By Togba-Nah Tipoteh
To be credible promises that one makes must be delivered. In the midst of the longstanding and widespread problem of poverty, the people of Liberia have high expectations of change for the better when a new State regime comes in. Such expectations exist as Liberia has a new State regime with the incoming of the Unity Party (UP)-led government. But to the disappointment of the people, promises made by UP have not been delivered.
There are several examples of the promises made by the UP, but they have not been delivered. Starting with the eradication of poverty, the colonial system of the production of raw materials for export continues with no indication of termination. Then there is the promise about assets declaration before taking up offices. Assets have not been declared as yet. There is the promise that no vehicle would be stuck on any road in Liberia within 100 days. With more than two weeks gone, there is no indication that this promise will be delivered in the remaining weeks.
Of recent concern is the issue about the balance of money left in the State coffers at the Centra Bank of Liberia (CBL). Although public reports on all aspects of financial management through monetary policy are made quarterly by the CBL, the new government underreported the balance in the CBL by some 100 per cent (USD40.4 million versus USD20.5 million). In fact, the media institutions in Liberia have released the foregoing information, which is readily available to the public.
As for the information about the dominating system in Liberia, credible information has been available to the public locally and globally since the 1950s. One can find such information in: Robert Clower et al, Growth Without Development, Northwestern University Press, 1966; Thomas Piketty, Capital and Ideology, Harvard University Press, 2022 and Amos Sawyer, No Land No Vote, Wahala Publishing House, 2023.
The best way to deliver promises that have been made is the continuation of the awareness raising that the people who love Liberia are engaged in. It is this awareness raising that is working well and stopping violence as well as preventing it. Most of the National Legislators who wanted to be re-elected were not re-elected because of their bad records. Violence is not the answer to the problems of Liberia or any Country. Therefore. the answer to the problems in Liberia is the of the awareness raising to motivate the people to take actions within the Rule of Law to have persons with good records elected to bring in the system of Justice, the indispensable ingredient for Peace and Progress in Liberia and in any other Country. This solution will be repeated in my Commentaries because poverty continues to prevail, and it has become the pretext for violence. Therefore, for people who are against violence and poverty, they have to keep on spreading the solution to these problems of society.
