The Political Leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Alexander B. Cummings, has provided necessary checks in President Joseph N. Boakai’s State-of-the-Nation’s Address (SONA), providing alternatives to several critical points, including the budget, agriculture, women and youth policies, decentralization, energy, infrastructure, and accountability.
Responding to Boakai’s address on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, Cummings observed that twenty years after the end of the civil wars, and two years into the Boakai administration, Liberians are being told a story of “recovery”, with President Boakai claiming that the nation “is in a better state than it was a year ago”.
He said even though he respects the President, but as a Liberian who listens to the everyday cries of the people and walks in the communities he must ask the question that every struggling family is asking: recovery for whom? Progress for whom? Results where?
Cummings did not only critique the government, but also offered a people-focused and people-centered set of alternatives to the challenges facing Liberia.
For the budget, he said, “The President proudly announced a US$1.2 billion budget, the highest in our history. But a budget is not only a planning document, it is more important, it is a moral document; it tells us who and what truly matters to the government.
“While the government celebrates these numbers, Liberia remains the 9th poorest nation on earth. Over 2.5 million of our brothers and sisters cannot meet basic needs, and in rural areas, the poverty rate is a staggering 80%.”
In a thoughtful alternative, the ANC leader recommended that government cut wasteful spending by capping the budgets of the Legislature and the Executive, ending the era of “big, big cars” and extravagant travel; shift resources to health, education, and the security personnel—the police and military—who actually keep the nation and its people safe; and increase the level of transparency and introduce county-level reporting, because if a budget cannot be explained to a market woman, it was not written for her.
As it regards agriculture, Cummings noted that the President calls agriculture the heart of the ARREST agenda, but pointed out that the President cannot claim agriculture is the heart while he slashes its funding.
He recommended the 10% benchmark. “We must meet the international commitment to allocate 10% of our national budget to agriculture,” he stated. He further recommended processing, not just planting. “We must use windfalls to build processing plants—rice milling, cassava processing, and fisheries cold storage—so farmers move from ‘hand-to-mouth’ to ‘business-for-profit’.
He further recommended feeder roads, noting that these are the economic lifelines that connect farms to markets, and without them harvests simply rot in the fields.
Read Cummings’ full response in the below attached file
