Kouyateh: Liberia Must Stop Waiting for 2029 While Citizens Struggle to Survive

By Auwal Ahmad Umar

Sheikh Amb. Al-Moustapha Kouyateh, a Liberian statesman, senior diplomat, entrepreneur and Pan-African advocate, has criticised the country’s growing political focus on the 2029 elections, saying the immediate survival and welfare of Liberians should take priority over electoral ambitions.

Amb. Kouyateh, whose career has been associated with advocacy for Liberia’s development and broader African transformation, said it was unacceptable for political leaders to focus heavily on future elections while citizens continue to struggle with hunger, education costs and economic hardship.

“For God’s sake, we are in 2026, not 2029,” he said, questioning how many Liberians would continue to suffer before political leaders turned their attention to the pressing challenges confronting the population.

He argued that political promises about the future could not substitute for measures capable of improving the lives of citizens today.

According to him, the country’s political class should be more concerned about the immediate needs of ordinary Liberians than campaigns, elections and partisan competition.

Amb.  Kouyateh also criticised what he described as the failure of successive political parties to adequately protect Liberia’s interests, particularly in the management of the country’s natural resources.

He alleged that Liberia’s resources, which he said should benefit the entire population, had increasingly been tied to concession agreements without delivering sufficient benefits to ordinary citizens.

“Liberia is a graceful country. We have land, we have resources and we have a small and productive population,” he said, while lamenting that the country still struggles with widespread poverty.

The Pan-African leader attributed part of Liberia’s challenges to what he described as a lack of patriotism among some political leaders who allegedly treat public resources as personal wealth.

He said genuine leadership should be measured by responsibility, accountability and the ability to empower citizens and develop the country, rather than by political rhetoric.

“Leadership is not talk. Leadership is responsibility,” Mr Kouyateh said, stressing that the protection of citizens should take precedence over protecting arrangements that primarily benefit powerful individuals.

He further warned that politics had increasingly been used as a tool for division and distraction, rather than as an instrument for national development.

According to him, political competition should not be allowed to deepen divisions or create hatred among Liberians at a time when many families are struggling to meet basic needs.

He questioned the logic of asking citizens to wait for political change in the hope that it would eventually translate into economic relief.

Mr Kouyateh also raised concerns about whether many Liberians facing severe economic difficulties could afford to wait until 2029 for meaningful improvements in their living conditions.

“What is the guarantee that we will even make it to 2029, when the majority are living on expectations, not prosperity?” he asked.

He called on Liberians to demand greater accountability from their leaders and to place national development, economic empowerment and citizens’ welfare at the centre of public discourse.

“Arise, Liberians. Enough is enough!” he declared.