Growing outcry over corruption and lawlessness in the 8-month-old Boakai administration is a need for concern. Most importantly, one of the persistent voices heralding this outcry is that of the leader of a major political party that supported Ambassador Boakai during the runoff election in 2023.
Former presidential candidate counselor Tiawan Saye Gongloe of the Liberian People's Party (LPP) is very vocal, time to time, in calling the Boakai Administration to book over excesses in the new government. He is not biting his tongue over creeping corruption or graft but glaring corruption or flagrant violations of the law.
Cllr. Gongloe is speaking out so loudly despite having his former running mate, Dr. Emmanuel Urey King Yarkpawolo, in the government, as executive director of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA.
A lecturer of law at the state-run University of Liberia and former president of the Liberia National Bar Association, Gongloe is being very frank with President Boakai about the country's governance.
Mr. Boakai and the Unity Party campaigned on a promise to rescue Liberia from corruption, nepotism, lawlessness and other vices, but emerging reality on the ground just eight months later, indicates totally something else with officials reneging to declare their assets as required, while road contracts are awarded outside of bidding process.
President Boakia needs to listen to his honest critics and do the right thing or ensure that his officials act in accordance with the law because the buck starts and ends with him as Head of State.
It is important that the President listens to close partners such as the LPP leader Cllr. Gongloe rather than praise-singers, who are noted for lifting leaders high and moving from under them, watching them to fall.
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Moving into first year of the administration, situations in the country are tough: the economy is near stagnation with business houses crying, banking institutions calling for bailout, parents unable to put their children in school because of lack of money amid unscrupulous spending in government.
This has to change if Liberia is to be truly rescued, as the UP-led government has promised under President Boakai's watch. Rescuing a country does not and should not mean business as usual.
Instead, it requires monitoring the government's daily operations with an eagle's eye to ensure that corrupt officials and confidants do not gain a monopoly at the expense of the masses they came to rescue.
We believe this is the message that Cllr. Gongloe is driving through. President Boakai should listen and take these criticisms in striving as he unfolds his agenda for the country to match words with deeds.
