LIBERIA – President Weah has just increased the prices of fuel and gasoline on the Liberian market. Before increasing these prices, the government along with the government-licensed importers attempted to fool us into believing that there was no petroleum product on the market.
So, we queued to buy the little that was offered for sale. Some petroleum dealers then started increasing the price to test our reaction. When they saw that we were desperate to buy at whatever price they offered, the government then stepped in officially and astronomically increased the prices, using the Russian-Ukrainian war as their justification.
But this is sheer wickedness, our people. The government is only using the Ukrainian war as an excuse to make money. The government lied that they could raise US$785m this year. In truth, they cannot. The government is also desperate for money to run their campaign because President Weah thinks he can use the sweat and blood of Liberians to raise extra money so that he can fool us to re-elect him. So, they are taxing petroleum products to help raise this money.
Additionally, we all know how government officials always get their chopping at the expense of the Liberian people. The question we, therefore, need to ask is, do Weah and his Samuel Tweah and Nathaniel McGill have their chopping in the increased prices of petroleum products? If yes, then Weah needs to tell us how much chopping is there for himself, and how much chopping is there for Tweah and McGill.
How about the masses that ran up and down in the rain to elect him? Has Weah considered the higher cost of transportation the masses will now have to pay because of his wickedness? Has Weah considered the fact that every good and service will now cost more money to ordinary people because of this increase in prices of gasoline and fuel?
How about electricity? Already LEC is being badly mismanaged because Weah and his people simply do not know how to manage the country. We were therefore depending on our private generators. But now, even that is going to be very expensive.
How are the Liberian people supposed to afford this higher cost of living? Where are the jobs from which we are supposed to make all this money to finance their chopping? Are not they the same government that cut everybody’s pay in the name of harmonization? Where are the new investors who are supposed to create new jobs? Where are the old investors who were supposed to keep us employed?
More and more people are losing their jobs every day, while more and more businesses are no longer making profits. Where do Weah and his friends expect the poor people to take all this money to buy fuel and gas, pay school fees, pay hospital bills, and buy food to eat, etc., etc. when Weah keeps increasing prices every day?
Meanwhile, Weah and his friends are driving around in expensive cars, wearing expensive shoes, making music to dance, wasting expensive drinks on cars that they are buying for their people, building expensive mansions, and enjoying themselves while the ordinary Liberian is being overtaxed to finance all their enjoyment. We say this is wickedness.
When times are hard, the government is supposed to help the citizens to survive. In Sierra Leone, the government there did not have to increase the prices of fuel and gasoline so high as compared to Liberia because the government is helping to pay for the cost of fuel and gasoline. Why can’t our government do the same? The same thing happened with the COVID-19 stimulus support.
The government received a lot of money from the international community and up to this date, we don’t know what the government did with that money. All we know is that Weah and his friends are now richer, while the masses continue to lose their jobs, lose their businesses, and slide further into abject poverty.
Clearly, Weah does not have the country at heart. He fooled us into believing there would be change if we elected him. But there is no real change. Compared to 2017, Liberia under George Weah is far worse off. The work is simply too much for this man who calls himself a boy. The only thing that matters to Weah and his buddies is how to enrich themselves at the expense of the Liberian people. Every sector, every government office, everything is going bad.
My fellow Liberians, we cannot continue to pay for Weah’s incompetence and greed. How much more can we take? Can you imagine what a second term for Weah will mean for this country- for the masses? Just think about it. In this first term where he still needs our vote for the second term, he’s dealing with us like this. If he gets a second term, we’re finished! That’s when we will know the real meaning of Gbekugbeh- which in Kpelle means, finish it all, take it all-kugbeh. But God forbid! We cannot give Weah a second term.
Meanwhile, we call on Weah to lower the prices of petroleum products by deducting the chopping and suspending the taxes he has imposed on fuel and gas. Weah and his friends need to at least suspend their chopping for once so that the Liberian people can get some relief. The wickedness and incompetence need to end now!
