Monrovia — Simeon Freeman, political leader of the Movement for Progressive Change (MPC) says the Boakai-Koung administration is being marred by "early missteps" due to President Joseph Boakai's age and inability to lead.
Freeman said Boakai's delay in forming his government more than a month into his presidency demonstrates his leadership deficiency and even puts the achievement of his 100-day deliverables into question.
"Three weeks is more than enough to form a government that would hit the ground running," said Freeman. "You could not be on the field in talking about 100-day deliverables and almost 50-days into your administration, the government is not yet formed."
Freeman, a successful businessman-turned politician, was a vocal critic of the Weah-Taylor administration. He contested as a presidential candidate during the 2023 General Elections. Throughout the campaign, he criticized then candidate Joseph Boakai, citing his age and "poor" track record in public service as evidence that he would not be a good president if elected.
Speaking out against the Boakai-Koung administration for the first time, Freeman said he was right all along and his claims against Boakai are being manifested now.
"I think it [failure to form a government within three weeks] demonstrates a huge lack of capacity. Not just that, you have a crisis going on at our mining concession, and I think all of this is a clear result of the lack of capacity that we have warned Boakai did not have. He's too old to govern the country. He doesn't have the energy, neither does he have the capacity. We warned about that and it's beginning to manifest itself."
'More financial burden'
Speaking on a wide range of issues, Freeman expressed concern over the Boakai-Koung administration's decision to follow the "wrongful" decision made by the past administration by appointing scores of partisans and loyalists to government. This, he said leads to a bloated payroll that drains the country and leaves no room for tangible infrastructure and human resource development.
He noted that currently, President Boakai is creating a new portfolio to accommodate loyalists, a decision that his predecessors took and which was widely criticized.
According to him, this decision will lead to a bloated payroll and take a huge portion of the national budget to recurrent expenditure. He predicted that the government will not be able to address the plights of civil servants whose salaries were harmonized by the past government.
He said: "These aggrieved civil servants braved the story and campaigned vigorously for President Boakai with the hope to address the plights. But with Boakai threading the same path of his predecessors, these civil servants' plights may not be addressed. The recent appointment revealed that there will be more financial burden on Liberia. The Director of Cabinet position that has become redundant has been resuscitated. Additional deputy minister portfolios have been created. Every time you create an additional structure in government, there is a cost, additional cost."
"Thousands of government employees affected by harmonization braved the storm and rain. It is clear that at this juncture, and with all of these creations, the issue of harmonized pay will not be discussed."
He mentioned that the delay in submitting the draft national budget for review and subsequent passage exposes the Boakai-Koung government's weakness and shows that they were nor ready to lead. He warned that replacing every top government official with new ones has an adverse impact on some important ministries and agencies, insinuating that this may be the case at the Ministry of Finance which is leading to the delay in the submission of the budget.
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'stop the gangsterism'
Speaking further, Freeman criticized President Boakai for his insistence to remove tenure positions by nominating candidates to positions already occupied by tenure officials. Boakia's team argued that the Constitution of Liberia gives the President the explicit right to appoint officials in the executive branch, and as such he was exercising that right. They also argued that some of these officials violated the statute creating the institution they serve.
However, Freeman said their argument is weak and lazy. He said the same Constitution created and empowered the Legislature to make laws, and as such, the President is wrong to replace tenure positions created by law. He frowned on the behavior of Unity Party's partisans and the Unity Party Alliance's supporters storming of public ministries and public entities to forcefully demand the removal of tenured officials.
