By William Selmah, selmahwm1015@yahoo.com
A policy brief just released by the National Youth Movement for Transparent Elections (NAYMOTE) Partners says only six of the 92 promises made by President Weah can be rated as completed.
The latest edition of the program codenamed, ‘The President Meter Project’, periodically weighs the government’s performance against promises made during and after the 2017 electoral period. President Weah of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) was inaugurated on January 22, 2018.
Digging further into the brief, NAYMOTE said that of the 92 promises, 38 are considered ongoing, 15 not rated due to the lack of available information and 33 others are yet to kick off.
The six promises fulfilled by the Weah Government include the payment of the WAEC or WASSCE for all students in the country who sat the exams in 2017, renovation of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, passage of the Land Rights Act and the reduction of salaries for public officials under the Executive Branch.
Others are the pavement of the road linking the Doe Community and Clara Town and the building of 50 new homes for fire victims in Popo Beach, New Kru Town.
32 of the 92 promises tracked fall under the party’s manifesto’s Pillar One: “Power to the People”, 37 under Pillar Two: “Economy and Jobs”, 10 under Pillar Three: “Sustaining the Peace” and 13 under Pillar Four: “Decentralization of Institutions and Systems”.
NAYMOTE said in the brief that there is an apparent lack of political will under the administration to combat graft, rights abuses and several other key concerns.
“There are no, or very limited actions taken on promises around accountability and anticorruption, justice and human rights, physically challenged and senior citizens and decentralization of institutions and systems within 18 months of President George M. Weah in office”, according to the document.
The report comes barely 18 months into the first term of the CDC-run Government, which has until 2023 to seek another six year mandate from the Liberian people.
“If voters make decisions based on politicians’ past performance, informing voters about politicians’ quality will enhance the likelihood that well-performing incumbents keep their position and poorly performing incumbents ousted at the polls”
In a set of policy alternatives advanced by NAYMOTE, it called on Civil Society Organizations to develop and carry out sustained policy advocacy to cut down the six year term for the presidency to four in order to instill some sense of urgency within the presidency to fulfill campaign and other post-election promises.
It also wants the government to develop a strategic approach to attract private sector investment, describing the sector as the engine of economic growth and development.
NAYMOTE is at the same time recommending that government develops what it calls results-based communication strategy to facilitate a two-way flow of information between the government and citizens, the establishment of an inter-ministerial coordinating mechanism to harmonize government’s efforts to fulfill its promises and to develop a monitoring and evaluation mechanism for those pledges and to link them to the Pro Poor Agenda and its implementation.
Weah and his CDC campaign on the mantra, “Change for Hope”.