Liberia: Boakai Tells Superintendents Their Job Is Not Receiving Visiting Officials

What the report says

President Joseph Nyuma Boakai used a commissioning ceremony in Monrovia to set expectations for newly sworn-in county superintendents and other officials taking up senior government posts, according to The Liberian Investigator via AllAfrica. He told the superintendents that their role is not simply to host visiting dignitaries, but to stay accessible to residents and work with a wide range of local actors, including traditional leaders, legislators, civil society, women, youth and religious groups.

Boakai also pressed a broader message of public-sector discipline. He said appointments are not rewards and that state resources, jobs and contracts should not be handled as personal favors. In his remarks, he said state-owned enterprises must be managed professionally, transparently and accountably, and warned against waste or relationship-based hiring and contracting. The event included officials assigned to institutions such as the National Elections Commission, the Liberia Electricity Corporation and several ministries and agencies.

The president separately singled out the new elections commission chairman and the incoming vice chairman of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, urging independence, impartiality and credibility in those sensitive roles. The elections official who spoke on behalf of the appointees said Liberia’s electoral process has improved since the end of the civil war, but still faces funding, logistics, technology and misinformation challenges. The remarks come as Boakai seeks to push his administration’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development beyond rhetoric and into visible results.