Boakai Reshuffles Defense and Commerce Ministries, Suspends Gender Deputy
The Capitol Building in Monrovia, seat of Liberia's legislature (file photo; not the Defense or Commerce ministries, illustrative of the Liberian government). Photo: David Stanley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
President Joseph Boakai named acting ministers at Defense and Commerce and suspended a Gender Ministry deputy for 60 days without pay, in a fresh round of government changes announced September 11.
President Joseph Boakai announced a new round of government changes on September 11, naming Cllr. Oswald Natu Tweh as Acting Minister of National Defense in place of Geraldine J. George, and Stephen Marka Yekeson Jr. as Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry in place of Magdalene E. Dagoseh. Both outgoing ministers are expected to be reassigned elsewhere in government rather than dropped from the administration, continuing a pattern from earlier reshuffles this month.
The same announcement disclosed a 60-day unpaid suspension for Frederick S. Cooper, Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. The Executive Mansion said the suspension followed "conduct it considers incompatible with Cooper's role as a public official," without detailing the specific allegations.
Boakai used the changes to underline a broader accountability message, warning that "conduct undermining government integrity or public trust won't be tolerated." The statement echoes language from the president's earlier justice ministry reshuffle in September, which was likewise framed as strengthening institutional performance rather than responding to a single scandal.
The Defense and Commerce changes come as the administration juggles several fronts at once - from the Lone Star's AFCON qualifying campaign to an ongoing push to resolve non-performing loans in the banking sector - and add to a month in which Boakai has touched nearly every major ministry through appointments, reassignments or disciplinary action.