Published: July 11, 2025
Monrovia — The National Youth League of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has thrown its full weight behind the July 17 “We the People” protest, a growing anti-government movement spearheaded by STAND, civil society organization headed by the former chairman of the CDC. In a statement delivered during an endorsement rally in the densely populated West Point community, the Youth League accused President Joseph Nyuma Boakai of presiding over a corrupt and oppressive regime and called on Liberians to rise in mass protest.
Youth League Chairman Emmanuel M. Johnson did not mince words in his condemnation of the Unity Party-led government. Addressing a crowd of young supporters, Johnson said that since the Unity Party assumed power in January, Liberia has been plunged into deeper hardship, rampant corruption, and widespread suffering.
“Corruption is no longer an exception under this government, it’s the new order,” Johnson declared. “Liberians are dying from hunger and sickness while government officials loot state resources, and President Boakai merely suspends them in the name of appearances,” he alleged.
The July 17 protest, organized under the banner of the “We the People Movement” and led by STAND Chairman Mulbah K. Morlu, is gaining momentum as citizens frustrated by economic hardship and poor governance prepare to take to the streets.
Johnson outlined a litany of grievances fueling the League’s decision to join the protest: alarming levels of sexual and gender-based violence, the erosion of the rule of law, unchecked police brutality, mounting youth unemployment, and widening economic inequality. He painted a bleak picture of daily life for ordinary Liberians, calling the protest a necessary stand against what he termed “national decay.”
“We mourn the daily untold suffering of countless Liberians who are denied food, medicine, and housing, while corrupt government officials enrich themselves,” Johnson said. “And Mr. Boakai shields their theft with cosmetic suspensions.”
Ramping up his rhetoric, Johnson called the President a “creeping dictator” and warned that the youth of Liberia will not sit idle while their future is compromised by what he described as systemic failure.
“Let the world know that the youth of Liberia will not inherit a broken nation without resistance,” he said passionately. “We are the torchbearers of justice, dignity, and accountability. We will not kneel before power that abuses or whisper our dissent in hiding out of fear.”
The Youth League Chairman urged all segments of society—youth, students, women, workers, and the “dejected masses”—to join the July 17 protest, saying it will be a national declaration that the people will no longer be silenced by misrule.
Receiving the Youth League’s statement of endorsement, the head of the protest organizing committee praised the CDC youth wing for its boldness. “This is no longer about politics,” the protest chairman said. “It’s about standing up for the ordinary Liberian, against corruption, against bad governance, against hardship and poverty.”
The protest’s lead organizer, Mulbah K. Morlu, who is also chair of STAND, has repeatedly called for the peaceful assembly of citizens on July 17, warning the Liberia National Police to stop harassing demonstrators. “This protest will be peaceful,” Morlu has maintained, while accusing the government of using intimidation tactics to stifle civic expression.
The protest is expected to span multiple counties, with organizers aiming for a nationwide turnout. For many, it will be a referendum on the Boakai administration’s first six months in office—a period increasingly defined by unmet expectations and deepening social unrest.
While critics accuse the CDC of opportunism, Johnson insists the Youth League’s support is based on principle, not partisanship. “This is not about who is in power,” he said. “This is about what is right.”
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