MEMO TO THE PRESIDENT – Subject : January 22, 2024 Still Matters – the Covenant of Office, Work Ahead Stare at You

Your Excellency!

The year 2025 has ended, this memo is written not in opposition, nor in flattery, but in duty—to the Republic and to the solemn oath you took on January 22, 2024, before God and country, to “faithfully execute the office of President” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Liberia.”

That oath did not belong to party or politics. It belonged to the people.

Two years into your administration, Liberia stands at a critical juncture. Expectations that once buoyed your inauguration have given way to impatience in many quarters, confusion in others, and cautious hope in some. This moment calls for reflection—but more importantly, for action.

Mr. President, Liberians did not elect you to preside over continuity; they elected you to correct course. To cut the corner. They did not vote for familiarity; they voted for fairness, order, and dignity restored. They believed your long public service had prepared you not merely to manage the state, but to steady it.

Yet today, too many citizens feel unseen.

From urban markets to rural towns, the lived experience of governance remains harsh. Roads are still impassable. Schools remain broken. Sanitation enforcement too often replaces compassion with coercion. Teachers feel discarded. Vendors feel hunted. Rural Liberia feels abandoned. These are not abstract criticisms; they are daily realities.

Your foreign policy successes—winning a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council and securing a second MCC Compact—have restored Liberia’s international credibility. But Mr. President, credibility abroad must now be matched by confidence at home. Diplomatic applause cannot substitute for domestic relief.

This memo therefore urges you to double up—not in speeches, but in execution.

Eschew complacency. Eschew the comfort of incrementalism when urgency is demanded. Eschew politics that calculates rather than governs. The people are not interested in inter-party explanations; they are interested in results.

You inherited challenges, yes—but inheritance does not absolve responsibility. Leadership is measured not by what was found, but by what is fixed.

Mr. President, the relationship between your government and segments of the population is strained. That strain is not irreparable—but it requires humility to mend. Acknowledge early missteps openly. Speak plainly to the nation—not through praise singers, but through truth. When people feel heard, patience returns.

The spirit of your oath calls for justice without fear or favor, governance without cruelty, and reform without delay. It calls for a presidency that listens downward as much as it speaks upward.

Liberia does not suffer from a lack of plans. It suffers from a lack of visible follow-through. Policy documents do not pave roads. Committees do not build schools. Pronouncements do not clean communities. Action does.

History, Mr. President, has not been kind to Liberia’s political class. Too many administrations—well-intentioned or otherwise—have come and gone leaving citizens convinced that, as the saying goes, “nothing good can come out of Nazareth.” That belief is corrosive. It robs the nation of hope and the state of legitimacy.

You still have the chance to disprove it.

But time is not neutral. Each month of delay hardens skepticism. Each missed opportunity deepens cynicism. The remaining years of your term must therefore be defined by delivery, not defense; by presence, not posture.

Liberians are not asking for perfection. They are asking for sincerity, urgency, and evidence that their government works for them—not above them, not against them.

Mr. President, the oath you took was not ceremonial. It was a covenant. History will not judge your intentions; it will judge your impact.

This year-end memo is a reminder—firm but respectful—that the people are watching, waiting, and hoping that the promise of January 24, 2024 will yet find its full expression in action.

The moment demands leadership. The office empowers you. The oath binds you.

The rest is choice.