MR. PRESIDENT: PLEASE LISTEN TO THE ANTI-CORRUPTION CRIES FROM WITHIN

Monrovia, Liberia-IT IS OVER A YEAR since President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, elected in 2023 in a dramatic election, was sworn in to head and lead Africa’s oldest independent Republic so scarred by plethora of eventful occurrences said to be largely spurred bad governance and cancerous corruption.

Monrovia, Liberia-IT IS OVER A YEAR since President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, elected in 2023 in a dramatic election, was sworn in to head and lead Africa’s oldest independent Republic so scarred by plethora of eventful occurrences said to be largely spurred bad governance and cancerous corruption.

Electing him over the person who was already in the driver seat was not purely on the pedestals of his handsomeness or a member of the political elite class that dominated the country’s socio-economic and political climate. It was fundamentally fulcrumed on his electoral message that resonated well with Liberians, who felt the need to try other side of the political coin in the midst of what they considered to be extremely counter-productive to their wishes, aspirations and expectations for a new day in their living standards, and a new day in the affairs of the country.   

 

IN CANDIDATE BOAKAI MESSAGE that so resonated well was the pledge to change things around, bring about complete transformation, not to do business as usual, to make corruption complete state enemy, to create employment opportunities, to improve the living standards of citizens, to ensure inflation is put under an unshakable control and many others. Indeed, these were the shrouds of the mantra “RESCUE MISSION. Even after the election and his inauguration, the President has never ceased assuring Liberians of his firm commitment to ensuring that these values are inculcated in the national psyche, and that he would go at every length to pursue them. If these reassurances were in the form of a good pendulum, Liberians would have thirsted not any longer. They would have been filled by now in the first twelve months of the presidency of the most “experienced public official” that ever occupied the office of President of the Republic.

 IT WOULD CERTAINLY BE disingenuous to suggest and assume that nothing has been done under President Boakai’s one-year presidency: Equally so, it would be fair to indicate that what is done is by far less than those things yet to be done. The establishment of the office of war and economic crimes court, the activation of the Office of Ombudsman, declaration of assets, setting up of an asset recovery taskforce, declaration of drugs and narcotic substances as emergency public health, the trial of former government officials for alleged corruption, the dismissal or suspension of people deemed to have played foul in their respective duties, the focus on agriculture reorientation, and many others are significant steps that signaled a sense of good leadership in the Liberian leader.

 

WHILE THESE EFFORTS DESERVE appreciation and are critical to the fulfillment of the President’s agenda, we have been awakened to the daily rattling cries of corruption in the government, cries that are not solely coming from members of the opposition community, but also from within the ranks and file or the bailiwick of the very government. Even the children that are still in their mothers’ placenta, waiting to be born are disturbed by the rancorous anti-corruption wailings and discontentment; the highest ever to encounter about a sitting government. Though, we don’t intend to lecture the President, an erudite public servant, leadership, but it is conventional that leaders take seize of the issues frequently voiced out or spoken against. Apart from interminable claims and bashing of him not respecting the rule of law, a key pillar of the AID – the government’s development compass – the issue of corruption plaguing the government is also thunderously revolting. 

IT IS MORE THAN concerning when the ruling Unity Party that is known for bragging about distinctiveness and remarkableness in governance issues is ranging alarm bells about corruption, and President Boakai is not seeing or showing the iron-fist he has been showing in sacking or suspending officials for acts of impropriety dissonant to his avowed and professed agenda of “not doing business as usual.” For example, a party loyalist in Queen Johnson, has accused the President of fostering widespread corruption within his administration, in reference to ministers and managing directors he has appointed. Besides decrying lack of employment opportunities for partisans of the Unity Party, Johnson alleged that appointments in government were marked by corruption and poor management. She declared that all the ministers and managing directors appointed by President Boakai are corrupt, and that there is systemic wrongdoing across all ministries. Apart from her, Unity Party Chairman, Rev. Luther Tarpeh called on the President to take seize of the reported corruption at the Liberia Telecommunication Authority, calling for the arrest and prosecution of the current LTA boss and the former commissioners in keeping with the GSA audits that discovered widespread malfeasances.

CERTAINLY, IT IS HARD time President Boakai listened to the cries of both his partisans, the opposition community and civil society advocates, craving his actions against alleged corruption in his administration. We fervently recall his riveting comments about his introspection of the presidency, that it is not about the title of president, but his desire to see Liberia transformed. He has not spoken positive of his predecessors’ handling of the country, because he believes they had enough opportunities to respond to the needs of the country and its citizens. Under his watch, the needs of the country and the citizens still persist, and it is only behooving of him to take the radical, practical and realistic steps , pursue revolutionary policies that make his pledge acceptably and genuinely realistic. It is no longer the opposition accusing the government of corruption, even his own party and partisans are having uneasy calm. Mr. President: Please listen to the anti-corruption cries from within.

Comments are closed.