Paye-Layleh Advises Boakai on Governance -Urges the President to Engage with Citizens

MONROVIA – Jonathan Paye-Layleh, a former BBC reporter, has issued a public appeal to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, urging him to reconnect with the Liberian people. As the government approaches its third year in office, Paye-Layleh’s letter seems to highlight the growing concern that the presidency may be losing touch with the citizens it serves. As THE ANALYST reports, the journalist cited the experience of former transitional president Gyude Bryant and emphasized the need for direct public engagements to ensure the president hears the voices of ordinary Liberians, rather than relying on filtered feedback from advisors. 

Jonathan Paye-Layleh, a former BBC correspondent in Liberia and staunch supporter of the ruling Unity Party, has written an open letter to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, urging him to hold direct public engagements with ordinary Liberians.

In the letter dated December 1, 2025, Paye-Layleh emphasized the importance of the president hearing directly from the people, citing the experience of former transitional president Gyude Bryant, who noted that the presidency can be isolating and that some advisors may not paint an accurate picture of the situation on the ground.

Paye-Layleh suggests that President Boakai hold regular town hall meetings or stadium gatherings to hear from citizens, including market vendors, students, farmers, and other marginalized groups.

He offers to make his letter public to ensure the message is received, highlighting the high expectations and concerns among Liberians about the government’s performance.

The letter is a call to action for President Boakai to engage with citizens and address their concerns, and is seen as a show of support for the government’s efforts amidst challenges and criticisms.

“As your government enters its third year next month, I respectfully suggest that, moving forward, you make direct public engagements with ordinary people a part of your agenda,” he told the president in the open letter. “Whether it is through town hall meetings in cities or stadium gatherings, this is necessary in order to hear directly from the people themselves.”

Continuing, he referenced Gyude Bryant, the head of the transitional government that took Liberia to elections in 2005, who once said to him, “One thing I have learnt in the presidency is that, in many ways, it isolates the president from the public and the real people. The president doesn’t get to know or hear what people are actually thinking or saying out there.”

According to Paye-Layleh, the ex-head of state told him further: “This is so because some of the people who work in the presidency or are usually  allowed by protocol to meet the president either seek their own interests or don’t paint the real pictures of things out there to the president. As a result, you sit here thinking all is well out there when, in reality, many things are not fine and need to be fixed.”

He implored the Liberian leader to consider the holding of regular public forums to hear directly from market people, students, the disabled, drivers, nurses, teachers, farmers, shoe-shine boys, sanitation workers, car loaders, roadside sellers and the unemployed.

“Those are people who would never get to speak to you if such forums were not organized,” the journalist further noted, adding: “Your government has achieved a lot within a relatively short period of time; but because of the challenges it inherited, expectations are high; and people are saying things that you may not be hearing.

“Once these public engagements are organized, and as ordinary people come out one after another to speak, there is a committee of serious people taking serious notes of those concerns and suggestions coming from the public. Those views will then be compiled to inform you about what your people out there are thinking and saying.

“Please consider this my patriotic contribution to ensuring the kind of Liberia we wanted to see when we fought very hard to get  you elected, even when so many people, many of them now on board,  sat on the fence, not so sure your presidency was still possible after losing in 2017. But we were optimistic and challenged the odds for a better Liberia by campaigning with all our might to give you a chance.”