PHOTO: EFFL leader, Emmanuel Gonquoi
By Alfred Kollie, alfrekolliejr92@gmail.com
Liberia’s newest registered and certificated Political Party, the Economic Freedom Fighter of Liberia (EFFL) has described President Weah’s 6th and last State of the Nation address for his first term and the entire event as a “state funeral”.
“We want to consider this final annual message as an unrealistic expression of a disjointed logic authored at a state style funeral service of a man” who has failed the Liberian people, he said.
The EFFL is one of the latest political institutions to have criticized the President’s State of the Nation address.
Several opposition political parties including the Alternative National Congress, Unity Party and the Liberty Party have all termed President Weah’s State of the Nation Address as lie and deception with several Liberians in street corners terming it as repetition and untrue story delivered by the President.
President Weah’s annual message is in fulfillment of article 58 of the Liberian constitution delivered at a joint legislative session of the legislature on forth working Monday that highlights budget, economic report, and proposes new legislative agendas or national priorities.
But reacting to the President’s speech at a news conference in Monrovia’s Congo Town suburb on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, the EFF leader, Emmanuel Gonquoi noted that the pronouncement about economic growth, health care delivery, education and the fight against impunity “are devilish and unpatriotic only intended to provoke the Liberian people.”
According to Gonquoi, who refers to himself as Commander-In-Chief of the EFFL said that the President showed no interest in the fight against corruption “as evidenced by the broad day butchering of the constitution to weaken the Liberia anti-corruption commission.”
He also claimed that the Liberian leader has failed to introduce any policy that will provide room for domestic sector growth as means of enhancing the economy.
However, in his SONA, the Liberian leader spoke of a number of achievements on the economic front, despite enormous challenges.
“For the year 2022, our external sector showed strong performance. Our trade deficit narrowed due to growth in exports, despite the significant rise in our import’s payments, especially for petroleum products.
Our current account deficit also improved. Despite the challenges with our current account balance, my Government, through the CBL, has made significant efforts in building Liberia’s international reserves position to over four (4) months of import coverage, largely due to Special Drawing Rights allocation from the IMF.
This target exceeds both the ECOWAS reserves threshold of at least three months of import cover, and the target set under the IMF-Extended Credit Facility.
This achievement means that Liberia is in a strong position to withstand any potential external shock in protecting the value of the Liberian dollar and promoting macroeconomic stability, said the chief executive in his last state of the nation address on Monday.
The EFFL leader, Gonguoi sees it differently: “President Weah lacks moral standing to bring about fighting corruption or protecting human rights when under his administration, Liberia has become a state of terror, lack of hope and uncertainty and his refusal to take legal decision against sanctioned former government officials including his right hand man Nathaniel McGill whose senatorial bid is heavily financed by the government in order to prevent him from indicting other officials which is another classic example of the president’s lack of moral and political independence to deal with corruption.”
Mr. Gonquoi told Journalists that the Weah-led government has failed on his promises of providing or creating job opportunities and little or no attention in the agriculture sector.
‘’Interestingly, the economic management team that should be the driving force in searching for solutions to our economic crisis is busy celebrating the IMFs growth projections that are based on western style imperialist data without respect for internalized economic theory’,’ the EFFL CIC observed.
The Economic Freedom Fighters political leader narrated that the health sector has suffered major shocks over the last six years under the leadership of President Weah due to insufficient budget support, poor administration and rampant corruption.
At the same time, Mr. Gonquoi has urged President Weah to take action against alleged and indicated officials of the government if the fight against corruption must be won.
He is calling on President Weah to stop using government’s resources on allegedly sponsoring indicted government officials for campaign and other activities that will prevent them from hunting him.