WITH THE HONEYMOON period of the Joseph Boakai presidency rapidly slipping away, the last nine months have been a rollercoaster ride of downturns, mishaps, and echoes of Liberia's trouble past.
WHETHER IT IS recent revelation of massive waste at the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation where senior commissioners are reportedly making US$15,000 a month with transportation, salary, housing, Generator gas, operational gas and scratch cards benefits, to isolation of anti-corruption fighters and good governance advocates from government to the unusual activities at the Central Bank of Liberia, crippling the financial sector.
MURMURS NOT JUST ON THE STREETS, but even in the corridors of power suggest something sinister is unfolding, and if not checked could spell danger for President Joseph Boakai and his government.
PRESIDENT BOAKAI, like his predecessors was not blind to Liberia's problems, the ones started on April 14, 1979, and triggered the military coup of 1980 that brough Master Sargeant Samuel Kanyon Doe to power, resulting in a massive civil war nearly a decade later.
THIS WAS EVIDENT in the President's inaugural address in January where he lamented that during the 2023 presidential and legislative elections the state of Liberia was laid bare. Said the newly minted President: "Many words were spoken. Angry words were spoken. The experts uncovered for us cogent analyses of our national condition. We can no longer attempt to bury our heads in the proverbial sand. We see hard times, we see disfunction, we see culture of impunity, we see corruption in high and low places."
PRESIDENT BOAKAI realized all this and made a pledge to electorates and the nation that, "It is these and similar conditions that we have come to RESCUE. But we come with false assurance to no one. Our plan to fix the ills we are inheriting must go together with realistic expectations."
IN THOSE SHINING EARLY HOURS, President Boakai pledged: "We will act in the first hundred days of our Administration, and then diligently pursue our rescue mission."
SO FAR HOWEVER, things have not gone so well and many of those who supported his candidacy are taking notice. "I supported his campaign because I believed in his potential, and I still do. But he must wake up and act with integrity and the utmost swiftness," opined former Auditor General John S. Morlu recently.
A REPORT FROM THE Center of Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) says the first 100 plus days of the Boakai's presidency has been marred by allegations of corruption.
CENTAL, an affiliate of Transparency International (TI), in its Anti-Corruption Monitoring Report on the Boakai Administration's 100+ Days, revealed that President Boakai, prior his inauguration and without constitutional authority, requested funding from NASSCORP for the purchase of five Land Cruiser SUVs, each valued at $117,000. "This action, considered a misapplication of public funds, has sparked intensive public criticism," CENTAL wrote.
CENTAL ALSO ACCUSED the Boakai administration of bribing Legislators in a bid to influence leadership at the Legislature. "There were reports that the President's nephew and Officer-In-Charge of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), Jake Kabakole, disbursed US$600,000 to contractors under questionable circumstances," CENTAL wrote.
RECENTLY, PUBLIC WORKS Minister Roland Giddings admitted to violating the procurement law by awarding road maintenance contracts valued US$22.4 million without a competitive bidding process. Giddings and some officials of the executive had already begged for mercy.
THE CENTAL REPORT also captured the 285 pieces of earth moving equipment believed to be given to the Boakai government as part of a deal with the Guma Group for exploration of the Wologizi mountain. The government has, however, denied that such a deal was finalized although in recent days, it has been revealed that the President's deputy minister of state, Mamaka Bility is a country representative for the company.
FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE, President Boakai has his work cut out. The sad reality is that there is no shortage of remedy or answers to his government's current predicament.
THIS IS A PRESIDENT, who in his inaugural address declared that he began his quest for the presidency "because something seemed wrong with us Liberians, and the leadership of our country."
ADDED PRESIDENT BOAKAI: "Rather than the positives, we were accentuating the negatives about our country and about each other. We were initiating false starts, building on poor foundations. We were deepening our differences, creating new social fault lines. Inclusive and accountable governance was at an all-time low. We created a culture of unfinished business, engaged in ad hoc undertakings, making this behavior the "new normal." We were chevaliers about the rule of law. We lowered standards in many domains of our common life as a people. We seem to have lost our way, lost hope."
WHAT IS EVEN more concerning is that there is a lack of a well-articulated, coherent foreign policy that makes Liberia a regional player.
PRESIDENT BOAKAI skipped both the African Union and ECOWAS Summits of heads of state earlier in his Presidency.
SADLY, HIS ADMINISTRATION'S increasing overtures to Asia - China, Turkey and Indonesia - similar to the Weah Administration's proposing France in its foreign policy, signals his lack of faith in Liberia-US long standing relationship, which became a topical issue for Liberian politicians in the wake of the National Orator's Independence Day message.
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TO DATE, The Boakai Administration is yet to attract any credible Foreign Direct Investment.
ADDITIONALLY, the failed quest to undertake business with the controversial Karpower power company from Turkey against the interest of major international stakeholders raised eyebrows.
THE GOVERNMENT has also come under fire over its relaxation of an initial hawkish stance on Western Cluster, that has damaged the Monrovia Tubmanburg Highway, a major transnational road for regional trade in the ECOWAS region.
TO THE CONTRARY, President Boakai is overseeing a government mired in the arrogance of power, now trumpeted by his officials labeling critics as enemies, just like the preceding governments. The painful truth of a post-war nation, enjoying a nurturing and maturing democracy, still haunted by a past that offers a painful reminder of a fear that once was. As the late US comedian and political commentator Dick Gregory once said. "Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter but are quickly forgotten.
