President Advisor: Don’t substitute welfare for projects

By Lincoln G. Peters

President George Weah’s Communication Advisor Gabriel Nyekan, describes the state of affairs under the Weah administration as “troubling and embarrassing”, noting that the government is substituting the welfare of the people for projects.

“You see when the Minister of Finance Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. announced for the first time a post-war revenue envelop but while the announcement is being aired and bragged about, people cannot find food to eat, it is something of deep concern and troubling”, he notes.

Speaking on Monday, January 3, 2022, on ‘OK Morning Rush’, a live radio magazine, Mr. Nyekan observed that the Government of Liberia is not dealing with the bread and butter issues of the country, something; he underscored needs deep-sober consideration.

“I will never in any day as a political economist substitute the welfare of the people for any project. When you do that in humanist democracy, you will build the roads and construct the best buildings but there will be nobody to walk on them because they all might have been gone by then”, the Presidential Advisor explains.

He also points out that people in leadership should understand that leadership is about sacrificing for those in need rather than selves, lamenting that personal acquisition of wealth while serving in public office or in leadership should be of concern.

Nyekan,  a former lawmaker, who cross-carpeted from the former ruling Unity Party to President Weah’s governing Congress for Democratic Change, stresses that it’s time the Government of Liberia looks at the economy by empowering Liberians in rice and other business activities in order to have control over the market.

He notes that for too long foreigners have controlled the stomach of the Liberian people and other major market sectors across the country, adding that by doing so “we will deconstruct monopoly.”

“We can grow our own million and bring our own business, but the government will have to strengthen our people financially and promote them. We have to make sure that we prioritize the bread and butter issues because development will make no good when we do not have people to use them”, the Presidential Advisor concludes. Editing by Jonathan Browne