By Musa Hassan Bility ·
This week, I want to talk about our COUNTRY
Not George Weah. Not Joseph Boakai. Not CDC. Not CMC. Not even the Unity Party. Liberia.
Because almost three years after Liberians voted for change, we must have the courage to ask ourselves a very simple question: What has fundamentally changed?
The CDC government was voted out of office in 2023. Reasons included a lack of progress, inadequate social development, poor governance, economic hardship, and the general feeling that the country needed a different direction.
Liberians chose President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and the Unity Party.
I did not vote for President Boakai. But that is not the important point. The important point is understanding why so many Liberians did.
President Boakai came into office perhaps better prepared by experience than almost anyone who had sought the presidency in recent Liberian history. His personal story is itself a Liberian story. From humble beginnings in rural Liberia, he had the opportunity to get an education, enter public service, rise through government, become Minister of Agriculture, serve twelve years as Vice President, and eventually become President.
The argument for his election was compelling: he had seen the Liberian state from almost every level and should have known exactly what was wrong with it and how to fix it.
There would be no learning curve, no excuses. There would be experience, maturity, competence and, above all, change.
Almost three years later, where is it?
The fundamentals that produced the demand for change have hardly shifted.
And perhaps nothing exposes the political consequences of this more clearly than the reaction surrounding the recent return of former President George Weah.
Whatever anyone thinks about President Weah, the crowds that took to the streets should have prompted serious reflection within the government. Instead, we saw the familiar political reflex: explain it away, attack it, minimize it, counter it with propaganda.
But those people in the streets were communicating something.
Many were not merely celebrating George Weah. They were expressing dissatisfaction with their own present circumstances. Those crowds were signs of protest: protest against living conditions, against the failure to unite our country, against what many perceive as government excesses, against the continued weaponization of state authority, and against a political system that promised transformation but increasingly looks painfully familiar.
They were also expressions of frustration with a country that continues to find itself embarrassed by controversies, including a drug investigation whose direction, credibility, and conclusion remain unclear to the Liberian people.
The government should pay attention.
Instead, the Unity Party appears increasingly trapped by the very machinery that helped bring it to power: propaganda.
And therein lies the danger.
YOU CAN WIN AN ELECTION WITH PROPAGANDA. YOU CANNOT GOVERN WITH PROPAGANDA.
Propaganda can convince people that your opponent has failed. Still, it cannot build a road, put food on a family’s table, create sustainable employment, improve healthcare, educate a child, strengthen institutions, make justice impartial, or make people feel safer. And it certainly cannot indefinitely convince people that their lived reality is different from what they experience every morning when they wake up.
When propaganda becomes a governing tool, eventually government itself begins believing its own propaganda.
That is where I fear we are today.
An illusion is gradually being constructed around those in power that everything is going well and that anyone saying otherwise must be an opponent. That is dangerous.
The country is becoming more distrustful of the government, and increasingly the government appears distrustful of the country.
Look at the reaction to political activity, the conduct of security forces, the response to dissent, and what happens when communities or political districts thought to belong permanently to one political side begin showing signs of frustration.
Government becomes nervous.
But democracy cannot function that way. No district belongs permanently to any political party. No county belongs permanently to any politician. And certainly Liberia belongs to no government. Political power is borrowed from the people, and the people can take it back.
This is why I believe President Boakai now faces an extremely difficult political task. He cannot simply rescue the Unity Party through speeches or public relations.
Liberians are stubborn political people. Once the Liberian mind settles on a conclusion about a government, changing it becomes extremely difficult.
The signs we are seeing should therefore not be dismissed. They should be studied; they should humble those in authority, and they should force introspection.
Instead, almost three years into this administration, we continue hearing explanations about the government that came before.
At some point, yesterday stops being an excuse for today.
The government you replaced peacefully transferred power to you. You asked Liberians for the opportunity to govern differently. They gave it to you. Therefore, govern.
You cannot spend an entire administration campaigning against the administration you already defeated. You cannot condemn abuses of power while in opposition and normalize them when power becomes yours. You cannot complain about political persecution yesterday and then use prosecutorial authority in ways that create the perception of persecution today. You cannot demand institutional independence when you are outside government and become uncomfortable with independent institutions when you control government.
And you cannot keep telling hungry, frustrated, or disappointed people that everything is fine simply because government statistics and government propaganda say so.
People live the economy; they live governance; they live insecurity; and they live injustice. People know what they are experiencing.
That is why I say, with sadness rather than celebration: Nothing fundamental has changed.
Liberia remains trapped in the same political cycle. Governments change, political parties change, officials change, and slogans change, but the people remain waiting.
That cannot remain our national story.
President Boakai still has time. But time in politics disappears much faster than those occupying power ever imagine.
The President and his government can continue believing their own narrative. They can continue blaming yesterday, interpreting criticism as opposition, and convincing themselves that the political warning signs around them are meaningless.
They can keep dreaming.
But eventually, propaganda must meet reality.
And reality always wins.
My hope is that before that moment arrives, President Boakai will look beyond his party, beyond those who tell him what he wants to hear, beyond the propaganda, and beyond the next election.
He should look at Liberia.
Because this should never be simply about whether UP wins or loses in 2029; it should be about whether, after everything our country has endured, we are finally capable of building a government that leaves Liberia fundamentally better than it found it.
Almost three years later, I am still waiting to see that change.
So are millions of Liberians.
Have a pleasant new week.