(Last Updated On: )

PHOTO: The Author and map of Liberia

By Hun-Bu Tulay

Email: ntevoma@gmail.com

Cell: +231 886 517 356/7705472336 

Preamble

Forty-five years ago, our nation experienced its second coup d’état on April 12, 1980. It was followed by the execution of 13 of some of Liberia’s most prominent figures, the crème de la crème of our society. The reasons given were rampant corruption, nepotism, abuse of power, and injustice. The people were promised that this would bring an end to these vices and reduce the price of rice from $22 to $7.50 for a 50-kilogram bag.

The government in 1980 pledged to establish a minimum salary of USD 150 per month, a promise that remained unfulfilled. Instead, it introduced the Savings Bond. Now, 45 years later, the government has still failed to redeem these bonds.

Ten years later, the country was plunged into a civil war that claimed over 250,000 Liberian lives and destroyed property worth more than USD $500 million. Once again, the war was rooted in injustice, nepotism, corruption, and the absence of the rule of law. At the end of the war, we were promised these evils would never return.

Yet here we are. Not only do those old vices remain, but new horrors have emerged including the gang rape of young men and women and rampant academic corruption as well as immorality. Is the country becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah? No leader of a country should allow any of their cities to become such a city. Given this cycle, is there hope for the future of the country?

During the conflict, fighters were even told to burn the Executive Mansion, the seat of government, with the assurance it would be rebuilt in three days.  The person that said those words was elected as head of government.  However, when the Executive Mansion was gutted by fire in the person’s first term in office, that individual could not complete the repair of the building in 12 years. Another promise betrayed.

Consider all the pledges made over the decades: the Coastal Highway, a modern Five-Star Hotel on BaIi Island, paved roads connecting every county’s capital, a modern library in each county’s capital, a science laboratory in every public junior and senior high school across all counties. The list is long. And every single promise was betrayed.

Where is the Lone Star Airline promised? We saw Champagne Toast at RIA. Another promise betrayed.

Now, we are told we will be “rescued” from corruption, nepotism, human rights abuses, drugs, and injustice. Some believe we have been betrayed already; others say it is too soon to judge.

Mr. President, the Ministry of Transport was established by the Legislature on August 25, 1987. Its core mandates are to develop policies, regulations, and plans for smooth transportation across our nation, including the issuing of driver licenses and management of vehicle registrations. These mandates have been clear and effectively executed for 37 years.

Now, after 37 years, we are witnessing a bewildering decision: the creation of a parallel body to strip away these very responsibilities. This is not sabotage. It is a direct undermining of an agency duly created by National Legislature, a move so reckless that was avoided even by some of the ineptest previous administrations. Why is this happening now? This is more than poor judgment; it is a betrayal of the constitution and laws the government officials solemnly swore to uphold and defend.

And then we come to the yellow machines. Do you remember the hope you ignited? The announcement that 287 yellow machines would be purchased, with 15 destined for each county, sparked real enthusiasm. A nation dared to believe in progress. Now, a year later, where are they? That hope has faded into dust. The people’s excitement has turned into bitter disappointment.  Even if the equipment come a week or two months from this writing the people’s enthusiasm has faded.

But the most grievous betrayal of all concerns our women and girls. You promised to protect them. Yet, we open our newspapers to read of teenagers and children aged 12 to 17 brutally raped, allegedly by ministers and directors in this government. And what happens? We see these individuals walking free, some even remaining in their posts. The rate is alarming, and the inaction is unforgivable.  This is a profound moral failure. This is betrayal.

Mr. President, we commend you for reducing your salary by 40% in 2025, a move followed by your vice president out of belief in your vision. This raises a question about your cabinet ministers and agency heads: if they believed in that vision, they would have reduced their salaries as well. Their inaction suggests otherwise.

Why retain officials who do not share your commitment? Consider the precedent set under President Tolbert, who returned unused per diems after a trip, establishing a policy that all ministers followed.

Your decision recognized that your salary exceeded those of presidents in nations with far larger budgets. Similarly, your ministers earn more than their regional counterparts. You should not keep appointees who do not support your vision. We urge you to issue an Executive Order to reduce salaries and benefits across your government.

Furthermore, we hope your announcement was substantive. To ensure transparency, appoint a special committee to oversee how these savings are used and to report directly to you and the public.

Prior to this administration, the previous government entered into two concession agreements that continue to impose significant financial losses on the state.

Med Tech Scientific Limited is contracted to provide container tracking, inspection, and certification services for imports destined for Liberia. Under this agreement, the company retains 80% of generated revenue, while the government receives only 20%.

Liberia Traffic Management Inc. (LTMI) performs functions that duplicate those of the Ministry of Transport, including driver licensing, vehicle registration, and traffic enforcement. For these services, LTMI retains 70% of revenue, with the government receiving 30%.

To illustrate the scale of loss, consider vehicle registration alone. With approximately 63,000 in vehicles in 2015 and an average registration fee of USD 125, annual revenue totals roughly USD 7.875 million. Under the current terms, the government receives only USD 2.36 million, while LTMI retains USD 5.51 million. It is alleged that the Ministry of Transport contribution to the National Budget was USD4.00 million. With this agreement, government gets only USD2.5 million. What justifications are your ministers given?

Combined with the revenues from Med Tech and LTMI, it is estimated that these agreements divert tens of millions of dollars annually from public coffees. It has been alleged that both agreements violate the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC) laws and the Public Financial Management Act. The continued honoring of these contracts represents a profound betrayal of the nation’s fiscal interests.

We strongly urge you to establish a Special Committee to review these agreements and submit findings for your immediate action. Members of the committee should be non-government officials.

We see a pattern here: the betrayal of our institutions, the betrayal of public trust, and the betrayal of the most vulnerable. This is not the leadership promised the people. This is not what they voted for.

But two years have passed. This administration is in its third year. Two years is long enough to show your intent, to show your “juice”. It took President Tolbert less than four months to show the direction he wished to carry the country. To the suffering people, two years is not short at all.

A person who has endured 179 years of hardship and additional two years’ experience without change would be as if it were ten years. You cannot tell a hungry man to wait until dawn to eat. His hunger is now. His pain is now. His need for food is now.

We have gone through coups, through war, through countless dawns that brought only empty plates and broken vows. Our patience is not just thin, it is exhausting. The time for tangible change is not tomorrow. It was yesterday.

Now coming to the feature: “From Promise to Betrayal over the Past 45 Years”

 

We write this feature not merely as a citizen, but as a  witness to the profound economic and moral ache of our nation. Our perspective was forged in the classrooms of the 1970s, a period justly remembered as Liberia’s era of promise.

The statistical portrait of that time is undeniable: Liberia was a regional economic leader. Our GDP growth rates were among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, powered by foreign investments in iron ore and rubber. Our innovative Open Registry maritime program made our flag the most common on the world’s seas, generating steady revenue. Consequently, our Gross National Income per capita, recorded at $520 in 1979, stood well above the regional average.

Yet, these aggregate figures only tell half the story. The true measure of that era’s potential was reflected in the lived experience of the ordinary Liberian. As a young teacher in Monrovia in 1972, my starting salary in a public elementary school was $75. This was not a king’s ransom, but its purchasing power was immense. A room, for example, a room was rented for $10 a month. A student at the University of Liberia could manage a day on one  United States Dollar. Transportation costs a dime. A monthly allowance of $50 could sustain a student sent from the interior to pursue an education in the capital.

Critically, this individual economic dignity was matched by a national commitment to the public good. In 1972, tuition was abolished in public schools under the explicit belief that “ignorance is the greatest enemy of man.” High schools across the country from Voinjama to Sanniquellie, Cape Palmas to the Bassa Coast boasted of libraries and science laboratories. The national budget in 1974 was a modest $108.6 million, yet it facilitated this tangible progress.

This was possible because public service was not synonymous with personal enrichment. The President’s annual salary was $36,000; a legislator earned $12,000; a minister, $18,000. The budget served the people, not the other way around.

Today, we confront a devastating paradox. Our national budget has ballooned to $1.249 billion an “eleven-fold increase” from 1974. Our extractive sectors and maritime registry continue to operate, augmented now by large-scale gold mining. Yet, Liberia is ranked among the eight poorest nations in the region. The standard of living for the majority has catastrophically declined.

A public-school teacher with a high school certificate still earns $75 a month or less, a crushing effective pay cut of monumental proportions over 45 years when inflation is accounted for. Where schools once had laboratories, they now have ruins. Where a farmer could once send a child to Monrovia for better education or to enroll at the University, families now struggle to keep them in dilapidated local schools.

This feature diagnoses the core pathology behind this great reversal: the systematic hijacking of our national wealth by self-serving political elites. This system, embodied in bloated and inequitable recurrent expenditure, is not only economically unsustainable but constitutes an institutionalized injustice that condemns the nation to perpetual poverty.

1. The Great Distortion: Budgetary Growth vs. Public Good

The most glaring evidence of our national misdirection lies in a simple comparison: budget growth versus citizen welfare. An eleven-fold increase in the national budget should translate into a comparable improvement in public services, infrastructure, and civil servants’ welfare. The reality is the precise inverse.

While the real value of teachers’ salaries has collapsed, compensation for the political elites has undergone hyperbolic escalation. In 1974, leaders were paid modest salaries and were responsible for their own upkeep. Today, the structure is one of opulence:

*   President: $90,000 (annual salary)

*  Speaker of the House: $444,945 (salary & benefits)

*   Senate Pro-Tempore: $482,203 (salary & benefits)

*   Senator: $209,516 (base $96,000 + $113,516 benefits)

*   Representative: $172,104 (base $94,800 + $77,304 benefits)

In addition, each receives a $45,000 vehicle every three years, duty-free privileges, and comprehensive medical allowances. This represents a 300-fold real increase from the 1974 baseline for legislators, vastly outpacing inflation and budget growth. The state cannibalizes its own budget to feed this machine.

The result is a recurrent budget consuming over 80%of national resources compared to roughly 50% in the 1970s, leaving a paltry sum for the capital investment that builds a future. The national budget has thus become a mechanism for redistributing wealth upwards, from the productive populace to a political class. It is a patrimonial system where the state functions less as a provider of public goods and more as a source of private patronage.

Salary of USA Congressmen or Congresswomen

• Speaker USD223,500.00
• Senate Pro Tempore USD 193,400.00
• Senator USD 174,000.00
• Representative USD174,000.00

The mentality of our political elites is laid bare by a simple global comparison. Legislators in the United States, responsible for a multi-trillion-dollar economy, earn less than their counterparts in Liberia, a nation ranked among the world’s poorest. This reveals a staggering inversion of the principle of public service: where others see a duty, our leaders see a trough.

This is not merely poor accounting; it is a betrayal of the social contract. The 20th-century writer George Orwell, a keen critic of exploitation, relentlessly dissected systems where labor is degraded and the fruits of production are stolen by a privileged oligarchy. Our current fiscal policy institutionalized a modern form of this condition. Civil servants’ teachers, nurses, police officers are trapped in jobs that pay starvation wages, offering no dignity and no escape from poverty, while a political elite lives in opulence derived from those same citizens’ taxes and resources.

The recent protests by underpaid legislative staffers, left with crumbs from their masters’ table, are a telling microcosm of this systemic failure. The machine consumes everything.

1. The Path Forward

This analysis leads to an inescapable conclusion: Liberia’s poverty is not an accident of fate but a direct consequence of political choice. The path to national redemption requires a fundamental renegotiation of our fiscal priorities.

1. Cap the Political Budget: We must legislate a strict, constitutional cap on recurrent expenditure, mandating that no more than 50% of the national budget is consumed by salaries, benefits, and operational costs of government. This would force a necessary pruning of the bloated political allowance system and creating immediate fiscal space.
2. Link Public Salary to a National Dignity Wage: The minimum salary for any civil servant, especially teachers, nurses, and security personnel, must be pegged to a livable Dignity Wage, calculated based on the true cost of sustenance, housing, and transportation. The salaries of all elected and appointed officials must be legislatively tied to a multiple of this Dignity Wage, restoring proportionality and moral legitimacy.
3. Establish a Sovereign Investment Fund: A legally protected portion of all revenues from extractive industries and the maritime program must be automatically directed into a Sovereign Investment Fund. This fund would be exclusively dedicated to national capital projects: rebuilding schools and hospitals, financing road and energy infrastructure, and investing in agricultural productivity. Its management must be transparent and insulated from political manipulation.

The Liberia of the 1970s demonstrated that progress is possible when resources are directed toward the public good. The subsequent 45 years have provided a tragic lesson in the consequences of their theft. We stand at a crossroads: one path continues the descent into a kleptocratic state; the other demands the courageous reallocation of our national wealth toward genuine, people-centered development.

The promise of Liberia is not lost. It has been betrayed. Reclaiming it begins with a budget that serves the people who fund it.

III. The Consequences: A Nation Held Hostage

The consequences of this budgetary distortion are visible in every crumbling facet of our society:

1. The Collapse of Education: The teacher’s salary of USD 100 per month is an insult and a national suicide pact. It guarantees demoralized educators, high absenteeism, and the exodus of talent. Schools without libraries or labs produce graduates without skills or critical thought. Your predecessor’s 1975 declaration of “equal educational opportunity” is now a cruel joke. We have created a perfect cycle of poverty: underpaid parents cannot afford private education, and the state, having bankrupted itself on salaries for a few, provides only dysfunctional public education, ensuring the next generation is equally impoverished and disenfranchised.

 

2. The Infrastructure Abyss: Where are the roads to connect our farmers to markets? Where are the reliable water and electricity systems to attract competitive industries beyond extraction? Where is the investment in tourism to showcase our natural beauty? These capital-intensive projects are perpetually “in the pipeline” because the pipeline is siphoned dry before it reaches them. A single legislator’s annual benefits package could fund the construction of several handpumps or a segment of a feeder road; the collective sum could transform our infrastructure landscape.
3. The Fragility of Health and Security: A nurse and a police officer share the same plight as the teacher. They are asked to uphold the pillars of society while being paid a wage that mocks the gravity of their duties. This creates fertile ground for corruption, low morale, and ineffective service. A nation that does not invest in the well-being and integrity of its health and security forces is building on sand.

 

4. The Strangulation of Economic Mobility: When 80% of the budget is consumed by salaries and benefits for a tiny fraction of the population, there is no capital for small business loans, agricultural subsidies, or vocational training. The market woman and the farmer, once pillars of modest self-sufficiency, are now crushed by the same economic pressures that prevent them from educating their children. The economy becomes a closed loop of extraction and consumption for the elites, with no productive value-addition for the masses.

 

III. The Justification for Radical Change: Why This Cannot Continue

The argument for maintaining this grotesque status quo is unsustainable on every level:

Moral Justification: None exists. It is indefensible to argue that a legislator’s work is 300 times more valuable to the nation today than it was in 1974, or that it is worth 75 times the value of a teacher’s labor. This system is a moral failure that breeds resentment and social decay.

 

Economic Justification: It is a recipe for national bankruptcy. We are selling our iron ore, rubber, and maritime rights not to build a future, but to finance the lavish lifestyles of a temporary political class. This is not development; it is the liquidation of national assets for private gain. It crowds out investment in the sectors (education, infrastructure, energy) that actually generates sustainable economic growth and attracts diverse, job-creating investment.

 

Political Justification: It undermines democracy itself. When politics becomes the most lucrative profession in a poor country, it attracts those seeking wealth, not those seeking to serve. It incentivizes corruption and vote-buying to retain access to the trough. It creates a political class fundamentally alienated from the struggles of the people they are meant to represent.

 

Security Justification: History is clear. The wide, unbridgeable gulf between a grossly enriched elite and an impoverished, neglected citizenry is the primary tinder for social unrest, instability, and conflict. Our own recent history should serve as the starkest warning. To continue on this path is to willfully ignore the lessons of our past.

 

1. IV. The Path Forward: Reallocating Resources for National Survival

Mr. President, you have the unique and historic mandate to break this cycle. The bold steps required are clear and must be pursued with courage:

1. Lead a Fiscal Revolution: Propose and champion a National Compensation Restructuring Act. This law would:

Rationalize legislative and executive branch compensations, tying them to a multiple of the civil service base salary (e.g., a legislator’s total package cannot exceed 5x that of a public-school teacher, for example).

 

Immediately abolish the opaque benefits system (fuel allotments, luxury vehicle provisions, duty-free privileges, etc.) and replace it with a transparent, taxed salary commensurate with the national income.

 

Institute a constitutional or statutory cap on the recurrent expenditure as a percentage of the total budget (e.g., not more than 50%), forcing a structural shift towards capital investment.

 

2. End the Culture of Entitlement: Legislators who lose elections must not transition to a golden parachute paid by the state. Their post-service benefits must be integrated into the National Social Security & Welfare Corporation, to which they should contribute like all other working citizens. The state treasury is not a pension fund for politicians.

 

3. Launch a “Marshall Plan” for Human and Physical Capital: The billions saved from rationalizing the elites’ compensation must be legally earmarked for:

Education: A multi-year plan to triple teacher salaries, rebuild schools, restock libraries, and equip laboratories. Reinvigorate the “equal opportunity” policy with scholarships for rural students.

Infrastructure: A focused, corruption-monitored national project to pave primary roads between counties, ensure water and electricity access in county capitals, and develop key tourism sites.

Health & Security: Significant wage increases and facility upgrades for nurses, doctors, police, and the military to restore professionalism and dignity.

 

4. Strengthen Governance: Parallel to fiscal reform, invest in the institutions that ensure the rule of law: an independent judiciary, a strengthened and well-paid Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), and a professional civil service. Money saved from political salaries must fund these oversight bodies.

 

1. The Choice Before Us

The Liberia of the 1970s showed that with modest resources but a degree of shared purpose, progress was possible. The Liberia of today demonstrates that with vastly greater resources but a complete failure of distributive justice, national failure is inevitable.

 

We stand at a precipice. We can continue to be a country that mines iron ore to buy luxury cars for a few hundred people, or we can become a nation that uses its resources to educate all of its children, heal all of its sick, and connect all of its communities.

This is not merely an economic policy adjustment; it is a fundamental question of national identity and justice. The British philosopher, John Locke, argued that governments derive their legitimacy from protecting the life, liberty, and property of the people. In our context, the collective property of the Liberian people, our natural resources and national revenues, is being systematically confiscated by their representatives. This invalidates the social contract.

 

Comprehensive Restructuring of Natural Resource Agreements to Secure Liberia’s Long-Term Prosperity

Mr. President, it is a matter of critical importance to our nation’s fiscal future and sovereign dignity. It is with great respect that we recommend that your administration should initiate a comprehensive review and renegotiation of the current arrangements governing our partnerships in the mining, timber, and rubber sectors. The frameworks established in an earlier era are fundamentally misaligned with present-day realities and are resulting in the significant, ongoing hemorrhage of national revenues. We must act with conviction to correct this historical imbalance.

The Outdated Paradigm of the 1960s

The concessionary terms granted six decades ago were born of a specific context. As a nation eager to attract foreign investment and develop foundational infrastructure, offering incentives such as low royalty rates and upfront signature bonuses was a strategic compromise. A royalty of 3% on exports might have been seen as an acceptable price for establishing a presence in a remote, high-risk environment where investors bore the burden of making resources accessible.

The Transformative Shift of the 21st Century

That context no longer exists. Liberia is not the same country it was sixty years ago. Crucially, our international partners are not operating in the same environment. The global commodities market is mature, and our resources are now well-documented and geographically accessible. The massive initial investments in basic infrastructure have been made; the remaining operational costs are far lower, while the value of the extracted resources has soared. The original rationale for such concessional terms has evaporated, yet the agreements persist. This is a fiscal anomaly we can no longer afford.

The Flawed Economics of the “Signature Bonus” Model

The current model prioritizes short-term liquidity over long-term wealth creation, to our severe detriment. The signature bonus is a one-time payment that pales in comparison to the value of what is permanently removed from our soil. It is, as the saying goes, “selling the birthright for a pot of porridge.”

Allow us to illustrate with a clear breakdown using recent, verifiable export data:

1. The Case of ArcelorMittal (Iron Ore):

*2022-2023 Export: 6.2 million metric tons.

*   Approx. Global Price: USD 90 per metric ton.

*   Total Export Value: USD 558 million.

*   Current Government Take (3% Royalty): USD 16.74 million for that year.

*   25-Year Projection (Royalty only):USD 418.5 million.

*   With a USD 200 Million Signature Bonus (Total 25-year gain): USD 618.5 million.

*   Proposed Government Take (15% Royalty, No Bonus): USD 83.7 million for that year.

*   25-Year Projection: USD 2.093 billion.

Net Loss to Liberia over 25 years under the current model: USD 1.474 billion.

2. The Case of Bea Mountain (Gold):

*   2023 Export: 11,046 kilograms.

*   Approx. Global Price: USD 52,182 per kilogram.

*   Total Export Value: USD 576.4 million.

*   Current Government Take (3% Royalty): USD 17.29 million for that year.

*   A similar 25-year projection reveals a parallel, staggering loss of potential revenue amounting to billions.

This financial analysis reveals an undeniable truth: the signature bonus is a fiscal trap. It provides an immediate but comparatively minuscule influx of cash while locking the nation into a quarter-century of undervalued resource extraction. We are forgoing sustainable, equity-like participation for a fleeting transaction fee.

The Shareholder Mentality

Therefore, Mr. President, it is time for a paradigm shift. We must move from being a free-collecting authority to a strategic shareholder in the exploitation of our own national endowments.

We propose the government enter all future negotiations and seek to renegotiate key existing agreements with the following primary objective:

*   Replace the signature bonus model with a significantly increased royalty or production share percentage, with a minimum target of 15% or more of the gross export value across mining, timber, and rubber exports.

*   This percentage must be non-negotiable and embedded in all new agreements.

Strategic and Long-Term Benefits:

1. Alignment with National Interest: Revenue grows in direct proportion to the profitability and scale of the operation. If our partners prosper from high global prices, Liberia prospers in tandem.
2. Sustainable Budgeting: Provides a predictable, long-term revenue stream for national development infrastructure, healthcare, and education moving us away from boom-bust cycles tied to one-off payments.
3. Enhanced Transparency: A percentage-of-sale model is more transparent and easier to audit against global shipping and price records than complex profit-based schemes.
4. Sovereign Dignity: Establishes a new, equitable standard that reflects Liberia’s maturity as a nation and the true, non-replicable value of its natural capital.

Call to Action

Mr. President, the numbers speak with undeniable clarity. The current arrangements represent a legacy of diminished returns that undermine our development aspirations. By courageously moving to renegotiate these terms, your administration can secure a transformational increase in revenue for the Liberian people, not just for the next budget cycle, but for a generation.

Let us learn from the past but not be bound by its compromises. Let us forgo the short-term gain for the profound, long-term benefit. Let us ensure that the wealth beneath and upon our soil finally translates into lasting and visible prosperity for all Liberian citizens.

Mr. President, you have spoken of change. The most profound change you can effect is to dismantle the legalized plunder. Redirect the wealth of Liberia back to the Liberian people through investments in their capabilities and their communities. The political resistance will be fierce, for you will be challenging the most entrenched interests in the country. But the support of millions of Liberians, who are desperate for a sign of hope and justice, will be your shield and your mandate.

History will judge this moment. Will you be the president who presided over the final entrenchment of a predatory state, or the one who had the courage to dismantle it and lay the foundation for a true wealth? The choice, and the power to begin this critical journey, rests with you.