Liberia’s former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah has blamed the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC-led) government’s failure to prosecute alleged former Officials of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s twelve years rule under the Unity Party Government on the departure of United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
He said the first government to be democratically elected after the Civil War was the Unity Party Government headed by Africa’s first Female President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, followed by CDC which was elected in 2017.
Speaking Monday, September 30, 2023 on OK Conservation, Mr. Tweah said CDC government did not want to cause chaos due to the fact that they were taking power right after the war.
Tweah said that officials of the CDC government including former President George M. Weah never wanted to be blamed for a witch-hunt which could have automatically destabilized the country in the absence of UNMIL.
Meanwhile, the former Finance Minister says he foresees Liberia experiencing a rising number of citizens being reduced to poverty if the Unity Party regime’s dismissal of civil servants hits 2,000 persons.
He said the CDC inherited a payroll of over 30,000 individuals that were not properly hired, stressing that the CDC administration could have laid off those Liberians for such acts but they were retrained.
“Others were also hired on the general allowance payroll with a budget value of over US$30 million but they remained untouched and CDC regime did not insist that they be removed because they were not hired by the General Service Agency,” he said.
Tweah said former President Weah did not use the way people were hired to exacerbate the poverty situation of the citizens, adding that the past administration rather rationalized people’s wage structure to take home a monthly income.
He urged the Unity Party to stop dismissing citizens based on their political alignment, stating that the current administration should see every citizen as a Liberian who is entitled to job provision by their government.
