The former ruling party, Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), through its Chairman, Mulbah Morlu, has pointed out that President Joseph N. Boakai’s first State of the Nation Address, which reaffirmed his vision, Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation and Tourism (ARREST), is an unrealistic campaign sloganeering.
“Contrary to President Boakai’s claim that the ‘State of the Nation is in distress’, he offered no policy prescription or solution on how he intends to ‘Rescue’ this situation, except for saying he would ‘think outside the box’,” CDC said through its Chairman Morlu. “We would like to report to you that the CDC left the state of our nation stronger than it met in 2018. For example, President Boakai is inheriting 222.7 million US dollars in the net international reserve, and over US$40 million in the consolidated account as of January 17, 2023. This amount was left behind by the CDC government, compared to the under US$7 million the CDC inherited when it took power from the Sirleaf/Boakai-led government in 2017.”
However, the CDC said it is appalled that even at this early stage, President Boakai would seek to mislead the public about the financial situation of the country by disputing the figures quoted by former President Weah during his farewell statement on 21st January 2024, which are available. In addition, the former ruling party has challenged President Boakai to publish the statement of the consolidated account of the period within 48 hours or the CDC will make public copies of the same.
The CDC’s press conference, which was held at night at the party’s headquarters in Congo Town after President Boakai addressed the nation, said the entire address by the President was high on blind clichés, bereft of even the rudimentary ingredients for a sound legislative agenda, falling short of substantive economic or transformative details.
On the question of his asserted comments on the budget deficit, it must be noted the FY 2023 budget was recast after actual revenue collection amounted to US$710 million was achieved. This actual collection represented the highest amount of revenue collected in contemporary Liberia. “While serving as Vice President of this Republic, his government never got close to this amount of revenue actualized,” Chairman Morlu asserted.
According to CDC, the Unity Party government, at the close of 2017, concealed several domestic debts, including US$107 million from the IMF through the CBL, and US$65 million from commercial banks, amongst others, and wilfully failed to recognize these debts as part of the domestic debt stock. This represented a gross understatement of debt stock. Of the US$2.2 billion debt stock reported, about 60% was contracted under the Unity Party regime.
The CDC added that, during the campaign, then Candidate Boakia prided himself as the “agriculture czar”, and he could use agriculture for immediate economic revitalization and social transformation. On the contrary, while addressing the Legislature in his State-of-the-Nation, President Boakai offered nothing new, nor any specific strategy for agriculture growth, except that he provided a vague vision of “strengthening collaboration with international partners and local farmers to improve production. How such will be achieved, or will achieve growth is left to the imagination of Liberians and our partners alike.
“The President seems to have forgotten that many of the bills he seeks to propose as a pillar of his legislative agenda were already submitted to the previous National Legislature. The CDC offers its support in this regard to ensure those bills, of which it is the progenitor, are passed,” Chairman Morlu said.
CDC noted that during President Boakai’s campaign and his inaugural speech he was very direct and forceful on the establishment of a war and economic crime court for Liberia, which is heavily backed by international partners and the locals, but two days ago his strongest ally, Senator Prince Johnson, mocked him and went further to attack the physical look of the President on such a stance.
“We are convinced that President Boakai’s refusal today to reiterate his call for the establishment of a war and economic crimes court and set out a legislative pathway to ensure its establishment is straightly predicated upon the threat coming from Senator Johnson. The President must act by submitting such a bill to the Legislature or the CDC will again petition its lawmakers to do the needful,” the party said.
In continuance, the CDC said the world stands shocked that the President, who has boasted that he could establish the war and economic crimes court would backslide so early due to political pressure from his God-father ally, adding that the CDC believes nothing is more urgent and pressing now than the call for justice and the rule of law of which the establishment of the War and Economy Crimes Court is a cardinal cornerstone as was contained in former President Weah’s letter to the previous legislature, to begin steps to ensure transitional justice in Liberia.
The opposition party said that to make the government more effective and efficient, “we must focus on public service deliveries”. It added that the people, not the government, must come first, noting that the sloganeering from President Boakai in dealing with the growth in the size of the civil servants is no strategy in mitigating or addressing the issue of civil servants’ growth and wellbeing. The CDC introduced harmonization which it believes is the best policy and strategy to contain and sustain the growth of civil servants’ salaries.
That President Boakai did not offer any new policy in contradiction to this policy is a veiled acceptance that all of his and the Unity party’s criticism were vainglorious and pandering to the voters.
“Fellow citizens, in 2017 you embraced the Change for Hope manifesto that laid the foundation for the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD). The plan sought four different but interrelated pathways in achieving goals including human development, macroeconomic stability, job creation, infrastructure development, and sustainable peace and good governance,” the party said.
The CDC said it inherited messy education system, introduced fees payment of West African Senior School Certificate Examination and declared public schools free, and so on.
The CDC urged the UP-led government to build on the gains made under the PAPD and strive to make Liberia a middle-income country by increasing the wealth of the country; reducing the vulnerability of the people through the creation of multiple sustainable livelihood opportunities for all Liberians, citing that to achieve is to invest in human capital development, improve the governance mechanism of the country, continue to unlock the binding constraints to economic development, create more jobs through competitiveness, and green our economy.