People-Service, Not Self-Service -Gongloe Warns Politicians, As He Inaugurates NRC Officials 

MONROVIA – While Liberians evidently heartedly welcome multiparty democracy, always excited and participatory during national elections, victorious politicians and political parties do have common modus operandi which is akin to George Owen’s ‘Animal Farm’ that not just triggers an ever-worsening voter apathy amongst the people, but also stymies national development. It is apparently against this background that longtime human rights lawyer and politician Tiawon Gongloe, speaking at the induction of officers of a political party, admonished politicians to be people-centered rather than self-seeking. The Analyst reports.

Liberian politician and legal luminary, Cllr. Tiawon Saye Gongloe, has implored Liberian leaders and politicians to regard leadership as a selfless service to the people, and not for self-service. He said leadership must be about sacrifice, not self-indulgence.

Speaking on the topic, “Selflessness is the Key to Good Leadership”, at the induction of new officers of the Reformers National Congress (RNC) on Friday, June 27, 2025, the Liberian human rights icon said when a leader puts self above country, the nation suffers, but, when a leader puts people above position, the nation prospers.

“We need leaders who will forgo the luxury fleet and ride in a single, fuel-efficient vehicle, if it means saving money for school desks and medical supplies,” the former Liberian Bar Association president said.

“We need leaders who will swap private jets for seats in the economy class, if it means funding youth job-training programs and meeting other basic national priorities. We need leaders who will act in conformity with the idea that government is a place to serve, not to steal, not those who will fill their pockets first before thinking about the people,” he warned further.

He said politicians must commit yourselves to selflessness, and must pledge that every decision they make will be guided by one question, “How will this benefit the people I serve?” If it does not serve them, it must not serve you.”

“As you take the oath of leadership today, remember that power is a trust, not a trophy,” he told RNC elected officials,” Gongloe said, wishing their tenure be defined not by the size of their personal accumulation, but by the depth of their compassion for the people.

According to him, selflessness is the key to good leadership and a selfless Liberian leadership is what Liberia needs.

He told the audience of the induction ceremony that true leaders do not measure success by the size of their motorcades, the cost of their convoys, or the comfort of their private jets but that true leaders measure success by the lives they uplift, the schools they build, and the clinics they stock.

Gongloe said: “Yet today, we still see public servants rolling through our streets in long convoys of expensive vehicles, worth millions of dollars—while in our own neighborhoods, children sit on broken benches in crumbling classrooms, and many public schools lack chairs, textbooks, even teachers.

“In health clinics across the country, basic medicines for treatable illnesses are lacking, and too many infants die before their first birthday. Women die in childbirth for want of simple medical supplies. In my view, this is not merely mismanagement—it is a reckless disregard for the welfare of our people.”

He asked: “How, I ask, can any public official in a poor country like Liberia justify earning more than an American holding the same office in the United States? How can one ride in a government-issued vehicle that cost $1.2 million, while families go hungry and hospitals go without basic drugs?”

The human rights lawyer said these are the clearest demonstrations of insensitivity to the extreme level of poverty in Liberia.

“This contrast of high level of extravagance against extreme poverty must be stopped by our collective actions. We can only succeed, if we rise beyond our party limitations,” he noted.