By Godgift Harris
Former Minister of Public Works Ruth Coker Collins, has launched a sharp public critique of incumbent Public Works Minister Roland Giddings.
Madam Collins questioned Giddings’ technical competence. She accused him of misrepresenting the status of major national road projects.
While on OK Conversation program in Monrovia, on Monday, February 16, Madam Collins argued that Giddings lacks the engineering background necessary to accurately assess and communicate infrastructure realities.
“Technically, he is not inclined,” Collins said, asserting that the minister’s public statements on road conditions amount to “loose talk” that Liberians should not take seriously.
At the center of the dispute are claims surrounding the Gbapolu–Bopolu road corridor and the RIA road. Madam Collins said, substantial payments had already been made and construction work undertaken on both corridors before the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration exited office.
She accused the current leadership of glossing over documented progress to recast the projects as largely untouched.
Madam Collins further rejected narratives suggesting neglect of the Southeast, describing them as “road lies about the Southeast.”
She insisted that funding for phased pavement works from Ganta through Grand Gedeh, River Gee, Grand Kru, and onward to Harper, had been secured and duly ratified by the legislature during the administration of George Weah.
While referencing legislative approvals, Madam Collins noted that agreements covering key stretches Ganta to Saclepea, Saclepea to Tapita, and Tapita to Toe Town, were ratified under the CDC government.
She also alluded to the participation of then-legislators, including Vice President Jeremiah Koung and Senator Zoe Pennue, arguing that records exist to substantiate the funding and scope of those projects.
In a broader political swipe, Madam Collins urged the ruling Unity Party and its allies to focus on “bread-and-butter issues,” contending that public debate should center on livelihoods and hunger, rather than “revisionist accounts of infrastructure development.”
“The real debate of hunger runs on the pavements of roads,” she said.
Though, the Ministry of Public Works, has not publicly responded to Madam Collins’ remarks, the exchange however, underscores mounting political tension over infrastructure delivery and accountability as the current administration seeks to redefine priorities inherited from its predecessor.