-Commends President Weah for Conceding While Results Were Still Being Announced by the NEC

The Foundation for Human Rights Defense congratulates Ambassador Joseph Nyuma Boakai and Senator Jeremiah Kpan Koung upon their election as the next President and Vice President of the Republic of Liberia in the just-ended Presidential Election. The Foundation reminds the incoming government that it is inheriting a deeply divided country as was seen in this bitterly contested election. While the challenges the new government will be faced with are many, uniting the country is probably the greatest and most urgent one. To achieve this, the Boakai government must, upon assuming office, immediately initiate the process of reunification. To do this the administration must assure all Liberians that it will uphold human rights: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness being the foremost. A good way to begin will be to investigate the human rights records of those slated for appointment to key positions in the new government. The second initiative should be to audit the human rights record of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government. This will set the standard to which the newly elected Unity Party government will hold itself and will be judged by the nation.

The Foundation also wishes to laud President George Manneh Weah for his decision to concede defeat and congratulate his opponent, Ambassador Boakai, even before the final vote tally was announced by the National Elections Commission. This show of statesmanship is a welcomed step in reassuring Liberians of a new day in the political life of the country.

The Foundation, however, wishes to remind President Weah that submission to an audit of his administration by the incoming government should not be perceived as a witch hunt, but rather as a standard procedure to see how the country’s resources, governance and human rights were managed under his administration. This will also be an act of statesmanship to his credit.

An audit of the government is of national interest and will be a pathway to national reconciliation as well. People can rightly take credit for their successes, but must also be willing to own up to their mistakes and eventually any wrongdoings. The country can only heal by this process and not by the same old Liberian attitude of “let by-gone be by-gone”, which emboldens bad behavior and consequently brews national discontent.

“All hail Liberia, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”