‘CORRUPTION LINGERS’ -Joekai Traces Liberia’s 22-Yr. Postwar Peace Odyssey 

MONROVIA – It has been decades and two since Liberia’s 14-year brutal civil war ended following a tortuous peace process which only came into being in 2003 under the framework of what is known as the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement. And the nation, this year, is celebrating and paying honor to key actors of the Agreement. Civil Service Agency Director General Josiah F. Joekai, Jr. was the main speaker at the occasion, leafing through the foggy path to recovery. Acknowledging an amalgam of breakthroughs made over the last two decades, and that while the past is relatively better than the present, Joekai asserted ‘corruption ligers; institution are weak” and that “Liberia is not yet the democracy we dream of”. THE ANALYST reports.

Civil Service Director General has been paying tribute the crafters and key actors of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Accord which he noted finally ended the country’s ruinous civil crisis.

Josiah Joekai, Jr. said since the end of the war, the country has made tremendous progress in navigating through glooms left behind by the war, democratizing and recovering, but there is still much to desire, as state institutions are weak and corruption lingers.

Speaking at ceremonies celebrating the end of the Liberian civil war organized by the University of Liberia-based Koffi Annan Institute of Conflict Transformation, the CSA boss said: “Liberia is not yet the democracy we dream of Corruption lingers. Corruption lingers. Institutions are weak,” the CSA boss said, but quickly indicated that “compared to where we stood in 2003, we have moved mountains.”

Continuing, he said that the movement is owed to the framework of governance born from the Accra Peace Agreement that resulted into over 100,000 fighters disarmed, communities that were once dominated by militias finally breathing again, and families who had lived in camps in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire beginning to return.

Joekai recalled that the National Transitional Government, led by Chairman Gyude Bryant, inherited a broken state, but began rebuilding, restored basic services, reopened institutions, and prepared the ground for elections.

“And in 2005, ballots replaced bullets. Liberia, at last, chose democracy,” the CSA chief further indicated, recalling that when the ACPA was signed, Liberia had no real national army save for militias, armed factions—security forces that served individuals, not the nation.

The ACPA demanded a new beginning, he said, and so, the Armed Forces of Liberia were disbanded entirely; every soldier, every commander, and every unit was rebuilt from the ground up.

Supported by the United States and other partners, a new army was created, Joekai also indicated; an army trained not only in tactics, but in ethics, an army where recruitment was based on merit and inclusivity–an army where soldiers swear allegiance not to a warlord, not to a tribe, but to the Constitution of Liberia.

According to him, tor the first time in our history, Liberia’s army truly belongs to the people, and today, Liberians proudly serve in international peacekeeping missions, wearing the uniform of a reformed AFL.

He also spoke of how the Liberia National Police was also transformed from a broken, politicized force into an institution tasked with protecting citizens, not oppressing them, and thousands of officers were retrained, as irregular paramilitary units—like the Anti-Terrorist Unit—were dissolved, standards of professionalism and civilian oversight introduced.

“Let us be clear, the peace we enjoy today is fragile, but it is real. And it exists because Liberia turned its back on militias and embraced national security institutions rooted in democracy, merit, and accountability,” the CSA Director General recalled.

Truth and Reconciliation

He said: “But security is not enough. Because peace is not only about silencing guns. Peace must also mean confronting the truth. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) gave us a framework. It collected over 22,000 statements from victims and perpetrators. It documented massacres, atrocities, and human rights violations. It provided recommendations for justice, reparation, and healing.”

While TRC was not perfect, Joekai stressed, it gave Liberians something precious, it gave us memory. “And yet, two decades later, much of its work remains undone. Many recommendations remain ignored. Victims still wait for closure. Perpetrators still walk freely.”

It is it because of this that the government’s decision to establish the War and Economic Crimes Court is historic, signaling that Liberia is finally ready to stop dancing around the truth. That perpetrators must account. That victims must see justice.

“The culture of impunity must end,” Joekai insisted. “This is not vengeance. This is not a division. This is healing. This is accountability. This is the only way to ensure that Liberia never again returns to war.”

Governance and Democracy

According the Liberian academic, the ACPA was not only about peace, it was also about governance, creating institutions designed to prevent the abuses that had fueled war, which is why he said the Governance Commission was tasked with reform; the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission was designed to ensure transparency and the National Elections Commission was strengthened to safeguard democracy.

“And because of those reforms, Liberia has held multiple free and fair elections. Since 2005, we have seen peaceful transfers of power unthinkable during our years of conflict,” he noted. “But democracy is not just elections. It is also accountability. It is transparency. It is the fight against corruption. It is the courage to decentralize power so that every county, every district, feels the presence of government.”

Memorialization

Pointing to immortalizing iconic efforts made, he spoke of what was done towards memorialization.

Said Joekai: “Yet peace requires memory. And memory requires action. St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, where more than 600 innocents were massacred in 1990, must be preserved as a national shrine, a place of mourning, but also of learning. The thirteen poles on the beach, marking the 1980 executions, must be replaced with a dignified national monument. And Providence Island, the cradle of our republic, must be transformed into a national museum, chronicling our journey from settlement to independence, to conflict, and finally, to peace.”

He opined, “When we remember, we heal. When we heal, we build,” calling further for the rewriting of Liberia’s history.

“But remembrance alone is not enough. We must also rewrite our history,” he said. “For too long, Liberia’s story has been told in fragments, glorifying settlers, minimizing indigenous contributions. This has perpetuated exclusion. We must tell the whole story. Settlers carried the dream of freedom. They laid the foundation for independence in 1847. But indigenous peoples, the Vai, Kpelle, Kru, Bassa, Gio, Mano, and others also sacrificed, resisted, and shaped our destiny.”

He noted that together, settlers and natives created Africa’s first independent republic, and that together, they inspired Ghana, Kenya, and others to rise against colonialism.

Joekai also warned that unless Liberians confronted the entrenched Americo-Indigenous divide, “we cannot heal. That divide has been the root of our destruction, our underdevelopment, and our backwardness. We must bridge it with honesty. With inclusivity. With truth. That is how we unite. That is how we move forward.”