Published: October 9, 2026
MONROVIA — Opposition leader Musa Hassan Bility said Thursday that the government’s collection of more than US$1 billion in domestic revenue has done nothing to improve ordinary Liberians’ lives. He called it “growth without development.”
“What has changed? You know anything that has changed? Nothing,” Bility, political leader of the Citizens Movement for Change, said on Voice of Liberia.
Bility praised the Liberia Revenue Authority and its commissioner general, James Dorbor Jallah, for raising the money. But he said collecting revenue and delivering development are separate responsibilities, and the government should not present the first as proof of the second.
He pointed to unreliable electricity, poor support for health workers, the situation of volunteer teachers and little visible road construction as areas where the extra revenue should be showing results. He said citizens should see improvements in their communities before the government celebrates its revenue as a development success.
Bility also dismissed President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s recent address to the United Nations General Assembly, saying such speeches should be judged by what they deliver at home.
“The man can speak good English,” Bility said. “It has no value to me.”
He said the delegation that accompanied Boakai to New York was too large. “I think that the number of people that went with the President was high. It could have been a little less,” he said.
Bility said Liberia should focus on domestic development and on closer ties with its neighbors through the Mano River Union and the African Union. He asked why Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire have not integrated their economies enough to allow people, goods and services to move freely.
He said the government should rely less on paid lobbying in the United States and instead mobilize Liberians in America to engage U.S. lawmakers and officials.
He also called for stronger protection of diaspora investments, particularly land and housing. He cited cases where Liberians abroad say they lost money because relatives and others managed their investments, and said better safeguards would encourage more diaspora investment.
Bility said his party will unveil a governance policy document, the Covenant Framework, in November. He said it will set out how the Citizens Movement for Change would govern, including reforms to the executive, the judiciary and local government. He said political parties must offer practical, measurable plans rather than election promises.
Asked about the indictment of former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor and others in the cocaine trafficking case, Bility declined to comment on the allegations. He said indictments are allegations that must be tested in court and are not proof of guilt.
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