Dear H.E Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr. President of the Republic of Liberia and commander in Chief of the Arm Forces of Liberia: Liberia needs to upgrade her diplomatic approaches towards Western & Asian Loans & Grants in support of the 'Liberia National Development Agenda (LNDA)':
In 1960, President William V.S. Tubman, through an Act of the Legislature, declared May 14 as National Unification Day, a laudable effort to bridge the divide between descendants of Liberia’s founding settlers and the indigenous majority. His Unification Policy aimed to promote inclusion, equality, and shared national purpose, particularly respect for the rights of all Liberians and unconditional access to all opportunities.
Since taking power nearly 15 months ago, President Joseph Boakai’s Unity Party (UP) government has found itself entangled in a heated debate: Is it genuinely delivering on its development promises, or merely riding the coattails of projects initiated by its predecessor, the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) under former President George Weah?
When Tubman assumed the presidency, he stepped into a nation grappling with numerous pressing challenges. The country’s landscape was marred by a dismal education system, crumbling road networks, a failing healthcare system, an erratic electricity supply, and a chronic lack of clean water and sanitation (In fact in 1948 the World Health Organization threaten to impose travel ban on Liberia citizens because of ubiquitous of Cholera and dysentery, and diarrhea in Monrovia). In response to these daunting issues, President Tubman crafted an ambitious “Five-Year Development Plan”, presenting it with determination to the National Legislature.
Barely three days after former Liberian President George Manneh Weah subtly suggested he was retiring from active politics—declaring during a packed Sunday service at his Forky Klon Church, “I am not going to be like some people who are old and still running behind President Job”—his long-time confidant and Chief of Staff, Eugene Lenn Nagbe, reignited a national debate.
As Liberia’s Office of the War and Economic Crimes Court (OWEC) celebrates its first year anniversary on 2 May 2025, victims and civil society groups are anxious about what has been achieved and what is the prospect of establishing the actual court.
The dead were crying for help and the cries continued to shrink my courage, or any courage that I had been able to muster to hold on. I could not say I was about to collapse in front of the tombstone that was a few meters away from me. My mind was whirling and demanding as well as creating all kinds of stories in my head. And the more I looked beyond where I held my ground, the more there appeared to me that several people were beyond there, engaged in some activities.
Just days after Liberia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Her Excellency Madam Sara Beysolow Nyanti, visited the military government of Captain Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso—a trip reportedly facilitated by a Burkinabè delegation offering to invest in Liberia’s textile industry—rumors began circulating of the Boakai administration’s alleged involvement in an international plot to topple the military leader.
In the tapestry of life, few threads shine as brightly as that of Cletus Noah. He was more than a friend; he was a brother—a beacon of light for everyone fortunate enough to know him. His leadership was not merely an exercise of authority but an embodiment of compassion and integrity.
I write this not as a supporter nor admirer of Liberia’s Vice President, Hon. Jeremiah Kpan Koung Sr. Neither is this caution rooted in fear. In fact, as a senior leader within one of Liberia’s largest opposition parties, my mission is to help remove power from the grasp of Koung and the current ruling establishment.
