Ministry of National Defense (Liberia)

The Ministry of National Defense (MOD) is the government ministry responsible for the maintenance of the national defense and the governance of the military of Liberia, the Armed Forces of Liberia. The current Minister of National Defense is Hon. Maj. Gen. Daniel Dee Ziankahn, Jr. (Rtd).[1] Hon. Tibli Olandrus Dickson is the current Deputy Minister for Administration.[2] [3] The Ministry's three-story building used to be located on Benson Street in downtown Monrovia, but upon the conclusion of the DynCorp army training effort in Liberia, moved to the Barclay Training Center, also located in central Monrovia, in July 2009. In early August 2009 the Ministry's Comptroller was dismissed, apparently for misappropriating US $50,000 intended for paying soldiers of the rebuilt AFL.[4]

Hon. Brownie J. Samukai served as Defense Minister during Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's Unity Party administration from 2006 to 2017. Daniel Chea (DOB: 25 MAY 1958) was the Defense Minister under Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Party administration from 1997 to 2006. More than 150 Liberian government soldiers staged a protest demonstration against the re-appointment of Daniel Chea as Defense Minister in the NTGL, claiming he owed them more than two years of pay arrears.[5] They complained that Chea had failed to pay most government soldiers, giving priority to an elite force, the Anti-Terrorist Unit at the expense of the regular army.

Before the First Liberian Civil War, Harry A. Greaves served as Minister from 1976–78, M. B. Holder 1978–79, James Y. Gbabee 1979–80, Grey Allison, up to August 1989,[6] Boima Barclay 1989–90, fleeing Monrovia on 2 July 1990 (Huband, The Liberian Civil War), and during the war, J. Hezekiah Bowen 1995–97.[7]

An amendment to the Liberian Constitution allowed the previously-named War Department to be renamed the Department of National Defense on February 25, 1955.[8] Then, during the early years of the Tolbert Administration, all departments were renamed Ministries and thus the organization became the Ministry of National Defense.

See also

References
  1. Ministry, Front page
  2. http://www.mod.gov.lr/content.php. http://www.marshallcenter.org/mcpublicweb/en/component/content/article/4-cat-mc-news/653-art-mc-new-09-02.html, accessed 2018
  4. Corruption at Ministry of Defense? (Comptroller Sacked for 'Eating' US$50,000 Soldiers' Pay ), August 9, 2009
  5. "TLC Africa Internet Magazine". www.tlcafrica.com. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
  6. Stephen Ellis, The Mask of Anarchy, Hurst & Co., London, 2001, p.118. Allison was charged and later convicted of ritual killing. Ellis cited Kappel and Korte, Human Rights Violations in Liberia 1980–90: A Documentation, Liberia Working Group, Bremen, 1990, pp.223-5
  7. Ministry of National Defense (Liberia), Armed Forces Today, Vol. 2, No.1, February 11, 2008, p.21-23
  8. 'Looking at the LNG Brigade,' Armed Forces Day Brochure, 1973-74, Ministry of National Defense, via University of Liberia Library

Samuel Bennie Pearson became Defense Minister of Liberia in April 1980 before Gray Dio Allison.

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