Letter From Saclepea – Analyst Liberia

Mr. President, Choose Your Legacy

Written from Belgium

Mr. President,

I write today from Belgium, far from the noise of Monrovia, but with Liberia heavily on my mind.

I have known you for a long time. That is why I am writing directly and honestly. I am not writing to flatter you, and I am not writing to insult you. I am writing because our country is in serious difficulty, and because I believe you still have a unique opportunity to change its direction.

Liberia is struggling. National reconciliation has made almost no meaningful progress. The economy is not moving as our people expected. The national drug crisis has overtaken development and good governance. Our Legislature has retreated into silence when the country needs its voice most. The national security apparatus is under serious public scrutiny, and public trust is rapidly disappearing.

Too much of the government now appears to operate between the Presidency and the security agencies. At the same time, the Ministry of Information is left to explain decisions and events that the government itself has not made clear.

Mr. President, Liberia needs you now, but perhaps not in the way the people around you are telling you.

Liberia has given you opportunity, education, a distinguished career in public service, honor, and ultimately its highest office. You have spent most of your adult life working for this country. The country now asks for one final, courageous act of service.

MR. PRESIDENT, DO NOT SEEK ANOTHER TERM.

At the 2029 election, you will be 84 years old. By the inauguration of the next government, you will be 85. Another six-year mandate would take you to 91. This is not an insult to your age. Age deserves respect.

But the Presidency is not ceremonial. It requires physical strength, constant vigilance, complete command of government, and the ability to withstand enormous national pressure every day. I do not believe another term would be fair to you or to Liberia.

The people encouraging you to run again may not be protecting your legacy. Many of them are protecting their positions, their access, and their personal interests. They need your continued candidacy because your presence in power lets them keep doing what they are doing.

They may tell you that you are strong enough. They may assure you that, three years from now, you can travel throughout Liberia, mount campaign platforms, lead rallies, and accept another six-year mandate. Mr. President, deep within yourself, you know the truth.

Your greatest opportunity is no longer to remain President. Your greatest opportunity is to become the President who deliberately prepared Liberia for a peaceful, credible and hopeful future.

Announcing that you will not seek another term will not destroy your government. IT WILL LIBERATE IT.

Those who want to contest the next election can leave the government, build the Unity Party, and present themselves to the Liberian people. Those who genuinely want to serve can remain and help you complete your national mission. You would no longer be governing for the next campaign. You would be governing for the next generation.

Begin with the drug crisis.

After more than two and a half years in office, the government cannot continue suggesting that this crisis is merely the work of outsiders or political opponents. A crisis of this magnitude raises unavoidable questions about institutional failure and possible complicity within the state. Those questions must be answered.

Whatever the merits of the charges against the former Vice President, a court of law must decide her case based on evidence. But that case cannot become a substitute for answering the separate questions surrounding the drugs recently seized in Liberia. Who financed them? Who facilitated their entry? Who provided protection? Who expected to profit? Were any government officials or security personnel involved? The Liberian people deserve those answers.

Invite credible international partners to support an independent investigation. Allow the evidence to determine who must be prosecuted, whether that person is inside or outside your government.

Use the remainder of your presidency to reconcile the country in substance, not merely through speeches and ceremonies. Respect and strengthen the independence of the Legislature. Rebuild public confidence in national security. Place competence and integrity above personal loyalty. Remove anyone whose continued presence undermines public trust.

Fix the electoral system. Give Liberia a transparent voters’ roll, a credible National Elections Commission and an election process whose outcome every Liberian can trust. Reorganize your government around performance, accountability and service. Make it clear that no official is protected from investigation and no institution is above the law.

Mr. President, you still have more than three years. That is enough time to change Liberia’s direction. It is enough time to restore confidence, rebuild institutions and leave behind a country more stable than the one you inherited.

But you must change your outlook. Do not allow the struggle for another term to consume the remainder of your presidency. Do not let succession politics, internal competition, and officials’ personal ambitions drag Liberia toward confusion and chaos.

DO NOT LEAVE LIBERIA LIKE THIS.

The choice before you is difficult, but it is clear. You can spend the remainder of your presidency preparing to hold power, while the fight over succession paralyzes the government and deepens national division. Or you can prepare to leave power honorably and use every remaining day to repair the country, strengthen its institutions and secure a peaceful future.

One path may keep the people around you comfortable. The other will secure your place in history.

Mr. President, choose your legacy. Tell Liberia that you will not run again. Then govern with the courage of a man who has nothing left to seek for himself and everything left to give to his country.

You have already achieved the office.

NOW BECOME THE STATESMAN LIBERIA NEEDS.