By: Varney Dukuly
MONROVIA: The former governing Unity Party (UP), of former Vice President, Joseph Nyuma Boakai, has criticized the governing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led government, saying Liberia, under President Weah, has been “stories of dashed hopes”.
The UP, in its official response to incumbent President George Manneh Weah’s Final State of the Nation Address (SONA), for his first six-year constitutional term, indicated that Mr. Weah who is seeking re-election in October this year, has refused to learn the presidential job.
“He has refused to learn the job. The President failed on salaries harmonization. They lied about their intent. The President failed to fight corruption. They openly promoted corruption. This has been the stories of the last five years. Stories of dashed hopes, broken dreams and failed promises,” the Unity Party’s Standard Bearer maintained.
The UP called on other citizens to focus their attention on rejecting incumbent President Weah’s quest for a second term.
The failure of Weah’s administration over the years has increased the Unity Party and others’ opposition against the government’s push for re-reelection.
“The president thinks he can do nothing for six years and then show up at the dying minute to ask for another term,” UP said in its reaction to Weah’s SONA.
The ex-ruling party indicated that “Six years are not as quick as six minutes of extra time at the end of a football game.”
With five years running, the CDC led government, according to Unity Party, has failed to remit Social Development Funds collected from concessional and multinational firms operating across the country to local county authorities.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, January 31, 2023, UP’s Vice Chairperson, Dabah Vapilah said, it is a high degree of insincerity on the part of Executive Branch of government to uphold the local government act and the Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) as laws.
She said: “For example, the Executive received US$7.5m for Nimba County; US$3m for Bong; US$5m for Grand Bassa County as Social Development Funds.
“The government has callously not remitted those amounts to the respective counties, thereby depriving the counties of the needed development,” UP pointed out.
UP: “What have the people of Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa done to you, Mr. President, for which you and your government are depriving them of money from their own natural resources?”
With nine months to the Presidential and Legislative elections in Liberia, the UP asserted that Liberians are expected to hear the President speak about his government’s approach to avoid the progressive abuse of over US$300 million in duty-free privileges granted prior to the delivery of his 2022 Annual Message.
“The President deliberately and callously decided not to speak about this very important issue as he had committed to do in the last State of the Nation Address,” the UP stressed.
The Unity Party, among other things, touched on President Weah’s pledge to elevate the living wage of civil servants to the minimum of US$150 or above.
But, the Unity Party, of Ex-Vice President Joseph Boakai said after the Weah government perpetrated evil on helpless civil servants for years under the disguise of a Payroll Harmonization Scheme, the President is now tacitly acknowledging his wrong.
“But, we need to remind President Weah that at the time his government was cutting the pay of the least civil servant from a total of around US$150 to as low as US$45 dollars in some institutions, he also cut the pay of the boss of that least civil servant from probably US$500 to US$150.
So, now that the least civil servant will make US$150, what happens to the pay of his boss whose pay is now US$150?”, the Unity Party asked.
However, the UP equated the State of the Liberian Nation, under President Weah, to “vices that have the propensity to undermine the growth and progress of the country.”
The UP: “Fellow Liberians, here is the state of your nation: the price of rice has gone up, prices of all basic commodities have risen, Civil Servants pay has been drastically cut, salary payment is not on time, gasoline and other fuel prices have gone up, electricity is being rationed due to the poor management of LEC, no constant running water, unexplained death of peaceful citizens continues to persist,
“Transportation cost is high, patients are turned away from public healthcare facilities due to the absence of drugs, discrimination against non-partisans at public sector ministries and agencies continues to persist, all of our service centers are closed in the various counties, community colleges are always striking due to unavailable of operational funds, and so much more of these inadequacies have rendered this government incompetent and doesn’t need a second term!!”
