President Joseph Nyuma Boakai has praised the determination of the Liberian people in ensuring that the country was rescued from the previous CDC-led Administration during the 2023 elections.

The President said, if the previous Government had stayed in power for at least two more years, Liberia would have been a different place; indicating that the country was already drifting away in chaos, and life was becoming worse for the Liberian people.

President Boakai was speaking over the weekend at Staten Island in New York city, United States, where the Liberian community there organized a welcome ceremony and townhall meeting in his honor.

The Liberian leader continued that “it is the responsibility of every leadership in every country to uphold the people’s dignity, by ensuring that the people benefit quality healthcare, good education, good roads, water, energy and electricity,” among many other amenities the President said Liberians are entitled to.

The President continued that the previous administration was failing the Liberian people and that, well-meaning Liberians, including Liberians in the diasporas could not sit and allow the country to go down in tatters; referencing the Biblical text in James 4:17, “he who knows how to do good, but fails, is guilty of sin.”

President Boakai then assured the audience that his administration was committed to total transformation of Liberia, for Liberians and for foreigners residing in Liberia; noting that “we want to build a country that is attractive to Liberians and their families including those abroad that when they come home to visit, they will never want to leave.”

The President, then, recounted the several actions he took in the early days of his administration, to signal his resolve to lead Liberia in the right direction including, signing the Code of Conduct, declaring and publishing his assets, taking a drug test to signal his determination to fight and win the war on drugs and his issuance of Executive Order 131, for the establishment of war and economic crimes courts.

Expanding on the War Crimes court, the President said Liberians deserve accountability especially for crimes that were committed against them during the civil wars.

The President recounted a poignant reminder of the silent sufferings that many Liberians, scarred by the civil wars, are going through: “perpetrators of crimes and abuses against the Liberian people are, in most cases, holding leadership positions in the country; while their victims languish in pain every day.”

The President also assured that the War Crimes Court which is being established is not intended to witch-hunt anyone and that people should embrace the court and the opportunity it provides for accusers and accused to face each other and iron out whatever pains that are still lingering from the war years.

President Boakai also assured Liberians that his work to court investors around the world to come to the country and invest is being done with the Liberian people at the center; and that investors coming to the country to invest will be held to strict standards in the interest of the Liberian people.

The President and his team are in New York for the next few days where the President will address the UN General Assembly and launch Liberia’s bid for a non-permanent UN Security Council seat.

-###-