United States, September 12, 2025: The Union of Liberian Associations within the Americas (ULAA), a physique lengthy revered because the nonpartisan voice of Liberians within the diaspora, is now beneath intense scrutiny after its sitting Nationwide Vice President, Mrs. Emmanuette G. Nagbe, accepted a partisan appointment with the opposition Residents Motion for Change (CMC) in the USA.
USA, September 12, 2025: Mrs. Nagbe was not too long ago named Chairperson of the Girls’s Wing for CMC-USA. This transfer has drawn sharp criticism from diaspora leaders who argue that ULAA’s management should stay politically impartial to protect the group’s founding rules and credibility as an unbiased watchdog for democracy, human rights, and good governance in Liberia.
One of many strongest critics of the choice is Mr. Sizi Goyah, Vice Chairman of the Group of Liberians in Minnesota (OLM), probably the most distinguished member group of ULAA.
“The Residents Motion for Change has appointed ULAA’s sitting Vice President to a partisan function. Based on the flyer for the upcoming ULAA Nationwide Conference, Musa Hassan Bility, the only proprietor of CMC, is listed because the keynote speaker. This isn’t a coincidence; it’s a harmful blurring of traces,” Goyah warned in a public assertion.
He cautioned that such developments undermine ULAA’s apolitical integrity, stressing that since its founding in 1974, the group has served as a impartial platform for Liberians overseas to advocate for nationwide reform with out partisan affect.
Goyah known as on CMC to withdraw Mrs. Nagbe’s appointment or for her to voluntarily resign from ULAA if she intends to carry partisan workplace.
“You can’t be a partisan chief and concurrently declare to characterize a nonpartisan diaspora establishment,” he mentioned, citing precedent from former ULAA Vice President Varney Sackey, who resigned after getting into lively politics in Liberia. “That was integrity. That was management.”
The Minnesota-based chief additional warned that failure to behave might set off drastic steps by OLM, together with:
A full boycott of ULAA’s nationwide actions
Suspension of monetary contributions to ULAA, doable reconsideration of OLM’s membership within the nationwide physique
“ULAA should stay unbiased, principled, and unsold. We won’t permit our establishments to be quietly co-opted not whereas we’re watching,” Goyah careworn.
A CMC press launch signed by Dr. Francien Chenoweth Richardson, the celebration’s World Chairperson, confirmed Mrs. Nagbe’s choice. Her function, in line with the discharge, contains mobilizing Liberian ladies throughout the USA to help CMC’s imaginative and prescient for political change in Liberia.
The discharge praised her “intensive expertise and affect in diaspora circles,” noting that her place in ULAA presents “strategic alternatives” to increase the celebration’s attain and visibility overseas.
Including to the controversy, her husband, Mr. Victor Nagbe, serves as each an govt of CMC-USA and the Chairman of ULAA’s Diaspora Affairs Committee, elevating additional issues about political entanglement.
Based in 1974, ULAA was created to function a nonpartisan umbrella group representing Liberians within the diaspora. Its mission has constantly centered on selling democracy, human rights, anti-corruption reforms, and civic engagement.
Whereas ULAA has traditionally engaged governments and political actors in Liberia, it has averted endorsing political events to safeguard its impartial standing. Presently, it stays unclear whether or not ULAA’s bylaws explicitly prohibit partisan actions by its officers, however diaspora leaders argue that even the notion of bias compromises the group’s integrity.
Thus far, ULAA’s President and Nationwide Govt Committee haven’t issued any official assertion addressing the controversy, leaving the talk to develop louder throughout diaspora platforms.
With the ULAA Nationwide Conference approaching and opposition determine Musa Bility set as keynote speaker observers say the controversy might deepen if management fails to handle issues of neutrality.
For a lot of, the central query stays: Will ULAA uphold its founding mission as a nonpartisan physique, or is it vulnerable to being pulled into the turbulent waters of partisan politics?
