Liberia’s 177th Independence Day Orator, Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey, has requested the Joseph Nyuma Boakai-led administration to send all corrupt government officials to jail as a means of improving the method of combating corruption.
Delivering the Independence Day’s message on Friday, July 26, 2024 in Monrovia, Madam Pailey said high-level corruption is like mass murder, which she indicated must be treated like an egregious crime.
According to her, to achieve this milestone, the Government must strengthen the judicial bodies and integrity institutions by populating them with impartial patriots, name and shame those found guilty of evading public trust, force them to re-institute stolen funds and subsequently send them to jail.
Speaking under the theme “A Radical Agenda for Re-imagining Liberia”, Dr. Pailey asserted that the rule of law is not fashionable, but a protective armor that must be carried every day in value-based revolution.
She said, “In addition to prosecuting people in a soon-to-be established National Anti-Corruption Court, we must also remove corruption-inducing expenditure from our budget such as inflated salaries for elected and appointed officials, imported vehicles, fuel and scratch card allotments.”
Pailey suggested that those funds removed from corruption-inducing expenditure should be reallocated to incentive for doctors, nurses, teachers and police officers who are serving the country.
The 177th Independence Orator called on the government to ensure that all agencies should be audited and elected and appointed officials declare their assets for public scrutiny as a requirement for assuming office.
Dr. Pailey disclosed that if Liberia must progress, the nation’s goal must be inclusive growth and not growth by any means.
She revealed that corruption is not only rampant in the public and private sectors, but it is enmeshed in Liberian everyday human interactions; adding that corruption is a function of both poverty and greed, and that a corrupt regime is a reflection of a corrupt society.
“We often point finger at our government, failing to realize that corruption begins in homes and communities, that corruption is a function of both poverty and greed, and that a corrupt regime is a reflection of a corrupt society,” she noted.
