IPNEWS: Former vice president and standard bearer of the opposition Unity Party Amb. Joseph Nyuma Boakai, says on the heels of critical national events and continued hardships being suffered by the Liberian people around the country, including the rice shortage crisis and the poor process of conducting the national census, Liberia continues to witness other acts of poor leadership, irresponsible behavior, lack of concern, impunity and wanton misuse of our finances on the part of the president in the midst of hardship on our people.
According to him, President George Weah has left the country and will be away for the next seven weeks without any tangible explanation to the Liberian people for such a long stay abroad, visiting countries and attending meetings other government officials could have represented the country, as such, it is needless to say that the President’s long stay away from the country with no tangible reason is unprecedented in the history of the Liberian presidency.
“Of course, we are aware that President Weah’s presence and absence are the same, but at least with minimum effect on our financial resources”, he averred.
Former Vice President Boakai addressed the nation on critical national events on Wednesday, November 16, 2022, at the headquarters of the former ruling unity party in Monrovia.
He intimated that the bad leadership of president Weah continues to drift Liberia like a rudderless ship on open seas without a captain and maintained that Liberia’s major problem right now is lack of leadership. The country is on autopilot and lacks direction because there is no trusted leadership to move the nation in the transformative direction that it deserves.
The former vice president however reminded the Liberian people that the National Housing and population Census has been marred by controversies, characterized by outright corruption and lack of well-defined policies, with evidence of the hauling and pulling in the saga of stealing of money intended for the Census by corrupt officials at the Liberia Institute for Statisti cs and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), the government agency responsible for collecting national data and conducting the National Census.
In furtherance, the opposition Unity Party standard bearer said, by law the Census which must be conducted every ten years, has not been conducted since 2008. The census should have been conducted in 2018, but the Weah/CDC-led government was not prepared to do so, and seem to not prepare for it to be done.
Also, the former vice president said that the haphazard partisan training, which was also marred by dissatisfaction, demonstrations and protests across the nation, points to the fact that the CDC-led Government has not realized the seriousness and critical nature of our National Census, as without these realistic empirical data, all planning for the country will be based on falsehood lacking the basis to make critical national developmental decisions.
Amb. Boakai used the occasion to call on the Liberian people not to vote the CDC led government come 2023s because they have failed the Liberian people judging from the hardship and the high cost of living the citizenry are undergoing on a daily basis.
He then encouraged Liberians to all of the times be reminded that whatever they do as a nation and people should be epitomized by acts that promote peace and stability and economic advancement. By James Lehmer Hiama, Jr.; 0770334857/0888270604; Hiamajames@gmail.com
