By Bill W. Cooper & Grace Q. Bryant
President Joseph Boakai has highlighted significant achievements made in the first 100 days of his administration, with attention to the challenges and failures which, the ordinary man believes, if not faced head on, could distort the gains and sway the racecar off the track.
President Boakai focused on the maintenance of major road corridors, improving sanitation service, providing critical meteorological equipment, and upgrading ICT systems at the only international airport in the country, according to him, a major attempt at bringing relief to citizens.
He disclosed two fundamental issues consequential to the future of the country in terms of expanding educational opportunities and combatting the drug and substance abuse scourge, an important objective to bolster the plan, noting, “My government, therefore, saw under this plan the need to support education for struggling students and implement interventions to rescue at-risk youth overtaken by the drug epidemic.”
“Pivotal to our 100-day deliverable plan was the need to introduce key legislations crucial to our governance process, and to the promotion of the potential growth-spurring tourism sector. In these past 100 days, and despite limited resources, we were able to make significant gains against interventions we set out in various sectors,” he disclosed.
He noted that a policy change aimed at improving economic development was a fundamental objective of this plan, stating, “In this quarter, initial reforms and capacity building in agriculture, tourism, and commerce were seen as building blocks for our long-term economic development.”
Meanwhile, President Boakai has disclosed that his administration has reduced rice importation by 70 percent, starting the quarter with the acquisition and cultivation of 2,000 hectares of land in Bong, Lofa, and Nimba Counties.
“We have taken major steps to boost agriculture as a cornerstone of our economic development. Among other measures taken, we have completed a national agriculture development plan, which will be ready for validation in the next two weeks,” he assured.
He explained that the Ministry of Agriculture has begun the cultivation of 1,000 hectares of lowland at Fuamah Multi-Purpose Cooperative in Bong Mines, while the government has launched and started the cultivation of the University of Liberia farms in Fendall, which is aimed at feeding students, generating income, and for practical training and research.
President Boakai further announced that the government has ensured that essential medicines and medical supplies are distributed to 100 percent of drug depots of 13 counties in the country, with distributions to Montserrado and Margibi Counties having been achieved 100 percent.
“To improve diagnostic capacities at health centers to address critical illnesses, the government has identified sites to build four regional diagnostic centers in the country soon,” he noted.
He added, “Our efforts to intervene in healthcare have not only aimed to provide essential medications and increase access to quality healthcare, but also to gradually restore the confidence of our people and development partners in a healthcare system plagued by years of corruption and poor service.”
President Boakai further disclosed that the Government of Liberia has allotted funds for the payment of arrears for both local and international scholarship students.
“These arrears include underwriting expenditures such as monthly allowances, resettlement assistance, air ticket costs, French language training programs, and other administrative and operational costs associated with students’ well-being,”
noting, “My administration inherited a debt of nearly 6 million of unpaid fees to the West African Examination Council for WASSCE sat by our students. Despite meager resources, US$3.5 Million has been appropriated in the FY 2024 budget for the payment of WASSCE fees.”
He further explained that a complete digital training program and start-up seed funding for youth capacity building in ICT has been developed, with major facilities to host the training already assessed in seven counties, adding that the project has already been launched with thousands of enterprising young Liberians in queues to register.
He indicated that the Ministry of Public Works has been undertaking major road corridor projects totaling about 783.5 km in Bong, Lofa, Bomi, Gbarpolu, Nimba, Grand Gedeh, Rivergee, Grand Bassa, Sinoe, Maryland, and Grand Kru Counties.
“To date, contractors, equipment, and logistics have been heavily mobilized, and active work such as clearing, grading, shaping, and stabilization of critical spots, identification of culvert lines, and borrowing pits for material testing along all corridors are ongoing. In addition, maintenance zones for equipment and road crew have been identified to ensure roads are maintained all year round.”
However, what President Boakai failed to highlight was the governance structure upon which all the aims and future endeavors must rest if they are to be achieved.
Coming with an Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation and Tourisms (ARREST) Agenda, the hopes of the many suffering Liberians, who have craved for better living conditions, improved healthcare delivery, and quality education, were once again rejuvenated or reawakened.
As the President outlined his glaring achievements in his first 100 days in office as the 26th President of Liberia, this paper chose to delve in the series of missteps and controversies, including the appointments and subsequent recalling of some of the nominees for key positions in his administration, issues which have been the bone of contention in his time so far.
Just days after taking office, Boakai began nominating a number of individuals to serve in his cabinet, only to recall some of them and later make the public believe that there was someone within his cycle who was exchanging the names of the nominees, thereby prompting the swift appointment of a presidential press secretary without deputies, who also began treading a similar path.
The public was made to suspect that names approved by President Boakai were being swapped by some of his lieutenants before the lists were put in the public, thereby terming it as fake list while the already pronounced nominee is left frozen in the mood of jubilation, because by that time, the Executive Mansion’s website was very inactive.
In other cases that were reported, after the list reached the Liberian Senate, the Senate Pro-Tempore scrutinized it and conferred with the President before allowing it to be read on the floor, insinuating that it is the Senate Pro-Tempore who is sometimes authorized to remove the names before they are read in the plenary.
For instance, on March 6, 2024, a list was given to the Secretary of Senate which originally had seven nominees, but to the shock of many, only three names surfaced on the Senate floor.
Those names were Joseph Cooper, Executive Director, Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission; Jerome Jaryee, Deputy Director General for Audit Service, Internal Audit Agency.
The rest were nominees for the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Edward Mulbah, Deputy Minister for Research and Development Planning; D. Emmanuel Wheinyou, Assistant Minister for Research and Development Planning; Ellen Pratt, Deputy for Urban Affairs; Stanley B. Brima, Assistant Minister for Communal Farming and Lucia K. Tarpeh, Assistant Superintendent for Development, Montserrrado County.
Ministry of Justice:
Another instance was with the Ministry of Justice in which the President announced Cllr. Jonathan Massaquoi as his Justice Minister, but before the end of the day, his nomination was then recalled by the Liberian Chief Executive, bringing shock to the spine of citizens.
In that same vein, former Post and Telecommunication Minister, Cllr. Cooper Kruah was also nominated to the post of Justice Minister and while awaiting confirmation by the Liberia Senate, his nomination was again recalled by the President because some Liberians resisted the President’s decision, on grounds that there were close ties between Cllr. Kruah and Nimba County Senator, Prince Johnson, therefore he should not be at the helm of the country’s justice system.
Kruah was then re-nominated as Minister for the Ministry of Labor, and subsequently replaced by Cllr. Oswald Tweh, an appointment that went to confirmation and has been commissioned by the President as the Justice Minister and Attorney General.
Internal Affairs:
Some of these nominees on the March 6 list included Wheinyou, who was subsequently replaced with McDonald T. Wlemus, on account that Wheinyou is a member of the former CDC, who publicly campaigned in party regalia.
Wheinyou has been employed at the Ministry of Internal Affairs since former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf era, and as per his position, Communication Head, he served as master of ceremony at several governmental functions where his bosses are required to organize, and apparently, the CDC campaign activities out of Montserrado County were no exception.
Internal Audit Agency:
Without adherence to the Acts establishing the Internal Audit Agency, the President nominated individuals to positions within the Agency, even though the current occupants still have unexpired tenures.
Among those nominated were Samuel M. Nyema, Deputy Director General for Administration, and Jerome Jaryee, Deputy Director General for Audit Services, and those were among the nominees whose appointment list did not reach Executive Mansion’s website and Facebook pages due to no coordination or continuity or innovation by the communication staff in the Presidential Press Secretary’s office.
However, the nominations occurred while the incumbents, James Kerkulah and Mohammed B Korleh, still got two years remaining in their respective tenures. The sudden replacement of Nyema and Jaryee, coupled with the vanishing of the names from the e-mansion website, amounted to irregularity.
Ministry of Health:
It lasted more than a month after President Boakai nominated Roger Domah as Deputy Minister for Administration of the Ministry of Health, and nominated Madam Martha Morris as Assistant Minister for Administration of the same Ministry.
Controversies later beclouded the two appointments following reports from the presidency that the list of nominated officials was altered by some folks believed to be in the employ of the President because according to information, Madam Morris was initially named by the President as Deputy Minister for Administration of the Ministry of Health, a nomination some in her cycle protested on grounds that it was swapped, maybe, by some of the President’s lieutenants.
Meanwhile, the government was also hit with other challenges, ranging from infrastructure to social services such as roads, electricity, water, health and sanitation, with little being done so bar.
As for Agriculture, Tourism, and Commerce, the government performed dismally in this first 100 days, with little or nothing being done so far because imagine, to date, the government is yet to get its act together on exchange rate, commodity prices, and strengthening the already existing “Liberianization Policy”.
The government has made a big come back with the many strides in the fight against drugs and narcotic substance abuse, evidenced by the less number of zogoes in the streets.
Overall, President Joseph Boakai’s first 100 days in office, which might not be a determining factor to grade his administration, is being rated close to achieving 80 percent, which a good start, as for any student in a new school like the Boakai-led administration.
As he looks ahead to the rest of his term, the President will need to work quickly to address these challenges to maintain the trust of the Liberian people, as failure to do so could have serious consequences for the future of his presidency.
Meanwhile, on January 22, 2024, Liberians from across Liberia and in the diaspora witnessed another historic peaceful transfer of power from one democratically elected President and Vice president to another, marking a new dawn in the country’s history.
President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and Vice president Jeremiah Koung were, in the presence of thousands of Liberians and foreign guests, sworn in by Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Youh as Liberia’s 26th President and Vice president, with a mantra that states, ‘Build Liberia, Think Liberia, Love Liberia.’
