‘GRAVE MISTAKE’ -Bility Says of Boakai’s Attempt to Seek 2025 Budget Recast

MONROVIA – Lurking under the process of lubricating government’s operations ad to keep the wheel of the state moving, and with impact on the masses of the people, lies how the national budget, or the national cake, is handled by the ruling establishment. Budget manipulation, which others call “the budgetization of corruption” is a subtle, complex engineering which many state- and non-state actors hardly detect. When all eyes are off the radar, following exhaustive debates and ratification of the budget, there is often a tactic, such as recasting of it, where fingering and peddling take place, requiring only a highly experienced, cynical mind to track any mischief. That’s why, as President Boakai reportedly contemplates sending the 2025 national budget back to the legislature, professedly for recasting, Nimba County Representative Musa Hassan Bility is loudly sounding a preemptive alarm, warning the President to think twice about it as his legacy risks being ruined for he did. The Analyst reports.      

The political leader of the Citizens Movement for Change (CMC) and Nmba County lawmaker Musa Hassan Bility has sent an open letter to the president of Liberia, Joseph Nyumah Boakai, strongly advising against seeking the recast of the 2025 National Budget.

After obtaining what he called ‘good authority’ or reliable information that the President intends to resubmit the 2025 National Budget to the National Legislature for recast this week or early next, Bility told the head of state: “With all due respect, this would be a grave mistake, one that risks staining your legacy and deepening the suffering of our people.”

The Nimba lawmaker said he think so because, “as I write, the National Legislature, specifically the House of Representatives, has already exhausted its own budgetary allocations”, and that with the recast, the House intends to quietly refill every one of those lines as though they were never touched.

“This is not fiscal responsibility. This is not public service. This is a dangerous abuse of power in a country that can barely provide for its citizens’ most basic needs,” Bility told the president in the open letter also placed on his Facebook page.

Continuing, the CMC political said noted: “Our people are struggling to feed their families, to send their children to school, to find jobs, and to access even the most basic healthcare. Yet, on your watch, there is an attempt to redirect scarce national resources to replenish the pockets of those who already benefit from privilege and authority. Mr. President, this is sickening. It is an economic crime, and if you endorse it, you will be an accomplice.”

He said the timing of the recast makes it even more troubling—with only five months left in the fiscal year—for “there is no justification for this kind of fiscal manipulation”.

“If your administration truly expects a surplus, keep it,” Bility asked the Chief Executive. “Add it to the next budget. Direct it toward the roads that remain impassable, the hospitals that lack medicine, the schools that have no desks, and the farmers who need tools to work the land.”

Of course, Liberians would never have become privy to this sort of underhanded dealing had Nimba County District #7 Representative Musa Hassan Bility not provided an insider account of how the House of Representatives is set to rip the Liberian people off of their hard earned tax dollars and dwindling resources if President Joseph Nyuma Boakai resubmits to the very Legislature the 2025 National Budget for recast this week or early next week.

According to Representative Bility, it is this same Legislature has consistently refused to audit itself, and has resisted every attempt at transparency and accountability.

“To give it more money now, without reforms, without oversight, and without public justification, is to reward impunity and erode the public trust,” Blity warned, cautioning President Boakai that the world and the Liberian people are watching him.

“Mr. President, the world is watching you. The Liberian people are watching you. History will remember you. In this moment, you have a choice: stand with the people, or stand with those who exploit them,” he further noted, adding: “Please, do not allow this recast to go forward. Do not let your name be tied to one more chapter of waste, greed, and betrayal. The future of our country depends on leaders who can say “no” when saying “yes” would harm the very people they swore to serve. This is your moment to say “no.”