By Alex Yomah
It is obvious that as usual President George Weah’s message before the Legislature will be greeted by the usual cheering squad whether its contents are repeated analysis or real time achievements.
But the message is in compliance with Article 58 of the Constitution and Liberia’s 25th President, George Manneh Weah, is expected to deliver his 5th Annual Nation Address on Monday, January 24, 2022.
Howbeit, Article 58 of the Liberian Constitution mandates that, “The President of the Republic of Liberia to present on the fourth working Monday in January of each year, the administration’s legislative programs for the ensuing session, and shall once a year report to the Legislature on the state of the Republic.”
Weah was sworn in office in 2018 as President of the Republic of Liberia and his address in this 5th session of the 54th Legislature will mark the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC)-led Government’s second to its final national address in its six years tenure.
As required by law, the Chief Executive is expected to outline his legislative programs for the next calendar period and also provide performance report for the year in review, reporting to the Legislature on the condition of the country during the year under review.
As usual, the Liberian leader is expected to provide an update on the Executive’s bills present to the Legislature for enactment including scores of financing agreements which are intended to help achieve his development goal for Liberia.
According to sources, Weah’s message will focus on roads as it has been a key priority since his ascendency while his critics are of the conviction that the address will be a ‘copy and paste’ version of previous addresses and are in preparation to dissect its contents as it has been done since he took over the presidency.
However, the masses on whose votes this government came into power will be keen on hearing from the President how this government has handled the bread and butter issues, which among other things include, stability in the nation’s staple food, sustained job creation, increment in civil servants’ salaries and the unstable prices of basic commodities and transportation in commensuration with the exchange rates and the circulation of the new money as well as boosting of the nation’s economy by removing the unnecessary bureaucracies and politics from investor’s agreement with the government.
According to the perceptions and anticipation of those within the political lime-light, this 5th nation message as well as the last annual message will target ‘rhetorical’ programs that would be catchy to the ears of electorates for the CDC-led government’s second term re-election bid in 2023.
Among other things, it is hopeful that the President points out achievements made to-date as well long term priorities highlighted to improve security, strengthen the rule of law, curtail human rights violation, rehabilitation plan for the zogoes as well as gender issues.