VP Boakai (L) & Speaker Nuquay (R)

A political party’s nominee for the presidency may dispense with the option of debating other nominees on the hot burning issues facing a nation.  However, it cannot afford failing in preparing and selling voters its election platform, which, after all, are principal planks, pledges, or promises to hopefully implement or fulfill. Understandably, a political party wouldn’t get a mandate – as in winning – if voters realize the platform is rhetoric. With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, we now know that most of the 2005 and 2011 platforms of the EJS – led UP were just that: Rhetoric.  It was what led to the dissatisfaction and disaffection of many Liberians, including UP’s own base, which when broached in the July 26, 2013 anniversary oration of then UP Chairman Sherman reportedly brought about the seemingly irreconcilable breach between both of them.

Fast – forward to mid – August 2017, at last, a campaign team for VP Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s bid for the presidency in the ensuing 2017 General Elections has been constituted. Considered in some quarters as his dream team, it comprises high - profile Boakai supporters, and we are told that more names may be added to the list. In other words, this is a good start although it is apparently a little too late. But, we would have imagined, what Liberians and Boakai well-wishers want is not a mere list of names comprising, perhaps, a combination of credible and corrupt individuals alike lining up for a job fair. Liberians are longing for a plausible cum achievable platform, an expressed set of core goals about how the VP is going to tackle the country’s numerous socio-economic and political problems if elected a successor to President Sirleaf.

Among these numerous problems is our broken public school educational system privatized by her.  Liberians want to know his approach to the broken standards in their schools; the lack of trained teachers, dilapidated school buildings, the blatant lack of requisite educational materials, and so on.

Undoubtedly, there will be no marked improvement in our educational system if we do not have highly - trained teachers, textbooks, and high-speed internet connectivity in our schools.  President Sirleaf has unabashedly admitted that the educational system is an embodiment of colossal mess, yet she has opted to outsource public school education to Bridge International where well-connected friends of hers will purchase shares. The president has abandoned the free primary school education promise she made to the Liberian people during her first term. Although Mr. Boakai has been a, more often than not, silent VP, we wonder whether or not he will continue to outsource our schools. In the 1960s, and 70s, high schools across the country were run by college-educated Liberians. It is a shame to see high school dropouts run the schools. Will “wanna-be” president Boakai continue spinning on that downward spiral?

The lack of electricity is another nagging problem that the next president will have to deal with. Madam Sirleaf in 2005 told the nation that she would electrify Monrovia in 6 months. After 12 years of her administration, 70 percent of Monrovia--not to mention the entire country--is still in the dark. As Dr. Akinwumi Adesina (President of the African Development Bank) once put it, “Africa cannot develop in the dark”. President Sirleaf has paid lip service to this basic national necessity! How will Joseph Boakai as successor handle Liberia’s perennial electricity problem? Liberians want to know.

Corruption is another scourge on the nation. At her inauguration in 2006, President Sirleaf recognized it and told the world that corruption was going to be public enemy #1 of her administration. But Liberians soon learned they were lied to. For 12 years, corruption has been the Sirleaf administration’s public friend #1. Needless to say, the Harvard trained economist will go down as the most kleptocratic, nepotistic and corrupt president of Liberia. Some observers even rank her as the most corrupt president Liberia has ever had. No wonder, John S. Morlu, former Auditor General of Liberia, would go down as a prophet when he said the Sirleaf administration was three times more corrupt than previous administrations. Will Uncle Boakai as a Sirleaf successor continue this unsavory legacy or would he take an alternative route? That’s the question.

Much like the problems of electricity and corruption, President Sirleaf has left highway infrastructural development almost untouched. Our roads are not only deplorable; they are impassable. But while seeking a second term of office in 2011, she promised that by 2017 all the capital cities of Liberia were going to be interconnected by paved roads. Since that time, as Liberian people say: “A dog licked the road”. Why couldn’t she have used construction of highways as one means of putting thousands of unskilled labor to work? Instead, in spite of her promises about roads, nothing has happened!

The VP should clear the air on the Wologisi Mountain controversy. The Wologisi Mountain was put on the market for sale by Madam Sirleaf and Son. Then the VP visited India to meet with Jindal Steel and Power, which Liberians perceive as picking up the crumbs left behind by Sirleaf and Son.  Some people in his home, Lofa County, including the Lofa Association in the United States, made some noise about it. Due to neglect of the Liberia healthcare system and the prevailing unsanitary conditions in the country, Ebola killed about 5000 people including healthcare workers in 2014. Montserrado County and the VP’s home county were among the hardest hit counties.  Does he have a realizable plan to ameliorate the situation?

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More disquieting is the systematic dispossessing of rural communities. The landmass of Liberia has been practically turned over to the oil-palm and rubber companies leaving the hapless Liberian subsistent farmers without land to do their farming. Golden Veroleum is given about 3% of the entire landmass of Liberia to plant oil-palm. To paraphrase Hon. Nathaniel Toe, Maryland County’s Development Superintendent, the Cavalla Rubber Corporation and Maryland Oil Palm Plantations have used up all the land of Pleebo Sodoken District to the extent that there is not even a space to make a garden in the district. These companies only hire the owners of the land as seasonal workers, thereby making it difficult for them to make ends meet.  Their children who could be hired in managerial positions are not hired due to fear that the children will indoctrinate their kinsmen. What will be the VP’s approach toward rubber and oil palm industries making the poor people poorer?

Last but not the least, out of 68 concession agreements signed by the Sirleaf government, only two agreements are in the interest of the Liberian people.  More besides, all the agreements lack value-added or made-in-Liberia planks, which makes life unbearable for the rural population whose brokerage rights (land) have been taken away from them by the government and the concessions.  If elected, what will the VP do about the 66-flawed agreements and will he revisit the agreements to transform them into agreements that meet international best practice?

Perhaps, costed political platforms are preferable. For instance, a political plank on overhauling public school education by 2020 would need to pinpoint revenue source to pay for it. The upside of this suggestion is that a gigantic payroll which eats up a third of annual budget would need to be reduced; waste and corruption which supposedly swallow another third would need to be curtailed; new sources of revenues, from precious minerals, allegedly smuggled by the powers that be, would need to be identified. And hopefully equality of opportunities, decentralization, reconciliation, dual - citizenship, for example, could be attainable goals in the first term of the next regime.

We call on candidate Boakai and all presidential aspirants to put forward their platforms, so that voters can make informed choices.

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Published below is the unity party "dream team":

 

FULL MEMBERSHIP OF THE UP NATIONAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE AND CHAIRPERSONS OF ELEVEN (11) COUNTY CAMPAIGN COMMITTEES RELEASED

In fulfillment of the  Unity Party (UP) Standard  Bearer's promise on the  start  of campaign to announce the  full list of members of the National Campaign Committee, prominent Lbi erian businessman Honorable SJAKA TOURE has been appointed as FIRST VICE CHAIR and Honorable MAR Y KARWOR,Representative of Grand Bassa County as SECOND VICE CHAIR respectively on a  SIXTY-seven  (67)  member   National  Campaign  Committee, which  is  chaired   by  Senator Thomas Grupee of Nimba County.

The Committee also comprises a representative from each of the six political parties  that have endorsed  the  presidential bid  of  UP Standard  Bearer Amb. Joseph Nyuma Boakai, namely: 1. People's Unificat on Party (PUP), 2. Union of  Liberian Democrats  (ULD), 3.Victor y for  Change Party (VCP), 4. National Democratic Coalition (NDC),5. Grassroots  Democratic Party of Liberia (GDPL),6. All Liberia Coalition Party (ALCOP) and at least  one representative from  each of the
15 counties.

 

Meanwhile, the following eminent Liberians have been appointed to serve as Chairpersons of their respective County campaign Committees:

BOAKAIFOR PRESIDENT 2017
COUNTY CAMPAIGN CHAIRPERSONS
NO	COUNTY	NAME
1	Montserrado	Senator Geral dine Doe Sherriff
2	Grand Bassa	Benny Johnson
3	Grand Cape Mount	Senator Varney Sherman
4	GrandGedeh	Sen.Alphonso Gaye
5	Grand Kru	Sen.Albert Chie
6	Lofa	Zubah Aggrey
7	River Gee	Senator Matthew J aye
8	Bong	Senator Henry Yallah
9	Margibi	Christopher Orebel
10	Maryland	Hon. [J. Gbleh-Bo Brown]
11	River Cess	Senator Francis Paye

Advisors to the Spokesman

1.  Rev. EmmanuelBowier
2.  Alphonso Socrates Nimene
3.   Hon.Kettehkumehn Murray
4.  Jefferson Blackie

Strategic Communication Officers (SCO's)

1. Harry Ar-toe Gkornean
2. Varfee Holmes
3.   Stephen Johnson
4. Jesefu Morris Keita
5. Emmanuel Azango
6. Enoh Edet lnwang
7. Vallai Dorley
8.   loveTee Kanu
9.    Vasco Saidu Mujataba Nyei
10. Dearest Edwina Karnga
11. Amara Quardu Mohammed

12. Saybah Patience Kpator
13. Benedict Williams
14. Whroway Bryant
15. Robert Ernest Wilson

Other Strategic Communication Officers have been consulted of their inclusion subsequently. Please see below the fulllist of the National Campaign Committee:

 

Signed:-----------------­
Mohammed Ali/Campaign Spokesman

 

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