MONROVIA – Former Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Yuoh has revealed that repeated efforts to establish coordination between Liberia’s Judiciary and the Executive Branch during the preparation of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development failed, leaving the Judiciary’s own reform priorities largely outside the national development framework.
Yuoh made the disclosure Thursday, September 10, 2026, while speaking at the Central Bank of Liberia’s National Non-Performing Loans Resolution Conference at the EJS Ministerial Complex in Congo Town.
Her account provides a different dimension to the debate over the AAID. Rather than simply criticizing what is contained in the national development plan, the former Chief Justice questioned the process through which the plan was developed and said opportunities existed for the Executive and Judiciary to coordinate but were not successfully pursued.
According to Yuoh, she personally attempted to create a channel between the two branches during the formulation of the AAID. She said she initiated meetings involving the then Minister of State and the Court Administrator and also engaged the Dean of the Cabinet in an effort to establish coordination.
But those efforts, she said, proved futile.
Yuoh argued that the situation could have been different if there had been what she described as good faith, coordination and collaboration between the branches of government.
She said the Judiciary already had a Five-Year Strategic Plan that could have been incorporated into the AAID, giving the national development agenda a clearer roadmap for judicial reform, institutional strengthening and modernization of the justice system.
Instead, she said, the Judiciary was not adequately consulted even though it was placed under the AAID’s Rule of Law Pillar.
“I’m compelled to safely say that, from my experience, the document did not do the Judiciary any good,” Yuoh said.
The former Chief Justice’s comments raise questions about how national development resources intended to strengthen the rule of law are identified and allocated when the institution responsible for delivering justice is not sufficiently involved in setting the priorities.
Yuoh noted that the Judiciary depends on development grants and other assistance that pass through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. In her view, this made coordination between the Executive and Judiciary even more important during the preparation of the national development agenda.
She said she had presented the Judiciary’s strategic plan to the Executive, providing an opportunity for its reform priorities to become part of the country’s development framework.
The former Chief Justice nevertheless stopped short of presenting the issue as one that cannot be resolved. Instead, she called for direct dialogue between the Executive and Judiciary over the future of the justice system.
Her recommendation comes as Liberia continues to confront questions about access to justice, institutional capacity, court administration and the ability of the Judiciary to operate effectively while maintaining its constitutional independence.
