Published: October 5, 2026
MONROVIA – President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s government is falling short on agriculture, roads, the rule of law, and concessions, and the president bears responsibility, former Ambassador-at-Large Sheik Al-Moustapha Kouyateh said, a critique made sharper by the fact that his Liberia First Movement remains part of the governing coalition.
By Masefane Konneh
Kouyateh, whom Boakai relieved of his post in June after a House of Representatives vote of no confidence over his remarks about lawmakers, stopped short of calling the administration a failure.
“I can’t call this government a failure because it has gone just two years,” he said. “But I can say clearly that the government is not performing impressively.”
Asked who should ultimately be held responsible, he said: “The President.”
Kouyateh argued that the president’s national mandate and his power to approve laws and concession agreements place the burden on him, not lawmakers.
“Lawmakers are elected by districts, but the president is elected by every Liberian,” he said. “Lawmakers, they pass concession agreements, but who approves it? The President.”
He said the criticism is not a break with the coalition. “My political party, the Liberia First Movement, is a member of the coalition and remains member of the coalition,” he said. “I’m not speaking as a partisan. I’m speaking as a stakeholder.”
Leaving government, he said, has freed him to speak without first seeking clearance. “Today I have a voice where I can speak without any limitation,” he said.
At the center of his argument is a distinction between effort and results.
“Yes, President Boakai made some promises. Yes, he made some efforts, but there’s a difference between efforts and success,” Kouyateh said. He contrasted flying a malaria patient to London for treatment, which he called effort, with treating the same patient at Redemption Hospital, which he called success.
He conceded the administration may compare favorably with its predecessors but described Liberia’s politics as “a competition of failure,” in which each government repeats what it once condemned.
Measuring the administration against its own ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development, Kouyateh started with agriculture, its first pillar.
“When you look at the budget, the budget does not have much in it for agriculture,” he said. “How can you implement the ARREST agenda when agriculture is not even prioritized?”
On the rule of law, he faulted the handling of officials in tenure positions and those accused of corruption, who he said were suspended pending investigation and then immediately replaced.
“You cannot suspend someone so that the person will go on an investigation and immediately replace the person,” he said. “That is not rule of law.”
He acknowledged ongoing road construction but questioned its durability. “Last year, dry season, we celebrated them. This year, rainy season, those same roads are deplorable,” he said. “Show me one road that got started and completed.”
On concessions, Kouyateh accused the administration of inconsistency over the Roberts International Airport road project and its contractor.
“Our administration condemned that the contractor was not qualified, that they were not doing good job, they had no history of such project,” he said. He also questioned why the MIDAS concession and port-related agreements criticized in opposition were later continued or renewed.
His sharpest accusation concerned the prosecution of a former vice president in a drug case.
“And I can say it anywhere, that what happened to the former vice president was a witch hunt,” he said. “If it was not a witch hunt, the government had a channel of contacting this woman to come and clarify.”
He alleged that others linked to the drugs were spared. “The police car that escorted the drugs from one end to another was never investigated,” he said. “They were never put behind bars.”
Kouyateh did not name the former vice president. Former Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor is being prosecuted over allegations arising from a government investigation into an alleged cocaine trafficking network. The Liberian Investigator has not independently verified Kouyateh’s claims about a police escort or the handling of other suspects.
Kouyateh said accountability should not be mistaken for wishing the government ill. “If the government fails, it means that we have failed,” he said.
“We must remind the administration, those in government, that they are not gods,” he said. “You should not fear your leaders.”
Discussion about this post