PHOTO: STAND’s National Chairman, Mulbah Morlu
A grass root advocacy organization, the Solidarity and Trust for a New Day (STAND) has reacted to the 2026 State of the Nation Address delivered by President Joseph |Boakai, describing it as a ‘carefully packaged performance heavy on numbers, promises, and projections, yet dangerously hollow of verifiable outcomes, lived realities, and accountability’.
STAND’s National Chairman, Mulbah Morlu, said the statement was recycled plans dressed as progress, inflated claims presented as facts, selective statistics offered without context, and a governance style that treats future intentions as if they were present achievements.
Addressing a press conference held in Congo Town on Tuesday, Morlu pointed out that the SONA delivered was not a report card of governance, but a political script designed to distract a suffering nation.
According to Mr. Morlu, Liberia today remains a country where justice bends toward power and punishment is reserved for the powerless.
“No senior government official has been convicted for grand corruption,” he said; adding, “claims of indictments and convictions are thrown at the public without names, without crimes, without recovered assets, and without accountability.”
Commenting on the Capitol arson case, STAND Chairman case is referenced selectively, while politically connected perpetrators remain protected by silence.
“In this Liberia, laws exist on paper, but enforcement is optional for the elite; because what is advertised as reform is, in practice, propaganda.”
On the President’s legislative agenda, Morlu claimed that legislative agenda presented to the nation reads more like a wish list than a record of achievement.
“Institutions such as a Civil Service Commission, a Land Court, a National Road Authority, and Universal Health Insurance are paraded as flagship accomplishments, yet none of them exist in reality.”
“Nearly three years into this administration,” he went on, “the government is still campaigning inside governance, promising reforms instead of delivering services to millions of Liberians crushed by daily hardship.”
According to the STAND Chairman, repeating intentions in a State of the Nation Address does not constitute progress; it confirms failure.
On the economy, organization noted that the President hid behind large numbers while avoiding the simplest question any struggling Liberian would ask.
“If the economy is stable, why are the people poorer, hungrier, and more desperate?” he asked; “ Because , the one-point-two-billion-dollar budget means nothing when inflation eats wages, unemployment haunts households, and the Liberian dollar remains under constant pressure.”
“Public debt has ballooned to two-point-eight billion dollars with no credible debt reduction strategy; only repayment announcements that appear designed to benefit elites and their corporate allies.”
He said the announcement of Value Added Tax by 2027, without any social protection framework, signals a dangerous willingness to tax poverty while shielding privilege.
Speaking on the seventy thousand jobs that the claimed to have been created, Morlu noted that there is no job registry, no sectoral breakdown, no wage data, and there is no independent verification, because this claim exists only in the President’s speech.
STAND claimed that the evidence of mass unemployment is written on the streets, in the ghettos, and in the daily struggle to survive.
The President’s claims about reduced cost of living insult public intelligence is unrealistic because food prices remain unstable, transportation costs are rising, and rent, school fees, and healthcare continue to suffocate families.
“In the same breath, the President warns businesses against price increases while pursuing policies that fuel inflation.” Morlu claimed: “This is not economic management, but hypocrisy elevated to governance.”
As for infrastructure, the STAND’s Chairman maintained that “many so-called completed roads are laterite, seasonal, or already deteriorating.”
On the highly advertised yellow machines, Morlu said these machines remain unaccounted for, unaudited, and surrounded by credible reports that parts of the first consignment is being returned to their country of origin amid controversy.
On energy, the STAND Chairman noted that Liberia remains among the lowest electricity-access countries in Africa because blackouts are routine and tariff reductions mean nothing when most households remain unconnected.
“Electricity in Liberia continues to come and go like signal lights, an everyday humiliation completely ignored in the address.”
“Mega projects; the two-hundred-fifty-megawatt gas plant and the two-hundred-megawatt solar plant, exist only on paper, with no financing closure and no timelines.”
On agriculture, Morlu pointed out that despite claims of supporting nearly two hundred thousand farmers, Liberia still imports most of its rice, has no national food surplus, and suffers from weak and uneven mechanization.
“Hunger persists in rural villages and urban slums alike, mocking official declarations of food security.”
Commenting on the issue of at risk youths, Morlu indicated that youth drug abuse continues to spiral into a national emergency, not a success story.
On land and decentralization, STAND said the contradictions deepen because the government acknowledges land grabs, then claims they are resolved.
According to Morlu, moratoriums are lifted while disputes rage on, forced evictions continue and elite land acquisitions is expanding as power and resources remain centralized in Monrovia while decentralization is praised in speeches.
“Foreign policy achievements are presented as triumphs, yet they remain symbolic,” Morlu said: “Liberia’s election to the United Nations Security Council may flatter the political class, but it does not feed families, create jobs, or fix hospitals. Foreign prestige cannot substitute for domestic failure.”
Reconciliation is reduced to ceremonies and apologies while justice is denied. Reburials are conducted, speeches are delivered, but accountability is absent. Officials accused of rape and abuse are shielded, while ordinary citizens are jailed for stealing bread to survive. The War and Economic Crimes Court remains trapped at the draft-law stage; because, victims receive words, not justice.
President Boakai’s 2026 address relied on future promises instead of present results, aggregated numbers without human impact, laws proposed instead of laws enforced, and international applause while citizens suffer.”
“In sum, this address was not a reflection of Liberia’s reality. It was a political performance detached from the pain of the people.”
“Until truth replaces theater, accountability replaces excuses, and delivery replaces deception, Liberia has not heard a State of the Nation Address.”