Claim: Boakai has no legal right to appoint an Executive Director at the National Identification Registry.
Verdict: True, President Joseph Boakai is in error in nominating Edward Liberty as the new Executive Director at NIR.
Full Text: The Executive Director of the National Identification Registry (NIR), Andrew Peters, claimed that President Joseph Nyuma Boakai does not have the legal authority to nominate the NIR.
Peters argues that according to the Act that allows the establishment of the institution by the legislature, it is under the chairmanship of the Minister of Internal Affairs that it is clothed with the authority to appoint an Executive Director for the N.I.R. to run the day-to-day affairs of the entity for a four-year tenure, not the President.
Boakai, on February 20, 2024, nominated Dr. Edward Liberty as Executive Director of the Registry to replace Peters.
Verification: The Stage Media checked the 2011 NIR Act of the Legislature that established the entity.
According to the Act establishing the NIR, the entity shall be governed by a Board of Registrars, charged with the responsibility of, among others, appointing the institution’s management team, which includes an Executive Director, a Deputy Executive Director for Technical Affairs, a Deputy Executive Director for Administration and Managers, as the Board of Registrars may determine.
Part V, Section 5.3 of the NIR Act states: “The Executive Director shall be appointed by the Board of Registrars, shall have a term of four (4) years, and shall be eligible for reappointment.”
Peters assumed the position of Executive Director in 2023 and therefore has served for seven (7) months, with three (3) years and three (3) months remaining in his tenure.
Conclusion: The President cannot nominate the Executive Director of the National Identification Registry. Therefore, Liberty’s appointment to NIR violates the act.
