GOD SPEED AND GOOD LUCK, GLADYS JOHNSON

We welcome former Associate Supreme Court Justice Gladys Johnson’s leap from the high court to the rugged jungle of the national legislature with the hope that the high-profile presence she is likely to bring to the legislature, if elected will inspire a body of lawmakers to do right by the Liberian people by implementing and enacting laws that will improve post-war Liberia’s progress.

DEPARTING ASSOCIATE of the Supreme Court of Liberia, Gladys Johnson is embarking on a journey never before taken as she looks to make the transition from the high court bench to a seat in the National legislature.

JUSTICE JOHNSON made official what many have been speculating for months when she declared that she will be on the ballot for a seat in the legislature from her hometown in Grand Cape Mount County.

THE OUTGOING Associate Justice regarded as one of the seasoned and more experienced on the bench is hoping, if she is elected, to introduce a Jury Bill, where jurors taking bribe to thwart justice would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

WE WELCOME Justice Johnson’s leap from the high court to the rugged jungle of the national legislature with the hope that the high-profile presence she is likely to bring to the legislature, if elected will inspire a body of lawmakers to do right by the Liberian people by implementing and enacting laws that will improve post-war Liberia’s progress.

OVER THE COURSE of the past five years, Liberia has seen an unprecedented loss of faith in the judicial as well as the legislative branches of government.

PEOPLE LOOKING to the courts for legal remedy have left broken hearted while those seeking comfort in the legislative branch have been shattered at the level of performances of those elected to restore to a broken nation.

WE ARE GLAD that officials like the departing Associate Justice have seen flaws in the system and are willing to take bold steps to correct them.

“Each time I read the newspaper and hear that the judiciary is corrupt, it saddned me. Where people take millions of dollars intended for hospitals, or schools. One of the headlines in the newspaper was “big disgrace” in the judiciary, that’s worrying me,” Johnson lamented during her farewell ceremony at the high court last Thursday.

IT SADDENS US, too that U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report has once again given the judiciary branch a bad assessment in declaring that judges, jurors and lawyers are compromised financially when it comes to cases on the docket.

WHILE IT IS true that one person cannot change a system, it is comforting to note that the quest for change can be triggered by one person.

IT IS GOOD TO KNOW that that person, Gladys Johnson, in this case, is taking a leap of history-making proportions, becoming the first Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to contest a set in the national legislature.

JOHNSON’S MOTIVES are simple, use a serious legal flaw in Liberia to date as a stepping stone for a candidacy which could make a difference for the future of Liberia. For this, she gets our early vote and our support in her quest for a seat in the national legislature.

WE HOPE that when elected, the former Associate Justice will not fall prey to the system she is trying to change but will stand up to the system from within, in making changes that will make Liberia a better nation where each and everyone can feel proud and enable all to once again restore faith and trust in the judicial and legislative branches of government without the fear or uncertainty that has cast a dark eye on Liberia’s quest to rebuild its broken system after a brutal civil war.