Published: October 26, 2026
MONROVIA – President Joseph Nyuma Boakai said Friday that he has asked a small number of officials in his government to step aside, and that some have been reluctant. He told his Cabinet that no one in the administration should treat an appointment as a personal entitlement as the government heads into a midterm review he warned would yield unflattering reports on some officials.
By Lennart Dodoo
Boakai disclosed the requests at the start of the administration’s 26th Cabinet meeting, where he welcomed new members who joined in a recent reshuffle, including a justice minister-designate and a commerce minister-designate. He did not name the officials he had asked to leave, say how many there were or say which posts they hold.
“By the way, there are very few people we have asked not to fire anybody, but to ask to move out. Some have been reluctant,” Boakai said.
He told the Cabinet that the requests were not a judgment on anyone’s ability. “It’s not that we believe that you’re not competent or so forth, but there are some jobs that people are better fitted in, and they can perform better. It’s not a matter of prestige. It’s a matter of service,” he said.
Using a proverb about the head and the eye, Boakai said an appointee might want a job that the presidency judges to be beyond them. “I know you want to take it, but it’s a little bit too much. So go somewhere else where you can serve your country,” he said.
These are the first remarks in which the president has acknowledged resistance from inside his own appointee ranks, and they came as his administration moves into the second half of its six-year term. He tied them directly to a new push on performance tracking. He said the head of the President’s Delivery Unit would now report to the Cabinet regularly on what each institution is delivering, and that some of those reports “will not be so encouraging.”
Boakai saved his sharpest language for deputy ministers and assistant ministers, who he said hold titles but contribute little. “This is a country where I know some people even pray that you don’t call them, that you don’t remember them. They just be there. And that’s not working,” he said.
He told ministers to put pressure on their subordinates and to replace those who do not perform. “If they’re not working, it’s not friendship club. It’s not family club. Make people work. If they don’t work, sometimes we have to replace them,” Boakai said. He told ministers not to worry when those they push look for a reason to complain, as long as their own consciences are clear.
The president also told officials who award and supervise government contracts to stop accepting substandard work from contractors. “They want to shortchange you. They want to put all kind of flimsy things. You’re giving it to the Liberians. They deserve the best. And you should not compromise on quality,” he said. He cited renovation work at the University of Liberia. He said he has sometimes had to personally check the quality of the chairs being supplied, and he told officials not to reject a contractor simply because the price is high.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Director of Cabinet Nathaniel Kwabo said contracts that do not deliver value for public money are “unacceptable” and “intolerable.” “Don’t just give contracts because you want to give contracts,” Kwabo said, describing the president’s position. “We’ve seen this in the country for so many years where people just for their own interest will issue contracts no matter how bad it is.”
Kwabo said the Cabinet endorsed every item before it. These included an interim strategy to create 100,000 jobs, which he said the government expects to reach within 15 months. He said the jobs would come from several sectors, including public works, and that the interim plan would lead to a longer strategy running to the end of the administration’s term. According to Kwabo’s opening remarks, the PDU and the Ministry of Agriculture presented the plan, which said the strategy grew out of a Cabinet discussion late last year on the country’s job situation. Neither official said how they would count the jobs, what they would cost, or how they would fund them.
The Cabinet also endorsed a Liberia Revenue Authority proposal to register mobile phones entering the country. Kwabo said phones have been coming through ports of entry without being recorded or taxed, and that the new system would track them and raise revenue. In his opening remarks he described the system as important for both security and revenue. Neither official said when registration would begin, what it would cost phone owners, or whether it would cover phones already in use.
The Cabinet approved standing committees, organized by sector, to review technical policy proposals from ministries, agencies, and commissions before they go to the full Cabinet. It also endorsed a baseline proposal from the PDU and the Cabinet Office to speed up government delivery.
Kwabo said officials who claim results in their performance contracts with the president must back those claims with evidence through the Performance Management and Compliance System, and that a new citizen feedback mechanism will check what ministers and agency heads report. Officials should not “wear their titles on their sleeves,” he said, adding that “the president is always someone who is in a hurry.”
Boakai framed the remainder of his term around those measures. “So I hope that as we come to the end of three years, the remaining three years will be an emphasis on performance, on quality and ensuring that we deliver for the Liberian people,” he said.
He also told the Cabinet that critics should have demanded much of what they do of his government decades ago. He pointed to the lack of parks and playgrounds in Monrovia and to rising road construction costs. “It’s a matter of the courage to do what is right,” he said.
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