ACCORDING TO AN investigation carried out by the Hot Pepper, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai may have had no prior knowledge about Foya Presidential Villa Project from the initial stage, even though he may be fully aware as of the date of this publication. The investigation says that officials of the Boakai administration are, however, fully abreast of the project.
ACCORDING TO THE report, it was the former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Sylvester Grigsby, having listened to his boss President Boakai’s yearning for a venue to host a meeting of heads of state of the Mano River Union, who started formulating an immediate plan of action behind President Boakai. Minister Grigsby invited the President’s nephew, Architect Joe Mulbah, and secretly revealed the President’s desire and requested Mulbah to again join the conspiracy and to come up with workable architecture drawings and plan.
DURING THE MEETING to secretly review the content of the architecture drawing and affix cost, the purchase of the land and the construction of the Mano River Union Center cost a little over US$5.5 million. To source the funding, Minister Grigsby, being the acute diplomat as he was, started to use shattered diplomacy in selling the idea to heads of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) who immediately bought into the idea individually and collectively.
THE SOEs HEADS began to secretly support the President’s Mano River Union project unknown to him. Among SOEs that supported the idea are the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP), National Port Authority (NPA), Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) and Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC).
THE PROJECT CONSISTS of five Presidential villas, with three bedrooms each, an equipped presidential office, a modernized kitchen. Each Presidential villa consists of two extra buildings to host the invited President’s office staff and security details traveling along with the Heads of State. In total, there are 5 villas, 5 security buildings and 5 buildings for President’s staff.
AFTER THE DEATH of Minister Grigsby, the support to the Foya Project began to stall with SOEs not remitting their respective contributions as planned. A little over 60 containers were stalled in the Turkish port due to lack of funds. Fortunately, the SOEs have lived up to their responsibilities and the project is nearing completion.
THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED that President Boakai had no prior knowledge about the project; it was done behind his back to surprise him, with the actual financiers being the SOEs. The project is 100% Liberian-owned, and not a penny contribution from the Mano River Union countries.
