ANC Youth Congress On Boakai’s Back

‎ Youth of the opposition Alternative National Youth Congress (ANC) have delivered a blistering critique of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s administration.

They accused it of “gross negligence and mismanagement” in tackling the country escalating drug crisis.

‎In its recently released third state of the Youth Report, the youth league condemned the government allocation of resources, claiming that extravagant spending on state functions “undermines urgent rehabilitation efforts for young Liberians affected by drug abuse.”

‎‎”This is not a war on drugs; it is a war on common sense,” the report recorded, adding: “you cannot fight million-dollar cartels with chicken change. You cannot rehabilitate a nation with empty rhetoric.”

‎‎The Youth Congress highlighted alarming discrepancies in budget allocations, noting that while the Ministry of Justice earmarked just US$490,000 for drug rehabilitation initiatives, the Ministry of State spent over US$592,000 on celebrations.

‎‎Furthermore, the report said, the presidential convoy alone costs over of US$4 million annually, while the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency US$3.5 million budget is largely consumed by salaries, leaving minimal funds for effective law enforcement.

Beyond the drug crisis, the youth group criticized the government for alleged press censorship, arbitrary arrests and the misused of national security forces.

‎‎They accused the presidency of squandering taxpayers’ money on lavish international trips that yield little benefit for the nation. They therefore, called for a transformative reimagining of the controversial “World Trade Center,” previously a site of arrests for young IT talents.

‎They proposed converting the center into a National Technology and Innovation Hub that would nurture rather than criminalize the talents of young Liberians.

“We must not fear our brightest minds; we must empower them. We must not chase them; we must champion them.

‎We must not imprison innovation; we must institutionalize it,” the report urged.

‎The ANC Youth Congress then appealed to the United States government to intervene in Liberia’s drug crisis, accusing the Boakai administration of enabling corruption, specifically at the LDEA.