Monrovia — Former Liberian Finance and Growth Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah has welcomed the Authorities of Liberia’s (GoL) ‘admission’ that errors had been made in President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s 2026 State of the Nation Tackle (SONA), however insists that the following correction nonetheless incorporates severe inaccuracies, notably relating to claims about street development.
By J.H. Webster Clayeh, [email protected]
In a Fb put up on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, Mr. Tweah described the federal government’s clarification as insufficient, arguing that the revised clarification continues to counsel that the Boakai-led Administration constructed roughly 1,430 kilometers of roads inside two years—an assertion he described as inconceivable.
“We welcome the Authorities’s admission that it erred on the street pavement ratio reported by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai in his 2026 SONA. However that is ‘thanks however no thanks’ because the ‘correction’ nonetheless has the identical error and must be corrected,” Mr. Tweah wrote.
“The English the President learn implies the Rescue Authorities constructed about 1,430 km of roads—an impossibility.”
Background to the Controversy
The federal government’s clarification adopted Mr. Tweah’s public criticism of President Boakai’s SONA, wherein the President claimed important progress in street infrastructure inside two years of assuming workplace.
In the course of the deal with, President Boakai acknowledged: “We elevated Liberia’s paved roads from beneath 12 % to a minimum of 20 % and maintained greater than 780 kilometers of roads.”
Mr. Tweah argued that this assertion, when put next with historic information, means that the present administration has outperformed each former President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf and former President George Manneh Weah mixed—an assertion he says doesn’t align with documented figures.
Tweah’s Breakdown of Highway Information
Based on Mr. Tweah, street pavement beneath President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf stood at roughly 5.7 %, translating to about 745 kilometers of paved or maintained roads. He stated former President Weah added 3.4 %, equal to roughly 450 kilometers, bringing Liberia’s whole paved street community to roughly 1,119 kilometers by December 2023.
“Mr. President, are your individuals telling you that your Authorities added 11 % to this 9 % pavement quantity?” Mr. Tweah requested.
“This implies they’re telling you your Authorities paved greater than 1,430 kilometers of roads—about 11 % of Liberia’s 13,000 kilometers of roads. Or did they get confused by the numbers and report this non-truth to you?”
Authorities Responds
Addressing the difficulty throughout the Ministry of Data’s common press briefing on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, Data Minister Jerolinmick Matthew Piah described the disputed figures within the President’s SONA as a “clerical mistake.” He pointed to particular parts of the deal with that, based on him, contained inaccurate information.
Nevertheless, Mr. Tweah maintains that the ministry’s press launch didn’t resolve the core challenge.
“The press launch presupposed to right the misinformation retains the identical error,” he stated.
Name for Honesty in Public Discourse
Responding to strategies that the federal government ought to have acknowledged him for figuring out the error, Mr. Tweah stated recognition was not his concern.
“I don’t want credit score; simply honesty in public discourse,” he acknowledged.
Mr. Tweah additional argued that the misstatement was pushed by strain on the Rescue Authorities to match governance achievements recorded beneath the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Administration.
“Honesty is required to maneuver our nation ahead,” he acknowledged.
“We look ahead to admission to different errors, together with the false declare about creating 70,000 jobs. The numbers are clear—the Rescue UP is struggling to match the governance numbers and milieu engendered by the CDC,” he added.
