https://www.facebook.com/903827100005552/

News Ganjaa, God Blessed You Hill, Monrovia (2026)

15/09/2026

Letter From Saclepea
With Musa Hassan Bility

Political Opponents Are Not Enemies

This week, I want to talk about HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS.

Not political alliances. Not endorsements. Not visits. Not telephone calls.

Human relationships.

I am increasingly troubled by the belief that political disagreement must become personal hatred. In Liberia today, people judge your political loyalty by whom you visit, whose telephone call you answer, whom you call a friend, and whose family remains close to yours.

We are gradually losing something more important than any election. We are losing our humanity.

One of the core reasons the Citizens Movement for Change was founded was to help change this kind of politics. CMC was founded on the conviction that we can take an independent and honest look at Liberian politics. We can disagree philosophically, politically, and on policy without destroying our culture, our family relationships, our friendships, or our respect for one another.

This belief did not begin with CMC. It has defined my political life from the beginning.

I was introduced to politics in August 1990, during the formation of the Interim Government led by Dr. Amos Sawyer. The late Clifford L. Flemister first introduced me to the late Sheik Kafumba Konneh, and through them I came to know Dr. Sawyer.

Those men taught me one of the earliest and most important lessons of my life: people can disagree deeply and still preserve the human relationship.

That lesson stayed with me throughout the civil war.

I watched Liberians who had once lived together, eaten together, and called one another family take opposing sides and turn against each other. Friends and relatives became enemies. People who had shared communities and histories killed one another.

That experience convinced me never to participate in the war, regardless of how dangerous it became, how closely it touched my life, or what happened to my family.

I understood that when politics, grievance, ethnicity, and the struggle for power are separated from our humanity, they can consume an entire country.

As I entered mainstream politics, I repeatedly tested this principle.

During President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's administration, Edwin Snowe, who is one of my closest friends, came under fire. At the time, he was at odds with the government, and there were determined efforts to remove him as Speaker.

Some people expected me to prove my loyalty by abandoning my friendship with Edwin. I refused.

I respected President Sirleaf and was loyal to her, but I would not let political conflict determine whom I could call my friend. I give President Sirleaf credit because she understood and acknowledged that distinction.

My friendship with George Weah also goes back many years through football.

When he became President, I was a full member of the Liberty Party. I wanted Counselor Charles Walker Brumskine to become President. I did not join President Weah’s government, and I did not become an active supporter of his administration. I remained in the opposition.

Yet some of the same people who are in power today tried to portray my friendship with George Weah as political support for his government. They questioned my loyalty, attacked my character, and damaged my reputation because I refused to treat a longtime friend as an enemy.

I paid a political price for that position, but I refused to allow anyone to choose my friends for me.

The same thing happened when I met Alexander Cummings.

I listened to him. I understood what he stood for, and I believed we shared important values about leadership, competence, accountability, and Liberia's future. I decided to support him.

That relationship also created serious political difficulties for me. People who opposed Mr. Cummings attacked me, questioned my motives, and tried to destroy what we were building.

We experienced difficulties within our political parties and among our supporters, but Mr. Cummings and I preserved our relationship. Our families also maintained their relationship. That is how politics should be.

This week, some friends in the opposition questioned whether I had recently visited President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and whether I had visited Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung.

The questions were not simply expressions of curiosity. They carried an accusation.

My answer is simple. While it is true that I didn't visit President Boakai or have any such plan, I owe no political actor an apology if I ever did.

A visit is not an endorsement. A telephone conversation is not a coalition. Friendship is not political surrender. Courtesy is not betrayal.

I am not a member of this government. I do not belong to the Unity Party, and I do not support this administration's political direction. I intend to work democratically to replace it and offer the Liberian people a better alternative.

But the Vice President and I know each other. We come from the same geographical part of Liberia, and we carry the same traditional title in Nimba. Those cultural and human bonds do not disappear because we belong to different political parties.

We disagree politically. We will compete for power. I'm working to democratically unseat the government he serves while still respecting our human relationship.

No supporter, opponent, political party, or commentator will determine whom I can visit, speak with, or call a friend.

This is where Liberian politics has lost its way.

Instead of debating policies, competence, jobs, education, healthcare, roads, justice, corruption, and the cost of living, we spend our time monitoring whose home someone visited and whose telephone call someone answered.

Everything has become personal.
Everything has become suspicious. Everything has become an attempt to destroy someone else.

Even educated people who should elevate our national conversation now define political loyalty through visits, friendships, photographs, and telephone conversations.

This is why policy has disappeared from our politics. It is also why political power in Liberia increasingly feels like a matter of life and death.

When people in government believe that losing power will mean humiliation, persecution, imprisonment, or the destruction of everything they have, they will look for every possible way to remain in power.

When people in opposition believe that winning gives them the right to punish everyone associated with the defeated government, politics becomes revenge.

A healthy democracy must make it safe to lose. The winner must be able to govern without vengeance. The loser must be able to accept defeat, return home with dignity, reorganize, and compete again.

This is not an argument against accountability. Anyone who violates the law must answer under the law. But accountability must come through independent institutions, due process, and equal justice. It must never become an instrument of political revenge.

Friendship must never provide immunity from the law, but opposition must never require enmity.

CMC was founded to model a different political culture.

We will criticize what is wrong, support what is right, and offer alternatives wherever we disagree. We will protect our independence and our identity, but we will not build our movement around hatred.

We will not ask Liberians to abandon their families, communities, traditions, and friendships to prove their political loyalty.

Some people will misunderstand this. Some will weaponize every photograph, every visit, and every conversation. They are free to do so.

I have lived through too much and learned from too many people to surrender this conviction now.

If preserving my human relationships costs me political support, alliances, votes, or even my political ambition, so be it.

No political office is worth losing my humanity.

I will disagree without hatred. I will oppose without dehumanizing. I will preserve friendships without surrendering my principles. I will stand for accountability without supporting vengeance.

That is the politics I have tried to practice since 1990. That is the politics CMC must represent. And that is the contribution I hope to make toward changing our country.

Political opponents do not have to become enemies.

When the campaigns end, when governments change, and when today’s winners eventually become tomorrow’s opposition, we will still be Liberians.

We will still need one another.

Have a pleasant new week.

15/09/2026

Opinion
With George Kronnisanyon Werner

"Money finished, Go Home!”

You have heard the song in Liberia. It comes to mind as some Liberians celebrate the billion-dollar revenue milestone, as though one billion United States dollars has suddenly arrived and the sharing is about to begin.

But the sharing did not wait for the celebration. Government has been spending revenue as it came in. The announcement does not mean a fresh billion dollars is sitting somewhere, available for new demands.

That distinction matters economically. It matters even more politically.

September is halfway through. The final quarter is approaching. Government has operated throughout the year, paying salaries, meeting operating expenses and financing activities. Those obligations did not pause while the Liberia Revenue Authority worked toward its collection target.

Consider a civil servant whose salary was harmonized to US$150 a month. After ten months, that worker can say, “I have earned US$1,500.” But nobody should interpret that statement as an invitation to come and share US$1,500.

The worker has been buying food, paying transportation, helping family and meeting other obligations. The money was earned, but it has also been used. Adding up the payments does not put the money back into the worker’s pocket.

So it is with government. The Liberia Revenue Authority collects revenue. The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning manages allocations and releases under the approved budget. Public institutions spend the funds they receive. This process continues throughout the year while the collection total rises.

LRA raises it. Finance releases it. Public institutions spend it.

Reaching one billion does not reverse those transactions. Money already used to pay salaries, purchase supplies or settle bills does not return because the revenue counter has reached a historic number.

Digested. Eaten. Gone.

Here, “eaten” means absorbed into expenditure, not automatically stolen. A teacher’s salary is expenditure. Medicine purchased for a clinic is expenditure. A contractor’s payment is expenditure. Whether the money was spent properly is an important question, but it is separate from the basic point: money already spent is no longer waiting to be shared.

The collection figure alone does not establish precisely what remains in government accounts. But neither does it establish that the entire billion remains available. It records receipts over time, while spending has been taking place over that same period.

Unless this is explained, the celebration risks sending the wrong political message.

Citizens may hear “one billion collected” and understand “one billion now available.” Civil servants may expect immediate salary increases. Communities may expect new roads. Hospitals, schools and public institutions may anticipate additional funding. Each demand may be understandable, but the announcement itself has not created a new pool of money to meet them.

When those expectations go unmet, an achievement in revenue collection can become a source of political frustration.

“You said you have one billion dollars. Why can’t you pay?”

At that point, continuing financial constraints may be interpreted as unwillingness to act. The public may conclude that government has the money but refuses to use it. A celebration intended to build confidence can instead create suspicion because the headline travelled further than the explanation.

To be fair, Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has reportedly cautioned that reaching the threshold would not mean “milk and honey is flowing on Broad Street.” That warning deserves to be central to the message.

Stronger domestic revenue is worth recognizing. It can help Liberia finance public services and reduce dependence on uncertain external assistance. Taxpayers and revenue officials deserve credit. But recognition should come with a plain explanation that these collections have been supporting the budget throughout the year.

Government should state what was collected over the reporting period, what has been spent, what remains and what obligations still need to be met. That would help citizens understand the achievement without mistaking it for a windfall.

The message should be simple enough to survive beyond a press conference: government has collected this amount over time, and it has been using the revenue to meet public expenses along the way.

New requests must therefore be considered against remaining resources, existing obligations and expected future receipts. They cannot be financed by counting money already spent a second time.

“Money finished, go home” is a refrain, not a declaration that government accounts are empty. But it reminds us that yesterday’s earnings may already have paid yesterday’s bills.

Celebrate the collection achievement. Explain it just as loudly.

Otherwise, today’s applause may become tomorrow’s demand for money already spent.

13/09/2026

France has seized nearly 3.9 tonnes of co***ne worth an estimated $261 million at Dunkirk, a major port in northern France near the Belgian border. The drugs were concealed inside a container of plastic waste that had arrived from Ghana, with part of the shipment reportedly destined for Belgium. French prosecutors say the seizure followed a targeted operation against a suspected organised crime network believed to be behind the shipment. The co***ne has since been destroyed, while authorities have opened an investigation into the importation of the drugs and those allegedly involved. The case highlights concerns over international drug-trafficking routes linking West Africa and Europe.

DW Africa

12/09/2026

REMARKS BY
HIS EXCELLENCY JOSEPH NYUMA BOAKAI, SR., PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA,
AT THE FUNDRAISING DINNER
IN SUPPORT OF THE LONE STAR AND
THE FUTURE OF LIBERIAN FOOTBALL

Executive Pavilion, Monrovia

Friday, September 11, 2026

Mr. Speaker and Members of the Legislature;
Her Excellency, Former President
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf;
Senator Cyrus Momo;
Minister of Youth and Sports;
Honorable Ministers and Government Officials;
Leaders of the Business Community;

Representatives of Concessionaires and Development Partners;
Officials of the Liberia Football Association;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Fellow Liberians and Friends of Liberia;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

Good evening.

Tonight, we gather because we believe in Liberia. We believe in the ability of our young people to achieve greatness. We believe in the power of sports to unite our country. And we believe that the Lone Star can once again become a powerful source of national pride and international recognition.

But tonight is not simply about football. It is about building a pathway from talent to opportunity. It is about moving from potential to performance and building a system that can continuously identify and develop the talents for Liberia.

The Lone Star is more than a football team. It is a national symbol. When our players walk onto the pitch, they carry our flag, our identity, and the hopes of millions of Liberians.

Our country has already shown the world that it can produce. We have many football icons in our country, and the generation of Liberian footballers who followed to show that a small country can produce players capable of competing with the very best in the world.

And while I talk about competing with the very best in the world, I like to inject here that in sports, in whatever you want to do, what I have observed is discipline. And I know Liberians are very smart. Once we exhibit discipline and, with our talents, there is nothing that can stop us from bringing the African Cup of Nations to Liberia.

But we cannot build our future simply by remembering our past. If we want another generation of great Liberian footballers, we must build the system that will produce them.

In that regard, I want to commend Bea Mountain Corporation for undertaking to fulfill the promise to construct two football academies in Liberia. When completed, it will be the first of such facilities in Liberia.

Our ambition cannot be limited to one qualification campaign or one tournament. We must build a Lone Star that is consistently competitive, professionally managed, properly prepared, and continuously supplied with new talent.

And let me say here very boldly. From this Administration on Lone Star will never be running around looking for funds. We are going to support. My belief in life is that people who go to play must not worry about how; their job is to play. Our responsibility is to make sure that from this time Lone Star will always meet the needs to go and play for Liberia. I can assure you of that.

The road to AFCON 2027 gives us an important opportunity. But qualification must be a milestone, not the destination. Tonight, we have set an ambitious target of US$10 million for the Lone Star and the future of Liberian football. I hope we can raise it tonight but whether we raise it or not, Lone Star is going to shine. We are going to make sure to pursue our partners. We will make sure Lone Star is well funded. This is more than a fundraising target. It must be an investment in the future.

Part of these resources will support the Lone Star's AFCON 2027 qualification campaign, including preparation, travel, technical support, and the other requirements necessary for our national team to compete successfully.

But we must first go beyond the senior men's team. We must invest in our youth teams. We must invest in women's football. We must invest in coaching, competitions, facilities, and talent development. Most importantly, we must invest in the grassroots. I am glad that the football academy has already started recruiting young players for the future.

Talent is everywhere in Liberia. There may be a young midfielder in Nimba, a goalkeeper in Sinoe, a striker in Lofa, or a young woman in Maryland with the ability to represent Liberia at the highest level.

Our problem has never been the absence of talent. Our challenge has been building the systems necessary to find, develop, and support that talent. That must change. If Liberia has fifteen counties, our football development system must reach all fifteen counties.

We must create a clear pathway from the community, to the district, to the county, to national competition, and ultimately to professional football and the national team. We cannot continue to discover players by accident. We must discover and develop talent by design.

I therefore commend the Liberia Football Association for establishing the National Football Academy with support through the FIFA Talent Development Scheme. This is an important step toward creating a continuous pipeline through which talented young Liberians can be identified, trained, monitored, and given opportunities to progress.

That is how we build generations, not simply individual stars. This effort is also consistent with the broader PATHWAYS vision being advanced by the Ministry of Youth and Sports under the leadership of Minister Cornelia Kruah.

The principle is simple: young Liberians have talent. What they need are pathways. Football is one of those pathways. Sports teach discipline, teamwork, leadership, resilience, and responsibility. They can keep young people engaged, create opportunities, build careers, and give young Liberians a sense of purpose. Keep them away from drugs. That is why investment in sports must not be viewed simply as entertainment. And I am serious about that.

That is why investment in sports must not be viewed simply as entertainment. When we invest in sports, we invest in our young people. And when we invest in our young people, we invest in Liberia and Liberia's future.

Tonight, I want to speak directly to our business community, our banks, telecommunications companies, concessionaires, manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and other businesses.

I am not asking you simply to make a donation tonight. I am asking you to become partners in building the future of Liberian football. We want partnerships that extend beyond one match, one tournament, or one fundraising dinner.
Support youth development. Support women's football. Support county football. Support infrastructure. Support the development of our next generation of players.

And to our concessionaires, I make a special appeal. You operate in Liberia. You employ Liberians. You benefit from the resources and opportunities our country provides. We ask you to become even stronger partners in the development of the communities which you operate in. Invest in those communities. Invest in their young people. Invest in sports. Let the people living around your operations experience your presence not only through economic activity, but through opportunities that can transform their lives.

Somewhere in one of those communities may be a young Liberian who will one day wear the Lone Star. Let us help that young person find the pathway.

Government cannot do this alone. Neither can the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Liberia Football Association, or the private sector. We need a national partnership.

Government must provide leadership, policy, and appropriate public investment. The LFA must provide technical leadership and strong football administration. The private sector must bring sustained investment and partnership. Our development partners can help strengthen capacity and systems. And our communities and our people must remain part of the effort; because the Lone Star belongs to every Liberian.

I am informed that Lone Star had a meager budget just in the thousands. I can tell you that in the next budget the Lone Star will not have anything lower than THREE MILLION dollars in its budget, including efforts we are making outside.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We should not judge tonight simply by how much money we raise. We must judge ourselves by what we build with the money we raise. If we raise US$10 million and use it only to address today's needs, we may solve today's problems. But if we invest strategically in developing players, training coaches, improving facilities, organizing competitions, identifying talent, and strengthening our national football system, we begin solving tomorrow's problems as well.

There is a difference between funding a football team and building a nation. Tonight, I am asking us to build the football nation.

And to the young people of Liberia, I say this: Believe in yourselves. Your circumstances do not have to determine your destination. Your county should not determine the size of your dream. And your community should not determine how far your talent can take you.

Whether you come from Monrovia, Greenville, Ganta, Buchanan, Gbarnga, Voinjama, Zwedru, Harper, Robertsport, or any other part of Liberia, your talent deserves an opportunity.

Our responsibility as leaders is to help build the systems that give you that opportunity. Somewhere tonight, a young boy is kicking a football. Somewhere tonight, a young girl is dreaming of representing Liberia. Our responsibility is to give them a field. Give them trained coaches. Give them competition. Give them development. And when they are ready, give them the opportunity to wear the Lone Star.

That is what this evening is really about. We are not simply raising money. We are raising ambition, raising standards, and creating opportunity for another generation.

Let tonight mark a renewed national commitment to building the pathway from the grassroots to the national team.

Let Government, business, football, communities, and our development partners come together behind that vision.

When the Lone Star rises, Liberia rises.

Let us invest in our young people.

Let us build the pathways.

Let us bring back the Lone Star.

And together, let us build a stronger Liberia.

Think Liberia, Love Liberia, and Build Liberia.

May God bless the Lone Star.

May God bless the young people of Liberia.

And may God continue to bless the Republic of Liberia.

Thank you.

Credit: Executive Mansion-Liberia

06/09/2026

Letter From Saclepea
With Musa Hassan Bility

You Can Win An Election With Propaganda.
You Cannot Govern With It.

This week, I want to talk about our COUNTRY

Not George Weah. Not Joseph Boakai. Not CDC. Not CMC. Not even the Unity Party. Liberia.

Because almost three years after Liberians voted for change, we must have the courage to ask ourselves a very simple question: What has fundamentally changed?

The CDC government was voted out of office in 2023. Reasons included a lack of progress, inadequate social development, poor governance, economic hardship, and the general feeling that the country needed a different direction.

Liberians chose President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and the Unity Party.

I did not vote for President Boakai. But that is not the important point. The important point is understanding why so many Liberians did.

President Boakai came into office perhaps better prepared by experience than almost anyone who had sought the presidency in recent Liberian history. His personal story is itself a Liberian story. From humble beginnings in rural Liberia, he had the opportunity to get an education, enter public service, rise through government, become Minister of Agriculture, serve twelve years as Vice President, and eventually become President.

The argument for his election was compelling: he had seen the Liberian state from almost every level and should have known exactly what was wrong with it and how to fix it.

There would be no learning curve, no excuses. There would be experience, maturity, competence and, above all, change.

Almost three years later, where is it?

The fundamentals that produced the demand for change have hardly shifted.

And perhaps nothing exposes the political consequences of this more clearly than the reaction surrounding the recent return of former President George Weah.

Whatever anyone thinks about President Weah, the crowds that took to the streets should have prompted serious reflection within the government. Instead, we saw the familiar political reflex: explain it away, attack it, minimize it, counter it with propaganda.

But those people in the streets were communicating something.

Many were not merely celebrating George Weah. They were expressing dissatisfaction with their own present circumstances. Those crowds were signs of protest: protest against living conditions, against the failure to unite our country, against what many perceive as government excesses, against the continued weaponization of state authority, and against a political system that promised transformation but increasingly looks painfully familiar.

They were also expressions of frustration with a country that continues to find itself embarrassed by controversies, including a drug investigation whose direction, credibility, and conclusion remain unclear to the Liberian people.

The government should pay attention.

Instead, the Unity Party appears increasingly trapped by the very machinery that helped bring it to power: propaganda.

And therein lies the danger.

YOU CAN WIN AN ELECTION WITH PROPAGANDA. YOU CANNOT GOVERN WITH PROPAGANDA.

Propaganda can convince people that your opponent has failed. Still, it cannot build a road, put food on a family’s table, create sustainable employment, improve healthcare, educate a child, strengthen institutions, make justice impartial, or make people feel safer. And it certainly cannot indefinitely convince people that their lived reality is different from what they experience every morning when they wake up.

When propaganda becomes a governing tool, eventually government itself begins believing its own propaganda.

That is where I fear we are today.

An illusion is gradually being constructed around those in power that everything is going well and that anyone saying otherwise must be an opponent. That is dangerous.

The country is becoming more distrustful of the government, and increasingly the government appears distrustful of the country.

Look at the reaction to political activity, the conduct of security forces, the response to dissent, and what happens when communities or political districts thought to belong permanently to one political side begin showing signs of frustration.

Government becomes nervous.

But democracy cannot function that way. No district belongs permanently to any political party. No county belongs permanently to any politician. And certainly Liberia belongs to no government. Political power is borrowed from the people, and the people can take it back.

This is why I believe President Boakai now faces an extremely difficult political task. He cannot simply rescue the Unity Party through speeches or public relations.

Liberians are stubborn political people. Once the Liberian mind settles on a conclusion about a government, changing it becomes extremely difficult.

The signs we are seeing should therefore not be dismissed. They should be studied; they should humble those in authority, and they should force introspection.

Instead, almost three years into this administration, we continue hearing explanations about the government that came before.

At some point, yesterday stops being an excuse for today.

The government you replaced peacefully transferred power to you. You asked Liberians for the opportunity to govern differently. They gave it to you. Therefore, govern.

You cannot spend an entire administration campaigning against the administration you already defeated. You cannot condemn abuses of power while in opposition and normalize them when power becomes yours. You cannot complain about political persecution yesterday and then use prosecutorial authority in ways that create the perception of persecution today. You cannot demand institutional independence when you are outside government and become uncomfortable with independent institutions when you control government.

And you cannot keep telling hungry, frustrated, or disappointed people that everything is fine simply because government statistics and government propaganda say so.

People live the economy; they live governance; they live insecurity; and they live injustice. People know what they are experiencing.

That is why I say, with sadness rather than celebration: Nothing fundamental has changed.

Liberia remains trapped in the same political cycle. Governments change, political parties change, officials change, and slogans change, but the people remain waiting.

That cannot remain our national story.

President Boakai still has time. But time in politics disappears much faster than those occupying power ever imagine.

The President and his government can continue believing their own narrative. They can continue blaming yesterday, interpreting criticism as opposition, and convincing themselves that the political warning signs around them are meaningless.

They can keep dreaming.

But eventually, propaganda must meet reality.

And reality always wins.

My hope is that before that moment arrives, President Boakai will look beyond his party, beyond those who tell him what he wants to hear, beyond the propaganda, and beyond the next election.

He should look at Liberia.

Because this should never be simply about whether UP wins or loses in 2029; it should be about whether, after everything our country has endured, we are finally capable of building a government that leaves Liberia fundamentally better than it found it.

Almost three years later, I am still waiting to see that change.

So are millions of Liberians.

Have a pleasant new week.

News Ganjaa

15/09/2026

15/09/2026

13/09/2026

12/09/2026

06/09/2026

Address

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Listing takedown request