Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh says he was deliberately pushed to the margins of the Boakai administration by political allies who resented his influence after the 2023 presidential runoff, a coordinated effort he says he chose not to fight, stepping back on his own terms rather than compete for proximity to power.
Speaking Tuesday on the OK Conversation on OKFM 99.5, the former Finance minister turned independent senator offered his most candid account yet of his relationship with the Unity Party administration he helped elect, the controversy over his Senate floor remarks on Guinea's military strength, his abstention on the Ivanhoe Mining agreement, and growing concerns about economic hardship, border security and governance accountability.
"When people saw what I did, when I met with President Boakai, he made one request, he said, 'I want you to help me protect the vote,"' Konneh said. "There was no quid pro quo. I never made any demand and he never made any promises to me."
Konneh said he served as coordinator of the Boakai campaign in the second round of the 2023 election and accompanied the president-elect on his post-victory trip to Washington. But he said political allies who had not been included in the trip turned against him, blaming him for their exclusion.
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"They saw Amara Konneh as the obstacle," he said. "The same influence he had with Ellen, he was about to start here. They came back, and they just started planning all kinds of bad stuff about me. I got text messages on my phone from people who were saying things I didn't want to know about."
Rather than fight for influence, Konneh said he made a deliberate decision to withdraw. "I came with good intention, with a clean heart to help the old man to win. I decided on my own to give them the space to reap the benefit of their labor because I didn't return to Liberia to be a part of that."
He said he had also stepped away from the transition team one week before it concluded to avoid a conflict of interest. "I wanted to focus on the Senate so that when people came for confirmation, I could do my own due diligence before I gave them my vote."
The Guinea Remarks
Senator Konneh pushed back firmly against accusations that he betrayed national security interests when he praised Guinea's military capacity during Senate budget deliberations, saying his remarks were driven entirely by concern that the Armed Forces of Liberia were being dangerously underfunded.
"The executive branch submitted a draft budget for the Armed Forces of Liberia of $600,000," he said. "You can check the draft budget online. For us to be working on our borders, we all applaud the diplomatic approach, but you have to repair the roof when the sun is shining. We are up against a more powerful aggressor in number, size and equipment. The idea was to raise urgency around financing our military so they can begin to rise up to the same level."
He rejected accusations that his Mandingo ethnicity colored his remarks or his loyalties. "I'm a Mandingo man and I did not choose to be one, even though I'm very proud to be one. When the war came, I had never left this country. I was born on my mother's kitchen floor in Gbarpolu County in 1971. The only time I went beyond Monrovia was in junior high school for a football game."
He said when the war came and he fled, Guineans were not receptive to Liberian refugees of Mandingo descent. "I became like the Germany and Austria 1940 Jew who had no place to go until I was opportuned to go to the U.S. So when you hear me talk about this, I've lived this experience."
He confirmed that Guinean soldiers now occupy the contested border area that Liberian civilians had moved to plant the national flag. "When we all saw young Liberians with sticks and cutlasses going to that spot, we were all proud. They could have been shot. But they were patriotic." He said the Senate had yet to receive an official security briefing on the matter and called for one upon their return to session. "All this noise we're hearing that the Guineans are still occupying our territory is something that our government needs to inform the people's elected representatives so that we can find a way to support his diplomatic efforts while we build our military strength."
On the clash with his Senate colleague, Konneh said he was surprised Senator Nyan Twayen took the dispute to social media rather than the Senate floor. "Senator Twayen and I are very good colleagues. I was just surprised at his outburst. If you watch the video, he raised order when I was speaking. The presiding officer didn't think I was doing anything wrong. She asked me to continue. I thought he would have raised his hand and argued me there, because in that room is where we speak our mind. But he didn't do that."
The Ivanhoe Abstention
Konneh also addressed his abstention on the Ivanhoe Mining agreement, which a published report had attributed to his relationship with an ArcelorMittal consultant who formerly served as his deputy at the Ministry of Finance.
"That's very interesting. I'm just hearing that for the first time," he said when the passage was read to him. He categorically denied the characterization. "It had no part to play on my decision to abstain. The singular reason was that no one from the executive branch showed us that any dialogue was taking place between the governments of Liberia and Guinea regarding moving Guinean ore through a Liberian port. I saw that as a red flag."
He said a Senate committee report on the agreement, led by Senator Saad Joseph, was never read in plenary, depriving the public of the basis for the vote. "We deprived the Liberian people of the opportunity to hear the findings in that report so they could benefit from understanding why we were taking the decisions we were taking. That is something we can correct in the future."
Economic Hardship and Concession Reform
Konneh acknowledged widespread economic hardship during a recent constituency visit to the remote Bokumu District of Gbarpolu County, his first since the election. He said fuel price increases were the primary driver of rising commodity costs, compounding the logistical disadvantages of rural communities.
"When people in districts like Bokumu come to Bopolu City and cannot get certain commodities there, they have to come all the way to Monrovia. Getting the commodities to that part of the country costs a lot of money and they will mark up the price to break even, if not make a profit," he said.
He credited the government with achieving macroeconomic stability but said the gains had not translated into improved living conditions. "We are stuck in what I would call the Malthusian trap, when your population grows faster than your economy, no matter what you do, everyone is not going to be happy because the resources are not enough."
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He acknowledged the legislature's failure to adequately renegotiate concession agreements as economic conditions improved. "That's a valid argument and something you cannot dispute. When you bring investors in and give them incentives to get to a break-even point, when they start making profit, the country should be getting more than even the investor in certain cases. But we are not doing that."
Kolubah Due Process Controversy
Senator Konneh weighed in on the expulsion proceedings against Rep. Yekeh Kolubah, for which he drew criticism from the House after calling the process "madness."
"I still stand by my principle that Yekeh was not accorded due process under our constitution," he said. "When I watched the proceeding, Kolubah's lawyers were not allowed to defend him. He was told his lawyers would have to speak through him. We should not allow that to happen in our proceedings, we are denying him a major privilege the due process clause in the Constitution gave him."
He acknowledged the choice of word was a mistake. "I said it is culturally unacceptable in Liberia. I take full responsibility for the use of that word. But using the word madness, they interpreted that as craziness. That's where the letter came from."
An independent who says he has talked with figures across Liberia's political spectrum, including attending a ceremony hosted by former President George Manneh Weah, Konneh was non-committal about his political future but left the door open. "I can never say never, but we'll continue to play our role in providing critical voices on governance to the extent that things don't improve. If they don't, then we'll have to make a decision at that point."
