It is said that “to whom much is given, much is expected”. This is clearly becoming the case with the President-elect of the Republic of Liberia, Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai, whom the people of Liberia elected in order that he may rescue them from “economic stagnation, rampant corruption and disregard of the rule of law”, which he and the Unity Party (UP) convinced the electorate that they were the order of the Weah administration.
President-elect Boakai won with a 50.6% mandate, which puts the country in a near-equal halves, leaving a huge task on the next administration to reconcile the electorate in order to function without heightened political tension. In addition to the huge task, Ambassador Boakai has vowed that, in the first 100 days of his administration, no car will get stuck on any major road, and he will ensure that prices of basic commodities are reduced to an appreciable level.
He reiterated this statement, which is being received as a political gimmick by several citizens, including some Unity Partisans, in his first interaction with the media after the National Elections Commission (NEC) officially declared him the winner of the November 14, 2023 presidential run-off election on Monday, November 20, 2023.
He thanked President George M. Weah for conceding defeat, and promised to work with every Liberian for the sake of maintaining the peace and stability of the country.
The President-elect will for the first time speak to the people of Liberia today from the Unity Party (UP) Rescue Center, Airfield, Monrovia, where he is expected to complement his supporters, unclothe his campaign garment and speak real-time truth to the country in a presidential manner.
From his media engagement yesterday, it seems like Boakai, like Weah in 2018, is yet to graduate from the campaign rhetoric and is entering into inauguration with “deceptive” development messages only to appease the ears of the citizenry but not to be fulfilled in reality.
Ambassador Boakai has become the 25th President-elect of the country, and won on an economic issued-based platform: agriculture, roads, education, sanitation and tourism (AREST), consisting of five pillars: macroeconomic stability and infrastructural development; health, wash, the environment and climate change; human capacity development; governance and rule of law; and gender, youth, children and social protection.
However, Boakai’s first statement as it regards road construction and rehabilitation has raised more skepticism than certainty. There are several major roads in Liberia, including those leading from Bong to Lofa, Nimba to Grand Gedeh, Grand Bassa to Rivercess, ELWA to Robertsfield, etc., and to vow that no car will get stuck on any major road in his debut 100 days either needs further interpretation or constitute the beginning of the many political scams Liberians usually receive after they reward politicians with power.
Painstakingly, Boakai is making such a herculean pledge without the full knowledge of what he is about to inherit from the out-going administration, which stands accused of looting the revenue coffers of the nation, making some of its officials financially well-off then even the country itself.
Several observers are of the opinion that Boakai may not be as genuine as he presents himself, with the thought that if he is not well checkmated his administration may even do worse things than the previous UP and CDC administrations.
All ears are open to listen to the first address of the President-elect today—whether he still holds on to, at least, the major promises of solving the bread-and-butter issues of the country and minimizing corruption, or it will be “business-as-usual”.
