By Sidiki Fofana | Truth in Ink
In Liberia, no word is uttered more by presidents, and believed less by citizens, than accountability. It is the sacred promise every new leader makes, often at the peak of public hope, only to become the most tragic betrayal as time unfolds. President Joseph Boakai now stands where every Liberian president before him has stood: at the crossroads between genuine reform and political survival.
From the country’s earliest days, corruption has been both a stain and a scapegoat. In 1871, President Edward James Roye was violently removed and later killed, reportedly after squandering a $500,000 British loan. Decades later, President C.D.B. King would resign in disgrace after the League of Nations found his government guilty of forced labor and systemic graft.
Then came President Samuel Doe, The corruption narrative continued into the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) era, with Master Sergeant Samuel Doe justifying the 1980 coup d’état by citing rampant graft under President William R. Tolbert Jr.
”The government is corrupt from top to bottom,” Doe claimed in his early broadcasts. Ironically, the PRC would later become synonymous with nepotism and embezzlement. When the Liberian civil war broke out in 1989, one of its central justifications again centered on state corruption, a grievance Charles Taylor exploited to legitimize his insurrection.
Every leader in Liberia’s modern history, from Taylor to Sirleaf, Weah to Boakai, has vowed to “clean the system.” But as one analyst noted, “Each time a leader rises on the promise of anti-corruption, their will weakens in the face of political expediency.”
Today, Liberians still demand justice. But they also ask a troubling question: Is this accountability, or just another political witch-hunt?
The dilemma in Liberia’s endless fight against corruption is that when officials are named in audit reports, the response is often spin, not prosecution.
And so, we draw a picture of What Should Accountability Look Like: Liberia must learn to distinguish between:
- Legal accountability, where due process and evidence drive prosecutions;
- Political vendetta, where opponents are targeted to silence dissent;
- Institutional reform, where agencies are empowered, not politicized.
As Nelson Mandela once noted:
“A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy.”
President Boakai’s administration has taken early steps, including investigations and strong public declarations. But the path he walks is narrow and treacherous. The very institutions tasked with upholding accountability, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), the judiciary, the auditor general, are underfunded, politically compromised, and too often paralyzed by fear or favor. We have the laws, yes, but not the consistent will to enforce them. Legal scholar Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe once remarked:
“You cannot fight corruption with corrupted institutions. When the referee is on the payroll of the player, there is no fair game.”
The problem is deeper than law. It is political and psychological. In Liberia, fighting corruption is often perceived not as a neutral civic duty but as a political strategy. If your ally is exposed, it’s sabotage. If your rival is indicted, it’s justice. That double standard has turned the fight against corruption into a performance, and the public no longer claps.
This is the contradiction Boakai must resolve. To succeed, he must ensure that his fight is not selective, cosmetic, or vengeful. It must be system-wide. It must be impartial. And it must be courageous, but caution.
It is not lost on us that Liberians yearn for a holistic and deliberate fight against corruption. In fact, Truth in Ink welcomes this effort and calls on all Liberians to embrace it; as a necessary step toward building a culture of accountability, one that is not only free of witch-hunts, but even the perception of such.
Let those found to be evidently involved be held liable. But our support is for prosecution, not persecution. We stand for justice, not vengeance. Therefore, we urge President Boakai to get this right for once, not for applauds, but for the sake of posterity.
This requires more than speeches. It demands actions that build public trust:
- First, depoliticize the institutions. Anti-corruption bodies must be allowed to investigate and prosecute independently, even if the target sits within the president’s inner circle.
- Second, protect the judiciary. Judges must rule without fear of political reprisal or financial compromise. A weak court is a friend to impunity.
- Third, involve the public. Budget transparency, civic education, and citizen watchdogs should be funded and empowered to hold all public servants accountable, not just at election time, or to secure political advantage, but always.
- Fourth, call in the world. International partners have a role to play in supporting anti-graft mechanisms, training prosecutors, and helping build forensic and audit capacity.
Because make no mistake: this is not just about corruption. It’s about Liberia’s future. A country where stealing is normalized, and justice is selective, cannot progress. It cannot attract serious investors. It cannot build trust. It cannot endure.
As the late Dr. Amos Sawyer once warned, “When impunity becomes the norm, governance is replaced by survival.” And for too long, Liberia has simply been trying to survive
President Boakai has a chance to write a different story. But he must resist the temptations that trapped his predecessors: political protection, selective justice, and fear of losing loyalists. Liberia has seen this movie before.
The people are tired of the rerun. The people are tired of the rerun. They want lawful retribution, but not arbitrary punishment. The line between accountability and a witch-hunt is thin.
Therefore, your leadership while walking this walk, and taking up this fight must do so with courage, but also with caution guided by the rule of law.
