– Using Metaphors to Hide the Reality of National Renewal, Looking Beyond Poetic Pessimism.
By D. Zawu Kota
The continuation of Former Education Minister George K. Werner writings appears to be a deliberate attempt to diminish/shrink the achievements and growing momentum of an administration that is working to rebuild what many years of neglect left behind. What we see in his recent commentaries is no longer courage or truth. Instead, they reflect deep frustration, resentment, and a bitterness that clouds objective judgment. Your arguments come across as carefully arranged distortions rather than fair or constructive national engagement – found within an alphabet of concorded lies and deception.
The Former Education Minister, George K. Werner’s recent social media post leans heavily on familiar imagery from Grand Cess, using drums, caskets, and communal lifting to dramatize a bus malfunction in Gbarnga. In doing so, he repeats the error that has weakened national discourse for years. He chooses symbolism over substance and chooses pessimism over serious analysis. His argument rests on the idea that a single mechanical failure is enough to diagnose the entire nation. What he describes as low expectations is in truth an attempt to diminish the achievements and growing momentum of an administration that is committed to repairing what decades of neglect left behind. President Boakai’s leadership is not defined by one stalled vehicle. It is defined by his willingness to begin the journey, to confront the real state of the nation in an open manner, and to start reforms that others either delayed or avoided entirely.
Werner’s poetic despair ignores a simple fact. Systems do not collapse in a single night, and they do not rebuild in a single day. If Liberia is too old to be this small, then it is equally true that the condition he criticizes did not appear under the current administration. The public sectors he once managed were already struggling with deep structural problems. Many challenges grew worse in years when loud speeches were more common than proper maintenance. A bus breaking down is not a symbol of national collapse. It is a reminder that long periods of neglected roads, weak transport systems, and fragile institutions cannot be fixed by a single event or a single month of work. President Boakai does not hide these realities. He confronts them openly and deals with them in a serious way.
The Former Minster (Werner) also misreads the national mood. He interprets the excitement of Liberians who welcomed the new public buses as proof of low expectations. This is not insight but a misunderstanding of national spirit. People did not celebrate because they believe a bus is a miracle. They celebrated because after years of decline something finally moved forward. National renewal does not begin with perfection. It begins with direction. The people did not line the streets because they were unaware. They came because leadership is now visible and responsive and because they feel included again. Anyone who interprets this hope as a sign of weakness does not understand a people who have endured hardship but continue to rise.
Werner’s use of imagery from the Southeast also misses the deeper truth. He argues that when something fails the people must carry it, but he ignores an important principle in that same tradition. No community in the Southeast believes in shaming the efforts of those who are working to repair what they inherited damaged. The Southeast values respect for honest labour, loyalty to collective progress, and recognition that responsibility is shared. It does not encourage turning every national effort into a poetic funeral. President Boakai’s leadership is not a casket that needs to be lifted out of sympathy. It is a national mandate carried forward with intention, planning, and integrity.
Werner warns against low expectations, but his own argument demands a level of flawlessness that no nation on earth achieves. Leadership is not measured by the absence of problems. It is measured by the rebuilding of systems, the strengthening of institutions, the restoration of public trust, and the commitment of government to work for its citizens. These changes are happening under President Boakai, quietly and consistently. If Liberia is too old to be small, then it is also too old for commentary that mistakes isolated incidents for national destiny.
He (Werner) ends with a dramatic image of a nation cheering at the start and pushing at the end. This is not Liberia’s story Pekin. It is a pessimistic script searching for significance. Liberia is cheering at the beginning and working through the middle. The people are not celebrating the basics; they are celebrating clear movement after years of stagnation. The administration is not hiding the challenges. It is confronting them. The citizens are not blind. They are hopeful because they see sincere effort rather than political dramatics.
President Boakai’s leadership is not the casket Werner describes. It represents the moment when Liberia stops pretending that poetry can replace policy. A bus stopped, yes, but leadership did not. A crowd pushed, yes, but the nation is moving. What matters is not the stumble but the determined stride. And right now, Liberia is moving with purpose rather than theatrics.
In the end, the former Education Minister George Werner’s continued attempt to offer petty criticism of the Boakai Administration, it is important to remind him that Liberia expects far better from someone of his experience and former stature. On issues of national concern, the country deserves thoughtful analysis, honesty, and responsibility, not commentary that adds little value to public understanding. Liberia needs voices that lift the conversation, not writings that reduce serious national matters to shallow personal grievances.
Sincerely spoken.
