By: Ephraim T. Nyumah
In every democracy, numbers can either illuminate truth or be weaponized to mislead. Unfortunately, the recent Facebook post by Comrade Martin Kollie falls squarely into the latter category. In a Facebook post, he claimed that “From 2024 to 2026, US$155 million has been budgeted/spent on the Ministry of Justice, but no one has been sent to jail for looting the country. This statement is a flaw as the conclusion fails to support the premise. It is not only inaccurate; it is a calculated distortion designed to provoke anger, undermine confidence, and unfairly discredit the current leadership of the Ministry of Justice, headed by Cllr. Tweh. Mr. Kollie’s claim collapses under the weight of facts. It relies on a false premise that the Ministry of Justice received US$155 million for prosecution purposes alone, and that this amount was squandered without results. This is not an innocent mistake; It is propaganda and partisan sentiment.
To understand why Mr. Kollie’s claim is false, one must first understand how Liberia’s national budget is structured. The Ministry of Justice does not stand alone as a single spending entity. It falls under the broader Security and Rule of Law Sector, a sector that includes multiple institutions with distinct mandates, leadership structures, and operational responsibilities. Within the Ministry of Justice, you have the Liberia National Police, the Liberia Immigration Service, the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, the Liberia National Fire Service, the National Police Training Academy, and the Central Administration of the Ministry of Justice itself, which is headed by the Attorney General, Cllr. Oswald N. Tweh.
Many of these institutions are autonomous. They are not directly managed by the Attorney General; their heads are presidential appointees. Yet, all their expenditures, ranging from border control and police patrols to fire services, prison management, training, fuel, and logistics, are captured under the same budget line coded in the national budget 202-Ministry of Justice. This distinction is critical because without it, the entire argument advanced by Mr. Kollie falls apart.
Now, let’s look at what portion of US$155 million was spent on the central administration of the Ministry of Justice and or prosecution. For the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, the Government of Liberia spent approximately US$93.6 million on the Ministry of Justice (the Liberia National Police, the Liberia Immigration Service, the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency, the Liberia National Fire Service, the National Police Training Academy, and the Central Administration of the Ministry of Justice) and for 2026, the Legislature has allotted US$62.1 million. These figures cover the full spectrum of justice and security operations nationwide. They were never intended as prosecution-only funds. To suggest otherwise is to deliberately blur institutional lines and mislead the public.
When the numbers are properly disaggregated, a very different and far more honest picture emerges. Of the US$ 93.6 million allocated and spent by the Ministry of Justice for 2024 and 2025, only US$17.4 million was spent by the Central Administration, inclusive of prosecution. Within the US$17.4 million, only US$731,138 was allotted and spent for prosecution in the last two years of the Unity Party Administration. This means, for 2024, 2025, and 2026, only about 0.7 percent of the Ministry of Justice budget has been spent or allotted for prosecution, not the entire figure as presented by Mr. Kollie. The US$155 million funds the operation of the Palace of Correction, rehabilitation services, codification, economic affairs, administrative functions, and general policy coordination.
Out of the entire justice-sector budget over two years, less than one percent, or about 0.7%, was spent or allocated to prosecution. Even within the Central Administration itself, prosecution accounted for only about four percent of spending. Therefore, there was no US$155 million prosecution budget. What truly exists is a severely underfunded prosecution expected to deliver justice under strict legal standards.
Despite low funding for prosecution, the current Ministry of Justice under Cllr. Oswald N. Tweh has delivered results that speak louder than rhetoric. We prove this by comparing the CDC’s first two years’ spending on prosecution and the achievement with the Unity Party’s first two years’ spending on prosecution and the result according to data from past national budgets.
During the first two years of the CDC government, approximately US$3.88 million was spent on prosecution, more than five times what the Unity Party had spent in its first two years. With that larger budget, the CDC administration promised accountability and punishment for corruption. However, what materialized or stood out as achievements in practice were largely audit reports, payroll verifications, and administrative investigations. These processes are not successful criminal prosecutions. They generate evidence; they do not themselves amount to successful prosecutions or convictions.
In sharp contrast to the record of the CDC administration, the Ministry of Justice under the Unity Party has delivered tangible prosecutorial results while operating on a dramatically smaller budget. The current leadership has moved beyond audit reports and rhetorical commitments to produce outcomes that withstand judicial scrutiny.
In 2024, within about two terms of court, the Ministry of Justice successfully prosecuted and won 52 criminal cases, suffering only a minimal number of losses. This performance reflects deliberate case screening, improved prosecutorial strategy, and strengthened collaboration with law enforcement agencies, not just speaking loudly and writing on Facebook.
The Ministry further distinguished itself by securing Liberia’s first-ever piracy convictions, a landmark achievement that elevated the country’s criminal justice system to international standards. This result required sophisticated legal expertise, coordination with international partners, and strict adherence to complex evidentiary and procedural requirements—an accomplishment no previous administration achieved.
For 2025 alone, the Ministry of Justice, within three terms of court, filed 305 indictments, prosecuted 96 cases, and secured 60 convictions, achieving about a 62 percent conviction rate. In parallel, prosecutors resolved 37 cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution and concluded six cases through plea bargaining, which demonstrates a strategic use of modern prosecutorial tools to deliver justice efficiently while reducing court congestion. Additionally, the Ministry successfully defended and won five major cases before the ECOWAS Court that saved the government millions of dollars and safeguarded Liberia’s legal and sovereign interests at the regional level.
These facts expose the weakness of the claim or perception that only justice requires the arrest or public humiliation of former officials. I repeat that a criminal prosecution is a legal process, not a political performance driven by emotion or partisan pressure. The law demands evidence, due process, and cases capable of withstanding judicial scrutiny; anything less would collapse in court and ultimately reinforce injustice. What citizens, including Mr. Kollie, should rightly expect, and what the current Ministry of Justice is delivering, is credible prosecution that produces convictions, strengthens public trust, and upholds the rule of law. By this, the current leadership of the Ministry of Justice is demonstrating a clear commitment to legality over populism, substance over showmanship, and results over propaganda that is driven by competence, discipline, and respect for due process.
Also, the performance of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency under the current Minister of Justice further reinforces this record. Despite operating within the same limited fiscal environment, the agency expanded its operational presence to all fifteen counties, conducted unprecedented narcotics seizures worth hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars, secured hundreds of arrests, obtained dozens of indictments, and achieved convictions involving both Liberian and foreign nationals. These are not theoretical achievements; they are measurable enforcement outcomes.
When the spending on prosecution is placed side by side, the contrast is stark. The CDC administration spent more on prosecution but produced fewer courtroom results. The Unity Party administration spent far less but delivered convictions, case wins, international legal successes, and institutional reforms. This is not a matter of partisan interpretation; it is a matter of record and law.
I feel the only reason why the current leadership of the Ministry of Justice seems not to be working is that former government officials of the CDC are not behind bars. Such thinking reveals nothing but a deeper misunderstanding of how justice works. Prosecution is not a political rally where results are announced on a timetable set by public anger. It is a legal process governed by evidence, procedure, and judicial independence. No Minister of Justice, no matter how well-intentioned, can lawfully jail someone simply because they are perceived to be corrupt or politically unpopular. To do so would be to abandon the rule of law and return Liberia to an era of arbitrary justice.
In fact, the restraint shown by the current Ministry of Justice is evidence of strength, not weakness. By insisting on proper investigations, admissible evidence, and due process, the Ministry is ensuring that when prosecutions are brought, they are sustainable and not easily overturned. It is a public record that rushed, politically motivated cases often collapse in court, ultimately reinforcing impunity rather than dismantling it. For instance, in 2019, the CDC administration charged and indicted the late Charles Sirleaf and others on allegations of economic sabotage and publicly paraded them in an orange prison uniform for political goals; yet in less than a year, all charges were dropped, and they walked free. This is a clear outcome that underscores the dangers of publicity-driven prosecutions unsupported by sustainable evidence.
Liberia does not need louder accusations or sensational claims. It needs a justice system that works carefully, lawfully, and fairly. On that measure, the current Ministry of Justice is not only doing well; it is laying the foundation for justice that will endure long after political slogans have faded. Besides, the leadership of the Ministry of Justice under Cllr. Oswald N. Tweh deserves to be judged on facts, not propaganda. With one of the smallest prosecution budgets in recent history, the Ministry has delivered convictions, improved success rates, and expanded access to justice domestically. That is not failure. It is disciplined governance.
The truth is now unmistakable; the US$155 million claim by Mr. Kollie is a political fiction, not a legal or fiscal reality. Less than one percent of the Ministry of Justice budget went to prosecution, yet under Cllr. Oswald N. Tweh’s leadership, despite limited funding, has produced many convictions, landmark cases, and measurable justice outcomes that far exceed those of better-funded predecessors. Justice in a constitutional democracy is not delivered by noise, name-calling, or partisan outrage. Instead, it is delivered by evidence, discipline, and respect for the rule of law. History will remember this moment not for Facebook propaganda, but for a Ministry that chose legality over populism and results over rhetoric, and that choice, however inconvenient for critics, is exactly how real justice is built.
About the Author
Ephraim T. Nyumah holds a B.Sc. in Economics and is a current 3rd Year Law Student at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law and a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Economics, University of Liberia
He can be reached at thepeopleinterest@gmail.com
