MONROVIA – Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has come under severe criticism for allegedly abandoning his earlier role as a defender of the poor and aligning instead with the interests of the elite under President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s administration.
The critique was issued on Wednesday, September 10, by Emmanuel Nyan Polay, Propaganda Chairperson of the Vanguard Student Unification Party (SUP) at the University of Liberia. In a commentary titled When Those Who Chant the Holy Cry of People’s Redemption Bathe in the Pool of Deception and Contradiction: The Case of Augustine K Ngafuan II, Polay argued that Ngafuan has transformed from a radical voice for the oppressed into a polished bureaucrat complicit in government excess.
“Once upon a time, before Augustine Kpah Ngafuan was swallowed by the luxuries of state power, he was a fearless soldier of the masses, uncompromising, radical, and relentless,” Polay wrote. “But today, the firebrand is gone. What stands in his place is a Minister of Finance chained to the hollow presidency of Joseph Boakai. The same Ngafuan who once condemned the system of oppression now polishes its chains and balances its corrupt books.”
Polay cited a series of alarming statistics to underscore the nation’s continuing hardships. He noted that 50.9 percent of Liberians live on less than US$2.15 per day, 68 percent fall below the national poverty line, and 33 percent of the population suffers from undernourishment. According to Polay, these figures demonstrate the widening gap between elite comfort and the everyday struggles of ordinary Liberians.
The student leader also criticized the government’s spending patterns, pointing to lavish foreign trips that he says produce little benefit. “US$356,245.70 was wasted on a failed Japan trip with over 60 delegates, returning with nothing but empty speeches. “US$460,286 was splashed on Boakai’s UNGA parade, a vanity trip that brought zero economic benefits to Liberia,” Polay said.
He further condemned Ngafuan for neglecting critical domestic priorities. “At the University of Liberia, Ngafuan’s own political nursery, students sit on broken chairs, many on bare floors, learning in ruins.” Yet, the same minister has found over US$5 million to renovate government ministries but cannot allocate US$1 million to renovate the nation’s oldest institution of higher learning,” Polay argued. He added that lecturers remain unpaid while “Joseph Boakai’s failed diplomatic circus” continues to consume public funds.
Polay concluded with a harsh indictment of Ngafuan’s legacy, warning that history will judge him harshly. “Yesterday’s Ngafuan was the conscience of the oppressed; today’s Ngafuan drowns in deception, betraying the very people whose hopes once carried his name. The betrayal is recorded. And while he drowns in the pool of contradiction, the Liberian people will remember who stood genuinely on their side and who sold their struggle for power, privilege, and fleeting glory.”
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