The practice by past and present governments in appointing Presidential Advisers to work and advise the President at State House has become a norm in our body polity.
The individuals appointed to those positions are usually crafted with terms of reference duplicating with the functions of Ministries, Departments and Agencies created by the Constitution.
‘’We are most times not able to draw the line between these Presidential advisers, the Parliamentary Oversight Committees and the MDAs constitutionally created for such purposes as far roles are concerned.
Even though the job of Presidential advisers are done confidentially, the happenings around certain sectors, for example security sometimes lead us to ponder whether really the Presidential Adviser on Security with his wealth of knowledge on post-war security and early warning signals, has done much to advise the President on the need to curb the spate of lawlessness, killings and lapses from the primary security players in the country.
This is more sensitive against the backdrop that the President has lawlessness as one of his three peaceful wars.
In the past one year we have seen and witnessed major security breaches leading to the attack on the residences of Judges, COI Judges, senior state citizens and the Liberian National Football team.
Even though the initial responsibility rests on the shoulders of the primary security players, but the Presidential Adviser has the arduous task of studying the patterns of security breaches in the country and come out with sustainable plans to nip such happenings in the bud.
The attack on the Liberian National Team has had serious impact on the strides already taken by government to revive football in a country that has not played the game for over ten years.
The country is also set to lose thousands of dollars and also going to play a whole match behind closed doors as penalty imposed on it for endangering the lives of members of the Liberian Football team and officials.
This state of affairs is bad for a country trying to rebrand its image internationally.
This could have been averted had we got a very good strategy to counter all the security lapses that have surrounded our security sector for the past one year.
This piece is not intended to only focus on the security sector adviser but to also point out what is obtaining across the other sectors, vis a vis advisers that should guide the President in those sectors.
We are not sure whether they have been really advising the President on happenings around the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies against his highly busy schedule.
The business of governing is so huge and challenging that the office of the Presidential advisers and many others are created to help the Presidency, except if such is done and he does not listen.
The various Presidential Advisers, be it on Security, Ambassador at large, Cultural Affairs etc. should be able to have listening ears to catch up with what happens in the various Ministries, Agencies and Departments and advise the President accordingly.
Things are not all that too rosy in many areas and it is highly likely that the President is not brought to speed with happenings in those areas and it is the business of the Presidential Advisers to advise the President.
This is why our tax payers’ monies are apportioned to them.
It would be a disservice to us as a people if they are enjoying these monies and doing sweet nothing to promote the aspirations of the President.
Those Presidential Advisers at State House!
