Today, the Liberian Senate, through its Foreign Affairs Committee, is expected to conduct confirmation hearing for President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s nominee for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madam Sara Beyslow Nyanti.
Last Thursday, nominee Nyanti’s confirmation hearing at the Capitol Building, the seat of the National Legislature, was postponed to today, 5, February, 2024, by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
The Committee, through its Chairman, Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darius Dillon, cited a number of reasons for the postponement, including security, purported blunder by the Secretary of the Senate, who reportedly allowed many strange individuals to sit in the official seats of some Senators in the Chamber of the Upper House of the Country’s bicameral Legislature who were awaiting proper arrangement for participation in nominee Sara Beyslow Nyanti’s confirmation hearing.
Since her nomination to the crucial Foreign Minister Post, Madam Sara Beyslow Nyanti, a high-profiled former official of the United Nations (UN), of Liberian nationality, has attracted much public interest as a result of the chains of accusations levied against her by a legally accredited local advocacy group, identified as Academic Crime Court, startlingly indicating that nominee Beyslow Nyanti has fraudulent academic credentials, and as such, she is not qualified and suitable to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Liberia.
On the other hand, nominee Sara Beyslow Nyanti has categorically rejected the claims of fraud and falsification made against her by the Academic Crime Court, terming them as untrue and misleading. She also vowed to defend her integrity and credibility as well as the authenticity, genuineness, and validity of her academic credentials during today’s confirmation hearing.
For us, at The INDEPENDENT Newspaper, we think both nominee Nyanti and the Academic Crime Court deserve listening ears.
This is why nominee Sara Beyslow should be given sufficient time by the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to not only provide much needed clarity on her academic credentials and how, if confirmed, as Foreign Minister, she would help to articulate Liberia’s Foreign Policy to the outside World.
On the other hand, we think it would be fair, just, and prudent, for the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee to provide the leadership of the Academic Crimes Court the rare opportunity to provide before the august body much-needed clues as regards its allegations against Presidential nominee Sara Beyslow and why she should not be confirmed as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
In this way, we think, the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee of the Honorable Liberian Senate will have a clear, impartial and detailed understanding of the situation bordering on the much-heralded dishonest credentials and incompetence accusation made against nominee Sara Beyslow Nyanti.
In our candid view, the Senate needs to exercise maximum due diligence, prudence, carefulness, forethought and farsightedness in the scrutiny of not only Madam Sara Beyslow Nyanti but also all presidential nominees.
We think that this will go a long way in determining whether or not allegations, protests, /or opposition against some presidential nominees are the pure designs and handiworks of some ‘behind the curtains individuals, groups, and other invisible hands’ against their perceived opponents for the purpose of winning political capital at the expense of their hard-won professional integrity, credibility and trust of targeted nominees for personal aggrandizement.
We also recommend that after any confirmation hearings, any presidential nominee who proved to be wanting and or/ ineligible should be categorically rejected for the position for which he/she had been nominated by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai. In the words of President Boakai himself, there should be “no business as usual.”
