Liberia, Aug. 17 -- A Vice President and a Senate Pro Tempore are both eyeing 2029, and both have reasons to want this port law to go their way. Neither reason has anything to do with fixing the security gaps still sitting inside it

WE DO NOT BEGRUDGE LIBERIAN POLITICIANS for looking ahead to 2029. Every democracy runs on ambition, and a Vice President and a Senate Pro Tempore each positioning for a future national ticket is not, on its own, a scandal. What should concern every Liberian is what sits underneath that positioning: a rivalry between Vice President Jeremiah Koung and Senate Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence that appears to be shaping how the port decentralization bill was written, whose interests it serves, and how quickly...