IPNEWS: Former Liberian Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah has taken to social media to publicly challenge President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s statement in this year’s State of the Nation Address regarding road paving achievements.
In a detailed post, Tweah responded to President Boakai’s assertion that his administration “increased Liberia’s paved roads from under 12% to at least 20% and maintained more than 780 km of roads.”
weah wrote:
“Mr. President, road pavement under President EJS was 5.7%. That means she paved and/or maintained about 745 km of roads.
President George M Weah added 3.4% to this ratio, bringing the total pavement ratio to 9% by 2023. This means President WEAH paved about 450 km of roads. This brings the total paved roads in Liberia to about 1,119 km as at December 2023.”
He then questioned the math behind the current administration’s claim.
“Mr. President, are your people telling you that your Government added 11% to this 9% pavement number? This means they are telling you your Government paved more than 1,430 km of roads, which is about 11% of Liberia’s 13,000 km of roads.
Or did they get confused by the numbers and reported this non‑truth to you?”
Tweah went on to criticize the political handling of such statistics.
“Because of politics your people are unfair to you, Mr. President, and this is not good for the country.”
He also addressed another SONA highlight—employment.
“I will leave the ‘70,000 jobs’ the UP created for the public to decide. This one is above my pay grade,” he added, before concluding:
“But just wanted to share with the public the impossibility your advisors made you to read to the Liberian people. Keeping honest our national discourse.”
Tweah’s intervention has reignited debate over data accuracy in high‑level government reporting and raised questions about how figures are compiled and communicated in official speeches. COURTESY OF Daily Monitor Newspaper
