but one of us from the independent bloc", an ambitious independent representative shouted in the meeting hosted at Representative Sekou Kanneh's residence. Some members of the Unity Party caucus pushed by on that compromise insisting "we cannot remove a Deputy Speaker who though not a part of our caucus supports our agenda for a person who opposed the president 's agenda. Is either they agreed that Fallah's replacement is of the Unity Party or he remains since it is the opposition bloc that can"t stand Fallah's Deputy Speakership" they agrued.
That jockeying is already turning toxic. “Well, this is up to Boakai,” an independent lawmaker said coldly. “If they want a disorderly and disorganized legislature, we will give it to them. They are power-greedy and arrogant.”
This is not an isolated drama. It follows the script that toppled Speaker Koffa, rumors of his removal took off while he traveled with Boakai, only for Fallah to now face the same music after a trip alongside the President. “It signals weakness at the top or worse, quiet blessing,” political analyst J. Nyemah observed on OK FM.
Hence the whispered nickname that is sticking is "Traveling with Boakai is a curse.” One Liberty Party lawmaker told Truth in Ink: “Boakai is a curse to his own government. Travel with him and you return to chaos.”
Outside Capitol corridors, the spectacle is breeding cynicism. A shop owner in Red Light Market shrugged: “We thought Boakai would cool the country. But if every day they want to take chair from somebody, how we go forward?”
Political commentators privileged to the plot argued that this is not just about Fallah. It is about what kind of politics Boakai will preside over. Liberia’s constitutional framework gives the legislature wide autonomy; when the presidency is seen as leaning on its bloc to punish independence, it revives memories of the turbulent Sirleaf and Taylor legislative years when party lines strangled dissent and destabilized governance.
For a President elected to “rescue” Liberia’s fractured democracy, this power grab risks doing the opposite. The signal is unmistakable; join the party or risk political decapitation. Two House leaders have now traveled with the President and returned to find their power under siege. Coincidence or coordination, the message chills every would-be partner.
The Unity Party with opposition support may be able to remove Fallah and claim the seat thereby consolidating power of the three branches of government but lose the trust that makes governance work.
And a President who campaigned to steady Liberia could instead deepen the fractures and leaves a legacy of being the most chaotic president in recent memory.
Truth in Ink’s investigation continues…
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