By Sherman C. Seequeh
An overview
Back on January 22, 2024, Joseph Nyuma Boakai was inaugurated President of the Republic of Liberia. It followed one of the closest and most politically charged elections in the country’s post-war history. The Unity Party (UP), having rule from 2006 and 2023, reclaimed executive power not by an overwhelming national mandate, but by a razor-thin margin shaped by fatigue with the incumbent Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), high public expectations, and an aggressive political narrative that blamed Liberia’s economic and social decline squarely on the outgoing government.
The 2023 elections were not merely a contest between parties; they were a referendum on hardship. Rising prices, unemployment, urban decay, and a shrinking formal economy had created a fertile environment for political change. In that environment, the Unity Party successfully positioned itself as the moral and technocratic alternative—experienced, disciplined, and allegedly better prepared to manage a fragile post-war state. For many voters, the choice was less about enthusiasm for UP policies and more about desperation for relief.
However, elections are moments; governance is a process. Two years into the Boakai presidency, Liberia stands at a point where political explanations are losing their persuasive power. The transition period is over. The honeymoon has expired. The administration is now firmly in its third year, and responsibility for national conditions—good or bad—can no longer be deferred to history or predecessor governments.
As President Boakai prepares to deliver his 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA), the national conversation has shifted decisively. Liberians are no longer primarily interested in what the Unity Party inherited. They are asking what it has done, what it has failed to do, and what it realistically plans to accomplish in the remaining three years of its constitutional mandate.
This assessment interrogates the Boakai administration at that precise moment of reckoning; at midway of political sojourn. We examine how the Unity Party won power, how governing realities have diverged from campaign narratives, and how ordinary Liberians now interpret the gap between promise and performance. Drawing on policy outcomes, institutional behavior, and public sentiment, this special report seeks to answer a single, unavoidable question: Can the Unity Party still convert power into progress—or has time begun to work against it?
HOW THE UNITY PARTY WON
The Unity Party’s return to power in 2023 was not the product of a sweeping ideological realignment, nor was it driven by a clearly articulated development alternative that captured the national imagination. Rather, the party’s victory rested heavily on its ability to control the political narrative surrounding Liberia’s economic decline in the post-UNMIL era and successfully attached that decline to the outgoing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government.
UNMIL/NGO Exit: Myth Versus Reality
For nearly two decades, Liberia’s post-war economy functioned within an artificial stability created by the presence of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and a dense ecosystem of international non-governmental organizations. That presence injected billions of dollars into the economy, created thousands of direct and indirect jobs, sustained rental markets, and fueled consumption in urban centers, particularly Monrovia.
The drawdown and eventual withdrawal of UNMIL, completed in 2018, represented a structural shock that no Liberian government—regardless of competence—could easily absorb. The exit coincided with the departure or downsizing of major NGOs, further contracting the formal and informal economies. Dollar circulation declined sharply. Jobs disappeared. Entire service sectors collapsed or shrank dramatically.
This economic contraction was structural, not ideological. It was not caused by a single policy failure or governing style. Yet in the political arena, complexity rarely survives election season.
Here is something boggling, and Liberians are quietly doing the math: The CDC governed under another heavy blow–COVID-19. The earlier Unity Party administration under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf steered the country through Ebola.
This current Unity Party government has faced no such national disaster. Still, the economy is tight, projects are thin, and promises are slow in coming. As people say in the streets, “if the road is clear, why are we not moving?” That question is now being asked with growing impatience.
Propaganda Versus Governance
The Unity Party, then in opposition, successfully framed the post-UNMIL economic downturn as evidence of CDC incompetence, corruption, and mismanagement. The argument was simple, emotionally potent, and politically effective: life was harder under CDC, therefore CDC had failed, and must take the door.
This framing omitted inconvenient realities. It ignored the timing of UNMIL’s exit. It downplayed global inflationary pressures. It blurred the distinction between long-term structural weakness and short-term policy missteps. But it worked—because it aligned with lived hardship.
By the time voters entered polling booths, nuance had lost the battle. The CDC government was widely perceived as responsible for conditions that, in truth, predated and outlasted its tenure. The Unity Party’s narrative did not need to be fully accurate; it needed only to be believable.
“Lies Can Win Elections, Not Govern”
The danger of political success lies in its afterlife. Narratives that win elections often collapse under the weight of governance. Once in power, the Unity Party inherited the very structural conditions it had weaponized against its predecessor—shrinking revenues, weak production, import dependence, and a post-aid economy struggling to redefine itself.
Two years into governance, that contradiction has become visible. The same realities once described as failures of CDC leadership are now defended as inherited constraints. The language has shifted from accusation to explanation, from certainty to caution.
The political aphorism often attributed to campaign veterans captures this moment succinctly: lies—or at least convenient simplifications—can win elections, but they cannot govern nations. Governance demands policy coherence, execution capacity, and time-bound results. It exposes the difference between rhetoric and reality.
The Unity Party’s narrow electoral victory, achieved through narrative dominance rather than programmatic clarity, has now placed it under intense scrutiny. Having climbed to power on the promise of correction, the administration is being judged by the same harsh standard it once applied to others.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS VS THIN DELIVERY
The Unity Party did not merely win an election; it inherited extraordinary expectations. President Joseph Nyuma Boakai entered office almost exactly 24 months ago as a seasoned statesman, a former vice president, and a symbol of sobriety after years of populist politics. For many Liberians, the 2024 transition represented a return to competence, order, and seriousness in governance. The assumption was clear: experience would translate into efficiency, integrity into effectiveness, and restraint into results.
Two years later, that assumption is under strain.
No Flagship Unity Party–Owned Project
A central criticism of the Boakai administration is the absence of a signature project—a visible, nationally recognized initiative that can be clearly identified as a Unity Party achievement. While government officials point to continuity projects, policy reviews, and institutional stabilization, the public struggles to identify a single transformative intervention that defines this administration’s identity.
Previous governments, regardless of their broader shortcomings, were often associated with tangible markers: road corridors, housing projects, or highly visible infrastructure rollouts. By contrast, the current administration’s record appears fragmented characterized by maintenance rather than momentum.
This absence has political consequences. In a country where visibility often substitutes for measurement, perception matters. Citizens want to see something they can point to and say, “This is what this government has done.” Without that anchor, explanations feel abstract, and patience wears thin.
Supporters argue that responsible governance requires caution, audits, and institutional repair before expansion. Critics counter that reform without delivery risks becoming indistinguishable from inaction. Two years in, the balance has not favored the administration.
Governance by Inheritance: A Narrative Exhausted
In its early months, the Boakai administration relied heavily on the language of inheritance—empty coffers, bad contracts, institutional decay, and structural fragility. Initially, this framing resonated. Liberians understood that no government starts with a clean slate.
But time is unforgiving. By the third year of a six-year term, inheritance narratives lose political value. The public expects ownership, not explanation. Increasingly, references to past failures are met with a blunt retort: “You asked for power knowing these problems existed.”
What once sounded like honesty now risks sounding like deflection. The repeated invocation of CDC-era failures has blurred into background noise, especially as conditions on the ground show limited improvement. The administration now faces the difficult task of transitioning from justification to accountability.
In political terms, this moment is pivotal. Governments often lose public confidence not because they fail outright, but because they fail to demonstrate direction. The Unity Party’s challenge is no longer to explain constraints, but to demonstrate intent through action—decisive, visible, and time-bound.
ECONOMIC REALITY
If elections in Liberia are won on the economy, then governments are judged—and often punished—by it. Two years into the Boakai presidency, the national economy presents a dual reality: cautious macro-level stability on paper, and persistent hardship in daily life. The administration has avoided a fiscal freefall, but it has not delivered the kind of economic relief that ordinary Liberians expected from a government elected largely on the promise of correction.
Cost of Living: The Nation’s Loudest Complaint
Across Monrovia and the counties, the single most consistent complaint is the cost of living. It is not framed as a statistic but as a lived crisis: food prices that rise faster than incomes, transport costs that stretch thin budgets, and rent and utilities that feel increasingly unbearable. To many households, “economic management” has become a distant phrase, disconnected from the reality of empty kitchens and shrinking options.
The hardship is not limited to poor communities. Even middle-income families—civil servants, teachers, small business owners—describe a steady erosion of purchasing power. It is not that people have stopped working; it is that work no longer guarantees survival. In this context, any claim of improvement that does not translate into real affordability is received with skepticism, sometimes open ridicule.
Government officials point to discipline, revenue improvements, and continued engagement with international financial institutions. But citizens measure progress differently: by whether they can buy rice, pay school fees, keep transport money, and still handle emergencies. By that standard, the sense of national hardship remains strong.
Joblessness and Underemployment: A Youth Emergency
Unemployment is not only an economic problem; it is a social threat. Liberia’s youth population remains trapped between aspiration and scarcity. Two years into the UP administration, job creation has not visibly expanded at a scale that matches public expectation. The result is frustration—often quiet, sometimes explosive.
Even where employment exists, underemployment is widespread. Many young people survive through informal hustles: motorbike riding, street vending, loading, petty trading, or casual labor that provides daily income but no stability. The frustration is sharpened by a perception that opportunity is shrinking while “connected people” remain protected.
This sense of exclusion fuels cynicism. It also becomes a breeding ground for crime, migration pressure, and political agitation. When young people repeatedly hear government promises about empowerment and inclusion, but see no ladder to climb, they begin to treat politics itself as performance rather than service.
Trader Voices: “Business Was Dead”
Perhaps the clearest testimony of economic pain comes from traders. In a normal year, the Christmas and New Year season functions as Liberia’s commercial heartbeat—a period when markets swell, sales rise, and families spend more freely. Reports from traders over the last cycle, however, repeatedly described the period as unusually slow.
Market women, shop owners, and wholesale dealers complained that customers were few, buying power was weak, and profit margins had collapsed. Some described the season in blunt terms: “Business was dead.” Traders explained that prices of imported goods rose sharply due to transportation and currency pressures, forcing them to pass costs along. But consumers, already squeezed, responded by reducing purchases. The market became trapped—traders unable to sell and buyers unable to buy.
This cycle produces broader consequences: reduced circulation of cash, inability to restock goods, and increasing vulnerability for households dependent on petty trade. In Liberia, where the informal economy supports a large share of daily survival, a slow market season is not a complaint—it is an economic alarm.
Youth Despair: The Emotional Economy
Beyond prices and jobs lies something harder to measure but impossible to ignore despair. Two years into this administration, the emotional tone of economic life has darkened. Conversations in communities increasingly carry resignation: people speak less about “progress” and more about “endurance.”
For some citizens, the disappointment is sharper because the Unity Party was elected on the promise of competence. The expectation was not that prosperity would arrive overnight, but that direction would be felt clearer reforms, visible job programs, deliberate relief measures, and a credible national plan to improve household conditions. In the absence of those felt changes, cynicism grows.
In political terms, the economy has become the administration’s most dangerous vulnerability. Not because it has collapsed, but because it has failed to inspire confidence that improvement is imminent. Stability without relief feels like a technical victory and a social defeat at the same time.
ARREST AGENDA: VISION WITHOUT VELOCITY
The Unity Party came into office with a ready-made governing frame: the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development—Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation, and Tourism. In theory, the agenda is politically intelligent and socially relevant. It speaks directly to livelihoods, service delivery, and institutional credibility—exactly what a hardship-weary electorate wants to hear.
Two years on, however, the national mood suggests the ARREST Agenda is experiencing a familiar Liberian fate: strong on diagnosis, slow on execution. The gap between policy intention and felt impact has widened in several pillars, reinforcing the perception that the administration is governing without urgency.
Agriculture
Agriculture remains the most glaring contradiction between Liberia’s potential and Liberia’s reality. The country has fertile soil, abundant rainfall, and a climate suitable for year-round cultivation. Yet two years into the Boakai administration, the sector remains overwhelmingly subsistence-based, undercapitalized, and poorly connected to markets.
For ordinary people, the measure of agricultural performance is straightforward: Is food more affordable? Is domestic rice production rising? Are farmers seeing mechanization, storage, and reliable markets? On those questions, public answers are mostly negative. Liberia’s dependence on imported rice remains heavy, leaving households exposed to foreign price shocks, freight costs, and currency pressures.
Government officials and sector actors point to renewed activity around cash crops—cocoa, coffee, rubber, and oil palm—particularly through the Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA). That is a positive signal, and it shows what focused leadership can produce even under constraints. But export-crop regulation, on its own, does not resolve the national food security crisis. The staples—rice, cassava, vegetables, livestock—still lack the scale interventions that would change daily life.
The persistent constraints remain familiar: poor farm-to-market roads, weak extension services, limited credit, inadequate storage, and fragmented planning. For a government that elevated agriculture as a top pillar, the perception is that urgency has not matched rhetoric.
Roads
Roads are the most visible pillar—and therefore the most politically unforgiving. Two years into the UP administration, the dominant public sentiment is that road delivery has not matched expectations, especially in community roads and rural connectivity. In the rainy season, much of Liberia still becomes a geography of isolation, with counties cut off, feeder roads impassable, and travel times expanding into punishing delays.
Citizens repeatedly compare the current government’s pace with earlier administrations at similar stages, arguing that previous governments, whatever their faults, delivered more visible community road works and left more construction footprints the public could point to.
Government voices cite fiscal constraints, contract reviews, and inherited obligations as reasons for slow rollout. But for the public, roads are not a technical debate; they are an everyday tax on survival—higher transport costs, damaged vehicles, missed clinic appointments, produce that rots before reaching markets. When roads fail, everything else in the ARREST Agenda becomes harder to deliver.
Sanitation
Sanitation has emerged as both a service-delivery problem and a human dignity controversy. In Monrovia and its surrounding urban settlements, garbage piles, clogged drainage, and periodic flooding remain common sights. Cleanup exercises and enforcement operations have been more visible than systemic waste management solutions.
A major source of tension has been how enforcement is carried out. Street sellers—many of them women—complain that sanitation crackdowns often feel punitive, with allegations of harassment, confiscation of goods, and excessive force during street-clearing exercises. This has created a moral problem for a government elected on integrity and humane governance: a cleanliness agenda that appears to injure livelihoods is easily interpreted as governance by force rather than governance by planning.
Outside the capital, the situation is even more quietly alarming. Rural sanitation systems are weak or nonexistent, with communities relying on open dumping, burning refuse, and unmanaged latrines. Public health workers warn that such conditions feed waterborne diseases—especially during the rains—yet rural sanitation receives limited national visibility and insufficient support.
Education
Education remains a pillar where policy talk persists, but classroom reality refuses to improve fast enough. In many public schools, shortages of desks, teaching materials, and safe buildings remain common. Teacher issues—especially the status and treatment of long-serving volunteer teachers and payroll adjustments—continue to inflame tensions and disrupt learning.
At the tertiary level, the University of Liberia remains a recurring symbol of the system’s fragility. Adjunct staff disputes, low pay, delayed compensation, and periodic academic disruptions affect students directly, delaying graduations and eroding confidence in national human capital development.
For families, education is both hope and burden. When schools are overcrowded, under-resourced, and unstable, the promise of “inclusive development” feels hollow—because the pathway out of poverty depends on education that works.
Tourism
Tourism is widely recognized as a sleeping giant—beaches, rainforests, cultural heritage, and history that could support jobs and revenue. Yet two years into the Boakai administration, tourism remains mostly conceptual.
Even with institutional reforms, the sector suffers from predictable constraints: weak infrastructure, limited marketing, inadequate investment, poor road access to key sites, and insufficient hospitality training. Tourism requires deliberate public-private coordination. Without visible investment and a clear national tourism plan backed by financing, the pillar remains an aspiration rather than an engine.
Security
Liberia has remained politically stable. There has been no breakdown of constitutional order. But public safety is increasingly experienced at the community level, where reports of violent crime, armed robbery, and unexplained deaths have heightened fear—especially in urban areas.
Citizens complain not only about crime, but about the quality of response: investigations that feel slow, outcomes that feel inconclusive, and policing capacity that remains under-resourced. This produces a dangerous gap: people may accept that Liberia is “stable,” yet still feel unsafe in their neighborhoods.
A persistent warning from analysts is that hardship and unemployment create conditions in which crime can thrive even without political conflict. If ARREST is meant to stabilize society, the security situation becomes both a symptom and a test.
Media, Free Speech, Human Rights
Liberia’s media environment remains relatively open compared to many countries in the sub-region. Critical reporting continues. Opposition voices still speak. Citizens still debate openly on radio and social media.
However, a recurring weakness has been government communication and transparency. Journalists complain about delayed access to official information, inconsistent messaging, and a vacuum that rumors quickly fill. Civil society groups also continue to monitor how protests are handled—raising concerns about proportionality, arrests, and the balance between public order and constitutional rights.
In simple terms: freedom still exists, but trust in how the state manages dissent and communicates facts remains fragile.
Governance
On governance, the Boakai administration is often credited with a calmer tone and a more restrained posture than the preceding era. Yet the machinery of governance appears uneven—slow coordination, delayed execution, and a lack of strong narrative clarity about what the government is doing, why it is doing it, and when citizens should expect results.
When governance lacks visible coordination, citizens interpret it as confusion or internal division. Even legitimate constraints are then heard as excuses. In politics, perception is not everything—but it shapes everything.
Reconciliation and National Unity
Perhaps the most politically costly deficit is reconciliation. The Unity Party came to power after a tense contest in a polarized environment. Many expected deliberate bridge-building: dialogue with opposition leaders, symbolic gestures of unity, and institutional respect that lowers partisan temperature.
Instead, the perception has been of distance and exclusion—particularly in relations with the CDC. The absence of visible engagement with former President George Weah and other opposition figures has fed a narrative that the government is more interested in political consolidation than national healing.
Liberia’s post-war experience teaches a hard lesson: unity is not automatic. It must be intentionally cultivated—especially when the margin of electoral victory is narrow and public trust is fragile.
RULE OF LAW, RECONCILIATION & GOVERNANCE
One of the strongest moral claims made by the Unity Party during the 2023 campaign was its promise to restore respect for the rule of law, strengthen institutions, and end what it described as arbitrary governance. That promise resonated deeply in a society shaped by conflict, where constitutional order is not an abstraction but a hard-won safeguard against instability. Two years into the Boakai administration, however, the record in this area has become one of the most contested aspects of its governance.
Tenure Violations and Institutional Insecurity
A recurring concern has been the treatment of officials whose tenure is protected by law. Since taking office, the administration has dismissed or attempted to remove several tenured officials appointed under previous governments, often without completing the full legal processes required for such actions. These moves have generated public debate not only about political motivation, but about respect for statutory safeguards designed to insulate institutions from partisan turnover.
Supporters of the administration argue that reform requires clearing out ineffective leadership and correcting institutional decay. Critics counter that reform cannot be pursued through shortcuts. In their view, ignoring tenure protections weakens institutional independence and creates a dangerous precedent: that the law bends depending on who controls executive power.
For ordinary citizens, the issue is less technical but deeply intuitive. If those protected by law can be removed without due process, then legal security becomes uncertain for everyone. Over time, this perception erodes confidence in public institutions and reinforces cynicism about equal application of the law.
Supreme Court Tensions and Separation of Powers
Relations between the Executive and the Judiciary have also drawn scrutiny. Several high-profile political disputes—particularly those involving the Legislature—have given rise to allegations that Supreme Court rulings were ignored, circumvented, or selectively applied. These moments have intensified debate about the separation of powers and the binding authority of the courts.
In a constitutional democracy, disagreement with judicial decisions is not unusual. What matters is compliance. When court rulings appear optional rather than final, the credibility of the entire justice system is placed at risk. Legal practitioners and civil society organizations have warned that even the perception of executive disregard for judicial authority damages democratic norms.
The administration has rejected accusations of contempt for the courts, insisting that its actions fall within legal interpretation and political necessity. Yet in public discourse, perception has hardened: that constitutional restraint is being tested, and that political expediency has at times overshadowed institutional discipline.
CDC Marginalization and Political Exclusion
The Unity Party’s relationship with the opposition—particularly the Coalition for Democratic Change—has been marked more by distance than dialogue. Given the narrow margin of victory in 2023, many Liberians expected deliberate outreach aimed at reducing polarization and reinforcing democratic inclusion. Instead, opposition actors describe an environment of marginalization.
From legislative struggles to symbolic disputes, the CDC and its supporters argue that they have been treated not as legitimate political competitors, but as adversaries to be sidelined. The perception—whether fully accurate or not—has fueled grievance and hardened partisan lines.
In post-conflict societies, opposition exclusion carries risks beyond politics. It undermines trust in democratic processes and weakens national cohesion. The absence of structured engagement with opposition leadership has therefore become one of the most visible shortcomings of the current administration.
Reconciliation and the Failure of National Unity
Perhaps the most consequential omission of the Boakai presidency so far is the lack of a deliberate national reconciliation effort. No formal national dialogue has been convened. No reconciliation framework has been announced. Symbolic gestures that might signal inclusion and healing have been few and far between.
This silence is striking, especially given Liberia’s history. National unity does not emerge automatically after elections—particularly close ones. It must be cultivated through dialogue, mutual recognition, and restraint. Without it, political competition hardens into suspicion, and governance becomes more brittle.
The continued tension between government and opposition figures—including the absence of visible engagement between President Boakai and former President George Weah—has become emblematic of this failure. What could have been moments of reassurance have instead been interpreted as indifference or quiet hostility.
In the long term, reconciliation is not about political comfort; it is about national stability. When citizens see leaders unwilling to bridge divides, they conclude that power, not unity, is the governing priority.
FOREIGN POLICY & MARITIME BRIGHT SPOTS
If the Unity Party administration has struggled to produce visible momentum at home, it has performed noticeably better abroad. Two years into President Boakai’s tenure, foreign policy and maritime governance stand out as areas of relative coherence, institutional discipline, and measurable success. These achievements have helped stabilize Liberia’s international image, even as domestic dissatisfaction grows.
UNSC Seat: Restored International Confidence
Liberia’s election to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2026–2027 term represents one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the Boakai administration. For a small, aid-dependent post-conflict state, winning such a seat is not symbolic alone; it signals renewed trust by the international community in Liberia’s governance, diplomacy, and political stability.
The victory required extensive diplomatic engagement, coalition-building, and disciplined messaging across Africa and beyond. It also revived memories of Liberia’s earlier period of strong international engagement under Unity Party leadership during the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf era. For supporters of the current administration, the UNSC seat is proof that Liberia has “regained respect” on the global stage.
However, while the seat enhances Liberia’s voice in global security discussions, its domestic value depends on whether diplomatic credibility can be converted into concrete national benefits—investment, technical assistance, and institutional strengthening.
MCC Compact: A Second Chance Earned
Equally significant is Liberia’s successful requalification for a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact, making it one of the few countries worldwide to secure the grant twice. The MCC process is notoriously demanding, requiring strong performance on governance, rule of law, fiscal discipline, and anti-corruption indicators.
That Liberia achieved this milestone under a Unity Party administration is politically resonant. The party secured the country’s first MCC Compact during the Sirleaf presidency, while the CDC government was unable to qualify. For UP supporters, the second compact reinforces the narrative that technocratic governance and institutional discipline matter.
Yet as with the UNSC seat, the ultimate test lies ahead. MCC compacts do not develop countries by announcement alone; they demand timely implementation, coordination, and transparency. The public will judge success not by qualification, but by whether compact-funded projects are delivered efficiently and equitably.
Maritime Stability: Quiet Competence That Delivers
Liberia’s maritime sector remains one of the most consistently performing components of the state. The Liberian shipping registry continues to operate as a major global player, generating steady revenue and reinforcing the country’s international commercial profile.
This stability has been achieved through institutional continuity, adherence to international standards, and relative insulation from partisan politics. Unlike many domestic sectors, maritime governance operates within a rules-based global system where credibility, compliance, and professionalism are non-negotiable.
For analysts, the maritime sector offers an instructive contrast. Where rules are clear, incentives aligned, and institutions protected from political disruption, performance follows. Where governance is fragmented and politicized, outcomes suffer.
This contrast is not flattering. It suggests that Liberia can meet international expectations more easily than it can meet the daily needs of its own citizens. For the Boakai administration, the challenge is therefore not credibility abroad, but conversion at home.
Why External Sectors Outperform Domestic Ones
A recurring theme in public analysis is that Liberia performs better in sectors anchored to international norms than in those dependent on domestic execution capacity. Foreign policy, maritime governance, and international financial compliance benefit from: Clear external standards, strong monitoring mechanisms, professional insulation, consequences for non-compliance.
By contrast, sectors such as roads, agriculture, sanitation, and education rely heavily on domestic coordination, political will, and budget prioritization—areas where delays, fragmentation, and competing interests dilute impact.
This contrast is not flattering. It suggests that Liberia can meet international expectations more easily than it can meet the daily needs of its own citizens. For the Boakai administration, the challenge is therefore not credibility abroad, but conversion at home.
PUBLIC MOOD
Two years into the Unity Party administration, the public mood in Liberia is neither explosive nor celebratory. It is heavier, quieter, and more telling. Across urban neighborhoods and rural communities, the prevailing emotional climate is best described as restrained disappointment—an uneasy mix of patience, skepticism, and fading optimism. The absence of widespread unrest does not signal satisfaction; it signals endurance.
Disappointments: Expectations That Collided with Reality
The dominant public emotion is disappointment, not because nothing has been done, but because too little has been felt. Many Liberians voted for the Unity Party expecting a tangible shift in daily life—lower prices, improved roads, clearer governance, and a sense that the state was once again working in their favor.
Instead, daily hardship remains stubbornly familiar. Markets are slow. Jobs are scarce. Public services feel uneven. For a government elected largely on the promise of competence rather than charisma, this gap between expectation and outcome has been particularly damaging.
Citizens often frame their disappointment in personal terms: “We thought experience would move faster,” or “We expected less talk and more action.” These statements are not ideological attacks; they are expressions of unmet hope.
Small Joys: Stability Without Celebration
To be fair, the public mood is not uniformly bleak. Some citizens acknowledge improvements that matter, even if they are modest. Political calm is felt. Liberia has avoided the coups and upheavals seen elsewhere in the region. International respect has returned in measurable ways. Government rhetoric is less inflammatory than in previous years.
For a population shaped by conflict, stability still carries value. Many Liberians express relief that the country remains peaceful, elections are accepted, and institutions continue to function. These are not insignificant achievements.
Yet stability alone does not generate enthusiasm. It prevents collapse, but it does not inspire belief. The prevailing view is that the government has succeeded in keeping the ship afloat but has not yet changed its direction.
Cynicism: Politics as Performance
Perhaps the most corrosive shift in public sentiment is cynicism. Two years into this administration, political promises are increasingly met with eyerolls rather than outrage. Citizens speak of politics as performance—grand speeches, policy launches, and slogans that fade into routine.
This cynicism is particularly strong among young people, who feel trapped between unemployment and unfulfilled rhetoric. Many no longer ask whether policies are good or bad; they ask whether they will ever be implemented. When hope erodes, participation weakens, and democracy itself becomes more fragile.
Shrinking Patience: Time as a Political Enemy
Time is no longer neutral. As the administration enters its third year, patience is thinning. Citizens are aware that a six-year term moves quickly. The window for explanation has closed; the window for delivery is narrowing.
Increasingly, the question in public conversations is not “Why hasn’t it happened yet?” but “Will it happen at all?” That shift matters. It marks the moment when governments begin to be judged not on intentions, but on outcomes.
“The Chicks Have Come Home to Roost”
In popular political language, one phrase is now heard more frequently: “The chicks have come home to roost.” It is used to describe a sense of reckoning—an acknowledgment that promises used to win power now confront the realities of governing.
For many citizens, the phrase captures a quiet realization: that political narratives, however effective during campaigns, cannot substitute for policy execution. It is not an expression of hostility; it is a statement of fact, spoken with resignation.
The public mood, taken as a whole, does not yet suggest revolt. But it does suggest withdrawal—of enthusiasm, of trust, of benefit of the doubt. For any administration, that is a warning sign.
THE SONA QUESTION
As President Joseph Nyuma Boakai prepares to deliver the 2026 State of the Nation Address, the moment demands more than ceremony. The SONA is constitutionally a report to the Legislature, but politically it is a reckoning with the people. At two years in office, the address will be judged not by its eloquence, but by its credibility.
The central question is unavoidable: What can the President honestly report as achievement, and what remains unresolved promise?
What Boakai Can Credibly Report
There are areas where the administration can speak with confidence. Liberia’s international standing has improved. Election to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council is a tangible diplomatic success. Requalification for a Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact reflects restored confidence in governance benchmarks. Maritime stability continues to generate revenue and reinforce Liberia’s global profile.
Politically, the country has remained calm. There has been no breakdown of constitutional order, no large-scale unrest, and no reversal into conflict. In a volatile sub-region, that stability matters. The President can also point to a calmer governing tone, less incendiary rhetoric, and renewed engagement with international partners.
These are real achievements—but they are not the achievements that most Liberians feel first.
What Remains Promise
The heart of the administration’s campaign—economic relief, job creation, affordable living, visible infrastructure, agricultural transformation—largely remains in the realm of promise. The ARREST Agenda exists as a framework, but its impact has not yet reached scale.
Food remains expensive. Jobs remain scarce. Roads remain broken. Sanitation remains uneven. Education remains fragile. Youth remains restless. In these areas, progress is either incremental or invisible, and the public knows the difference.
Promises are not failures in themselves. They become failures when time outruns delivery. With the administration now in its third year, unfulfilled commitments carry increasing political weight.
What Risks Becoming Excuse
The most dangerous territory for the SONA is explanation without transition. References to inherited problems, global pressures, and structural constraints may still be factually correct, but politically they are losing force. When explanations dominate speeches without being paired with clear timelines and actions, they begin to sound like excuses.
The public is no longer persuaded by why things are hard; it wants to know what will change, when, and how. Any SONA that leans too heavily on history without outlining concrete next steps risks reinforcing cynicism rather than restoring confidence.
In short, the credibility of the address will rest on whether it marks a turning point—from diagnosis to delivery, from restraint to resolve.
CONCLUSION
A Presidency at a Crossroads
Two years into President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s tenure, the Unity Party government stands at a defining crossroads. The administration has neither collapsed nor inspired. It has preserved stability but struggled to project momentum. It has restored international credibility while domestic confidence has quietly eroded. In political terms, this is the most dangerous place for a government to be—not failing outright but failing to convince.
The early narrative of inheritance has run its course. What remains is ownership. Liberia’s challenges are real and structural, but so is the mandate the Unity Party sought and received. Governing cautiously may prevent mistakes, but it does not, on its own, change lives. And in a country where patience is already thin, the absence of visible direction can be as damaging as misdirection.
Three Years Left
Time is now the administration’s most unforgiving variable. With half the constitutional term gone, the remaining three years are no longer a planning horizon; they are an execution window. Citizens are not asking for miracles. They are asking for evidence—evidence that power is being used decisively, coherently, and in their interest.
This is the phase where governments either recalibrate or calcify. The Unity Party still has room to act: to identify flagship projects, accelerate ARREST Agenda delivery, repair relations with opposition actors, strengthen respect for the rule of law, and speak more directly to the lived reality of economic hardship. But that room is narrowing.
Leadership at this stage requires more than caution. It requires clarity, prioritization, and the political courage to move from explanation to action.
Verdict Pending—But the Clock Is Ticking
The verdict on the Boakai presidency is not yet written. Liberia is still peaceful. Institutions still stand. International partners still engage. These are assets, not trivial footnotes.
But goodwill decays when it is not converted into outcomes. The public mood—quiet, skeptical, patient but weary—should be read as a warning, not a comfort. Governments rarely fall because citizens’ shout; they falter when citizens stop believing.
As the President addresses the nation in the State of the Nation Address, he does so not before an impatient Legislature alone, but before a population weighing whether promise can still become performance. The clock is no longer generous. It is ticking.
