MONROVIA – Outgoing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Representative Acarous Moses Gray has attributed the defeat of the ruling party in the just ended presidential and legislative elections to the failure of relevant authorities of both the government and party to adequately respond to the barrage of deceits and propagandas that were being orchestrated and released by the opposition against the CDC and the government in particular.
By Obediah Johnson
Former Ambassador Boakai of the Unity Party (UP) was pronounced the winner of the presidential run-off elections held on November 14 by the National Elections Commission (NEC). He defeated incumbent President George Manneh Weah of the governing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC).
Lawmaker Gray, who is the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Executive, is representing the people of electoral district # 8 in the National Legislature.
Speaking in an interview with FrontPage Africa via telephone recently, Representative Gray observed that the government and ruling party failed to prioritize public relations prior to the conduct of the elections.
He said the opposition used lies and propagandas as a tool to black-paint the government, but the Weah led-administration did not act swiftly to address these strategies from the opposition.
“I know that there were massive lies and propagandas against the CDC and I always considered that we didn’t do well in terms of public relations. The lies and deception were just too much against the government.”
“You can see clearly that there were deceptions; they argued that they will improve the economy and increase civil servants salaries and destroy the harmonization (introduced by the CDC) when they come to power. But now, there are key persons among them like the former Finance Minister Amara Konneh who is on his (social media) page every day telling people to minimize their expectations.”
Representative Gray insisted that the incoming governing UP raised the expectations of the Liberian people by engaging into propagandas and deceits against the CDC led-administration to make it appear that they could change the narratives and as such, they should perform their “miracles” and desist from professing that “the economy is not good.”
Reluctant to react
He claimed that the government, through the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism viewed those public relations stunts from the opposition as “lies” that should not be responded to.
This, he said spilled over to the CDC, which was reluctant to also promptly counter-react deceptions and lies from the opposition prior to the elections.
“What happened in the government circle affected the party (CDC) during the elections. We didn’t counter-react to the public relations that were against us. The public relations against us were massively devilish and we were saying ‘oh it’s a lie and we don’t need to run after it. But those lies came back to haunt us.”
Questioning Morlu, Others
The combat against corruption and the promotion of accountability and transparency in the governance process topped his campaign promises to Liberians.
Since the pronouncement of Ambassador Boakai as Liberia’s next President, executives and supporters of the president-elect have joined him to call for a comprehensive audit of the Weah led-administration.
Key among them is John Sembe Morlu, former Auditor General of Liberia, who led the campaign to raise fund for the election of Ambassador Boakai. Under an international arrangement, Morlu was directly contracted by the European Union (EU) to serve as Auditor General for the Government of Liberia during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
He fell out of favor with the ex-Liberian leader due to his uncompromising stance to combat against corruption in the post-conflict nation.
However, Mr. Morlu is leading the asset recovery team of the incoming government.
He has been uncompromising in putting in place plans and strategies that would lead to the possible investigation and prosecution of current and former public officials who have stolen state resources to enrich themselves to the detriment of the country and the struggling masses.
But the appointment of Mr. Morlu and other former government officials on the transitional and inaugural teams and those that have already been shortlisted for jobs is not going down well with the CDC lawmaker.
Representative Gray accused President-elect Boakai of hiring those he called “old wine in new bottle.”
He claimed that many of those on the transitional and inaugural teams of the incoming Unity Party led-government previously worked in the administration of ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Representative Gray made specific reference to former Liberian Auditor General John Morlu.
He questioned the rationale behind Mr. Morlu working for the UP administration he described as being three times more corrupt than the former transitional government of Charles Gyude Bryant when President-elect Boakai was serving as Vice President of Liberia.
“We are seeing the same character and names surfacing. It raises questions on their ability to fight corruption. From the names and people we are seeing on the transitional and inaugural teams and hearing about, there will be nothing but a partisan security apparatus.”
The expressed uncompromising zest of the incoming Liberian government of Joseph Nyuma Boakai to conduct an audit of the past and current administrations continues to ring loud in the ears of former and current government officials.
Audit could curtail culture of impunity
Though for rock of ages, post-conflict Liberia and its citizens have been enslaved to the culture of impunity, many see the call to public service as the fastest means to enrich themselves by accumulating ill-gotten and questionable wealth to the detriment of the masses.
Most often, public officials accused of corruption have not been prosecuted or made to restitute stolen funds. This makes the act of corruption habitual.
Many audit and investigation reports released by integrity institutions, including the General Auditing Commission (GAC), Financial Internal Audit (FIA) and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) accusing or booking public officials and other private companies and individuals of corruption have not been acted upon.
These reports continue to be shelved at the National Legislature and the Executive Mansion-the seat of the Liberian presidency, giving ground for intense stealing of public funds without any remorse or fear by many of those in authorities.
Despite the abundance of natural resources including gold, diamond, timber, rubber, fertile soil, among others, the living conditions of vast majority of Liberians remain appalling.
A 2022 World Bank report on Liberia shows that poverty is prevalent in rural areas and is home to 71.7 percent of the poor, while accounting for 68 percent of the total population. The high rate of poverty in the country is attributed to growing wave of corruption in the public sector and bad governance.
An estimated 64 percent of Liberians live below the poverty line and 1.3 million live in extreme poverty, out of a population of 4.6 million, according to World Food Programme (WFP).
According to Transparency International, low public sector salaries and a lack of decent training create the incentive for corruption in Liberia.
The recovery of assets acquired by former or current government officials through fraudulent or dubious means would help ensure that stolen funds and public properties are restituted or retrieved from those found culpable.
The confiscation of their properties obtained from stolen funds and incarceration would serve as deterrence to would-be corrupt public officials.
It would also help erase the entrenched negative perception of many coming to public service to enrich themselves or engage into shady deals for the benefit of them and their respective family members, cronies, and others, thereby denying majority of Liberians from benefitting from the country’s wealth.
The audit would also guarantee worth for donors’ funds by preventing grants or loans intended for specified projects ending up in the pockets of selective few public officials.
The defeat of President Weah came as shocking news to thousands of his supporting as well as government officials.
However, the Liberian Leader conceded to defeat and reneged on rigging the elections to please others in his government.
Since then, his party has been in disarray as evidenced by the National Youth League continuous’ threat to stage a protest on inauguration day and plans to expel him from the CDC for taking “a unilateral decision” to accept the outcome of the elections.
However, Representative Gray has denied that the party is divided.