Is a new Liberia possible under Boakai?

By Ejiroghene Barrett, Ben Asante.

Liberia’s former Vice-President, Joseph Nyumah Boakai’s win at the country’s presidential run-off elections marks a major milestone for the country’s political rebirth, but also highlights the immense responsibilities ahead that would determine the next phase of the country’s social and economic trajectory.

For political commentators in Liberia, Boakai’s victory would mark a major shift in policy for the country. It is expected that significant steps would be taken to kick-start several initiatives that many Liberians say President George Weah’s government had neglected.

He has wasted no time in explaining his priorities. Boakai will prioritise “resuscitating” Liberia’s economy, an online news platform reported his spokesman and former minister of finance and development planning, Amara Konneh, as saying.

He also added that the president-elect’s strategy will be to encourage the private sector to “do business and also pay their taxes which will create the fiscal space to deliver basic services in health, water, and sanitation.”

Boakai is also setting his sights on maximising his countries mineral wealth. Speaking with Reuters in an interview, Boakai said a key area from which Liberians had not benefited was the mining sector, despite the West African country’s rich mineral reserves, including diamonds, gold, iron ore and timber.

“To be frank with you, the mining sector has been one of the problems in this country. I have seen our resources exploited and the life of the people remains the worse,” Boakai said, adding that he would take a close look at the sector.

Asked if this would include reviewing mining concessions, Boakai said reviews would be pursued if warranted.

His position comes amidst reports of irregularities in the concessions granted to mining conglomerates by the previous government, seriously limiting the earnings from its rich natural resources and keeping the wealth within a small section of the country’s population.

Liberia’s economy grew 4.8% in 2022, driven by gold production and a relatively good rice harvest, but more than 80% of the population still face moderate or severe food insecurity, according to the World Bank. Most Liberians surveyed by Gallup reported feeling that their standard of living is falling.

It is not clear if these objectives suggest a radical shift away from libertarian policies, which many had accused the current government of pursuing, towards a government that is more left of centre. Many Liberians hope so, especially as the current conditions have put serious constraints on the financial strength of most Liberians.

Liberia has vast natural resources, but they’ve been exploited by multi-nationals for decades. As a result, there’s been minimal benefit for Liberians, most of whom live below the poverty line.

Boakai appears well suited for his “man-of-the-people” image, political watchers in Liberia say. A former rubber plantation worker, he has obviously cut his teeth in governance and is deeply rooted in Liberian rural traditions to feel the pulse of Liberia’s vast rural population. He is expectedly knowledgeable about what the challenges are.

Born on November 30, 1944, in the remote village of Worsonga in Foya District, Lofa County, he served as the 29th vice president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018 under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He was also the Minister of Agriculture from 1983 to 1985 and so has a clear knowledge of Liberia’s agricultural demands.

Pundits say he also has deep understanding of the workings of Liberia’s legislature. As vice president, he was the president of the Liberian Senate and presided over plenary sessions of that body for two days each week. He also performed supervisory functions over a number of institutions and agencies including the Liberia National Lotteries (LOTTO), the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA), the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE), and the National Commission on Disarmament Demobilization Resettlement and Reintegration (NCDDRR).

Active in philanthropic efforts, Boakai supervised and personally financed a 7-mile (11.3 kilometre) rural village road construction near Warsonga in Lofa county, Liberia.

He also worked with the Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY) and the Danish Youth to construct a school for 150 students and clinic for a community of 10 villages. He was active in organising and fund raising for rural electrification of Foya Kama in Lofa County, Northern Liberia.

Political commentators say a leader with that much experience in governance should be able to take significant steps in fighting the many corruption scandals that plagued the Weah government, which has reduced trust in government, and ensure delivery of the most basic services that Liberians demand, such as health, education and power, at affordable rates. If he achieves this, he would have addressed some of the most pressing needs of Liberians, they say.

There are those who are sceptical about Boakai’s chances, considering that he was a part of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf government that had its fair share of scandals. However, some political watchers paint a picture of what the Sirleaf government had to confront.

Faced with the daunting task of rebuilding the country from the ravages of two civil wars, Sirleaf’s government commenced what is considered one of the toughest reconstruction efforts faced by any government on the continent.

A complete overhaul of the country’s infrastructure was expedient, so also was the need to rehabilitate over a million lives that had been displaced. On top of that, Liberia gained global attention with the debilitating effect of the Ebola scourge, which claimed over three thousand lives and put the country’s economy and healthcare infrastructure under severe strain. The pundits say recording some success under those circumstances is considered a significant achievement.

On the need for political alliances, it is expected that Boakai’s cabinet would broadly reflect the endorsements in the lead-up to the run-off elections. There is no doubt that concessions would be made, but the extent to which the concessions would alter the objective of his government is what many commentators cannot ascertain as yet.

A troubling subject that may test the strength of the alliance is the uncertainty about what action would be taken on the final report of Liberia’s 2009 Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In his manifesto, Boakai promised to organise a National Peace and Reconciliation Conference to “pursue a genuine path for total reconciliation and recovery for victims, survivors, families, communities, ethnic groups and citizenry.”

However, Prince Johnson, former rebel leader turned Senator, with whom Boakai formed an alliance during the campaign, has condemned the establishment of the court and had promised not to campaign for anyone who supports a war crimes court on multiple occasions.

How Boakai intends to navigate this would be a test of his political insight. Many say a balancing act is possible that would either see him save face before his supporters or Johnson acceding to some shift in his position.

Beyond the personalities involved in determining the final outcome in the just-concluded political race, Liberian politics often convey a constrained sense of belief in the prerogative of hope, because few places have seen their contemporary politics conditioned, and at the same time altered, by the long shadow of a violent history more than Liberia.

For many Liberians, the country’s current challenges represent a major shift from the pre-civil war years that many have described as normalised. This term illustrates a growing perception among a section of the population that the years preceding a devastating civil war that displaced half of the population and killed between 150,000 and 250,000 Liberians were representative of considerable political and economic stability that the country struggles to rebuild again.

However, this is not an accurate representation of the country’s pre-civil war history. What is not mentioned is the fact that that period encompasses the era of Americo-Liberian dominance that began at independence in 1847, and which ended with a 1980 coup d’état, and deteriorated further during the period in which junta leader Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, elected to the presidency in the controversial polls of 1985, was in charge. The fact that that era ended with the outbreak of civil war in 1989 speaks to its distortions and eventual collapse.

It is understandable why the post war years still convey a sense of normalcy for many. After all, the country has yet to recover fully from staggering infrastructural collapse. Power plants and roads were destroyed, with the health and education sectors completely decimated.

By 2005, studies showed that the average income in Liberia was just one quarter of what it had been in 1987, and just one sixth of its level in 1979. In 2023, the Commonwealth Youth Development Index (YDI) ranks the country 145th out of 181 in its Youth Development Index (YDI). These statistics show that the road to recovery remains arduous.

With these indices, Boakai’s government will not just be rebuilding shattered infrastructure but also making strenuous efforts to build a country without the social and political conditions that ignited the conflict in the first place. It would need to address issues of equality among the different social groups as well as rebuild confidence in state institutions.

It would also need to address economic realities and ensure that the gains made in the implementation of its policies and programmes reach all sections of the population and are not seen as designed to serve the interests of a few, as the actions of the Weah government were perceived

Boakai’s task is well cut out as he would have to fix the myriad of challenges that many say have set the country on a spiral that could eventually create an environment for social disturbances, a situation the country would not be able to manage.

The question many political watchers are asking is if Boakai is different from a political elite that has been seen as conveniently cut off from the realities facing majority of Liberians, or if he truly represents the total shift in attitude and direction that he has promised.