By Sidiki Fofana | Truth in Ink
Eighteen months into the Unity Party government of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, the country is witnessing a troubling sequence -nearly every major project now being celebrated, commissioned, or paraded as a “Boakai achievement” was either conceived, initiated, or completed under the previous government of President George Manneh Weah and the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
From roads to schools, electricity expansion to administrative buildings, the Unity Party has conveniently adopted these projects, like a thief in the night taking credit for a neighbor’s harvest. And yet, curiously, it is the CDC that seems to be on the defensive, struggling to reclaim recognition for its own work.
We admit that government is continuity and development is cumulative. But when one government falsely markets inherited projects as new initiatives while doing little to advance its own original agenda, it becomes a case study in deception.
The only new projects visibly credited to the Boakai administration so far are some police booths, a few hand pumps, and touch-up renovations of aging buildings, hardly amount to the sweeping transformation he repeatedly promises in his speeches.
“Dis Nation Funny Yah” – The People Know: Even ordinary citizens have begun to voice their frustration.
“Dis nation funny yah,” said Ma Kumba, a market woman at Red Light. “I see them open that road and say it’s Boakai project. But I remember that thing start long time when Weah was president. They think we forget so quick?”
At Duala Market, Thomas Flomo, a university student, echoed the sentiment:
“The Unity Party is good at show and ribbon cutting, but they didn’t do the real work. The CDC government, for all its faults, built more than people gave them credit for. But CDC themselves acted like they were ashamed to talk about their own work.”
It’s a biting irony, a government that built but did not broadcast, and another that inherited but now boasts shamelessly. And in the middle of it all are the Liberian people, caught between manipulated narratives and institutional memory loss.
“They Can’t Even Name Their Own Projects” , Media Weighs In
A recent editorial in The Oracle Daily News asked a bold question:
“Why can’t the Boakai administration, with all its technocratic promises, point to a single major project started under its tenure?”
And FrontPage Africa, in a vague but clear jab, ran a piece noting that “nearly all high-profile infrastructure activities being dedicated today were financed or initiated under the Public Sector Investment Program prior to 2023.”
This mounting public and media scrutiny reveals a narrative, which is the Unity Party, facing mounting pressure to fulfill campaign promises, is resorting to the convenient option of rebranding the past as progress.
But this alone does not absolve the CDC.
The CDC’s Silence: A Tragic Flaw in Legacy Protection
If anyone deserves blame for allowing this deception to persist, it is the CDC itself. Despite overseeing a period of substantial infrastructural expansion, new community colleges, modernized hoyses, road networks, and health centers, and sporting facility, the party failed to enshrine these achievements in the public consciousness. It neglected the power of storytelling and legacy preservation.
As one veteran journalist put it during a Truth In Ink panel:
“The CDC ran a government like it was afraid to look successful. No promotional material. No aggressive recordkeeping. No media blitz. They allowed the opposition to define them, and now they are shocked that the same opposition is wearing their crown.”
Indeed, governance is not only about execution, it’s about communication. A government that cannot document or defend its own achievements cannot expect future recognition.
Even many within the CDC now admit this misstep privately. A youth league member who asked not to be named told Truth In Ink:
“We missed the opportunity to build a historical narrative around our work. We spent too much time reacting to insults instead of telling our story. Now the Unity Party is using our silence to their advantage.”
A Campaign of Deception Meets a Legacy of Silence
This moment in Liberia’s political history should be a turning point. Not just for the CDC, but for the broader electorate. The question we must ask is not simply “who built it?” but “why does the truth matter so little in our national memory?”
We must also interrogate why development politics is now reduced to ribbon-cutting ceremonies rather than transparent public accounting.
President Boakai must be challenged; what exactly has your administration initiated, start to finish, in the past 18 months? And equally, the CDC must be challenged; why did you leave the narrative of your legacy in the hands of your political opponents?
Should CDC Be Silent? Absolutely Not. But It Must Wake Up. No, the CDC should not shut up. But shouting now will not help. It must document. It must educate. It must present its case in a way that the public can see and remember. Not with slogans or excuses, but with timelines, budgets, contracts, before-and-after images, and testimonies of impacted communities.
The Unity Party has proven to be more deceptive than developmental so far, but the CDC must prove itself more strategic than reactive. Until that happens, Liberia will remain a place where lies travel faster than facts and stolen credit becomes the norm.
And for the Liberian people, that is the real tragedy.
Truth In Ink will continue to press for truth, transparency, and accountability from all sides because history must not be edited by the loudest, but preserved by the honest.
