The much-publicized ‘March for Job and Justice’ protest organized by the Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP turned sour yesterday as several student leaders were arrested by police while on their way to stage what they described as a ‘peaceful’ protest. In a live Facebook broadcast, the leaders were intercepted and forcefully placed in the back of a police pickup vehicle. The exact reason for their arrest remains unclear, as authorities have yet to issue an official statement regarding the incident. The action has sparked concern, as the students were reportedly moving to exercise their constitutional right to assemble. However, SUP moved to the United States Embassy in Monrovia, where they read their petition, which was reportedly rejected with a mandate to communicate through another medium.
Despite the US Embassy’s advice, the students stood across the street and read the ten-count petition demands to the government, calling on the administration to address their concerns or face mass action by citizens. The campus-based political party (SUP) demanded that the House of Representatives immediately put an end to what they called “politically motivated” removal of Montserrado County District #10 Representative, Yekeh Korlubah, or risk unspecified action.
In a ten-count petition which was not presented to the Government of Liberia but read at the United States Embassy in Monrovia, SUP demanded that the Government of Liberia immediately design, publish and implement a comprehensive, transparent, non-partisan, time-bound strategy for meaningfully employing thousands of Liberians with a monthly salary of at least $500 United States or its Liberian dollar equivalence, providing loans to thousands of emerging entrepreneurs a developing the skills of young Liberians.
Reading the petition at the US Embassy, Cde. Odecious Mulbah, Chairman of SUP, also called on the government to ensure that all sectors of the Liberian economy, including mining, logging, agriculture, fisheries, and banks, are immediately nationalized and turned over to the state so that it would facilitate job creation and provide the space for building schools, roads, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure.
They want the salaries of the President, the Vice-President, the Speaker, the Pro-tempore, the Chief Justice, representatives, senators, ministers, heads of SOEs and every other high-earning public official be immediately and drastically reduced by 50%, and that the salaries of civil servants, teachers, doctors, nurses and personnel of the Armed Forces of Liberia immediately increase by that same proportion.
That the Government of Liberia obey the Maputo Declaration in its next budget cycle by allocating at least 10% of the national budget to agriculture, thereby providing thousands of jobs and curbing the challenge of food insecurity and extreme hunger and that the Government of Liberia respects the Liberianization policy by protecting Liberian farmers, especially Liberian rubber-exporting companies against the foreign interest of Jetty and his criminal accomplices in the government.
The campus-based student group also demand that all cases involving alleged violations of human rights, including incidents of violence or abuse against citizens, be investigated promptly and transparently, with those responsible held accountable in accordance with the law, and that the Boakai-Koung regime immediately put an end to the politically motivated removal of Montserrado County District 10 Representative, Hon. Yekeh Korlubah or risk mass citizen action;
SUP called on the government to immediately institute a comprehensive, transparent process to investigate all allegations of rape and sexual violence, arrest individuals accused thereof, such as Bryant McGill and Peter Bon Jallah; ensure that such cases are prosecuted without delay, and that survivors are provided with adequate protection, medical care, and psychosocial support, and that the justice system operate free from political interference so that accountability is not selective but universal, thereby reaffirming the rule of law and restoring public confidence in the state’s commitment to safeguarding the dignity and security of all citizens.
They want the University of Liberia to be modernized and expanded, and for the Liberia National Police to refrain from all acts of brutalization against peaceful university students and the Liberian people.
SUP also noted, “We emphasize that this petition should not be mistaken rhetoric or a ceremonial appeal to authority, but a substantive intervention grounded in the lived realities of the Liberian people. The issues raised herein are not speculative or exaggerated; they are concrete manifestations of structural conditions that continue to undermine the dignity, stability, and future of our society.”
The group added that a nation cannot sustainably progress where economic exclusion is normalized and justice is inconsistently applied, noting, “The persistent failure to address these dual crises of jobs and justice risks deepening public disillusionment and eroding confidence in the very institutions entrusted with national stewardship. We therefore submit that the urgency of these matters demands immediate, deliberate and measurable action.
