Open Letter to Mr. President-Elect & Madam VP-Elect

Dear Amb. George Weah- President-Elect & Madam Jewel Taylor- VP-Elect;
Like 2017, elections are now history.
It was a well-fought campaign and the majority of the voters selected you both. We did not support you because we believe your opponent was the better candidate. Unfortunately for us, the majority saw it differently. In every contestation, there must be a winner. As a growing democracy like ours, the loser must be gracious enough to see beyond the binary of winner and loser. The bigger picture is Liberia for which we all cherish so dearly. First time in our growing democracy, the defeated candidate called in to congratulate the winner and extended an olive branch. For our generation, it is a welcoming development. Congratulations to H. E Joseph Nyumah Boakai Vice President for setting the pace. As a Liberian, I owe it to my conscience, the young people who look up to us and generations after us to express congratulations to you and your team for the victory. This, in no way, means we do not stand for our held principles during the campaign period. We do now and will tomorrow. With that, let me offer you my cents.

You are inheriting a challenging country at a difficult time- a divided country, a broke government, a country in need of reconciliation like yesterday, an extractive industry based economy where market values of raw materials continue to drop, high unemployment rate, exuberant youthful population etc. We know the pressure will mount on businesses and taxpayers but you must be careful because the higher the tax, the higher the price of local -everyday commodities that families need. (Hope you are following the development in Iran) We know "friendly" governments may come in to support but they too have an interest. In the world of governance, there is no free lunch. Be careful about how wide you open your arms. We know, you may want to look to transnational corporations like the World Bank, the IMF, and others, but they too have conditionalities that adversely affect important sectors like education, healthcare etc Be careful of how you borrow. The exchange rate seems to be the stubborn child who refuses to climb down that ladder. Your financial team needs to study this carefully. Printing more banknotes is not a solution.

While the economic bit is very important, here are few areas you must think critically about:
1. Critical Voices and Dissent
For the most part, your party ran a campaign on hate and fought to silence critical voices for opinions different from yours. Anyone who disagreed with you or your party was insulted, abused and in some instances assaulted. As a party, you were at liberty to have a thin skin, but as president and VP, you must be prepared for dissenting views and opinions. You must grow a thick skin. You must protect freedom of expression and of the press as upheld by Madam Sirleaf. That is indeed a big shoe to fit..(lol..not size 10 1/2)
Remember only 55% of registered voters of the 2million plus voted. Out of that 38.5% did not vote for you. That's a good number of people who didn't believe you can. Not all of them will grill you fairly. Some grilling may be gruesome. Be prepared Mr. President-Elect

2. Managing Expectations
This is indeed a tough one. As listed above, the challenges are enormous. Your campaign promised Dubai out of Liberia and St. Paul and Minneapolis (Twin Cities) out of Monrovia. It was understandable because political campaign is about telling voters what they want to hear. In all you do, manage the expectation. How you do it will be difficult but do your best.

3. Information
One of the major challenges of this current government was information dissemination. This government achieved a lot given the envelope and timeframe. There were also difficult days. Failure to inform the public create information gaps. Make sure you fund the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICAT).

Now, Madam Taylor, I was very critical of you during the campaign period. It wasn't because I didn't believe in your ability. It was because of the divisive stance you took on your Christianization campaign. Now that elections are over, I hope you do not see yourself as a Christian VP but VP for Liberia. As I stated earlier, our country is divided. Religious and ethnic divisions only inflame the situation. Our people are concern about the bread and butter issue. Hope you can apologize to the Liberian people in general and the Muslim population in particular.
Apparently, our people are tired of the Charles Taylor story. Our country is moving forward. They want Charles Taylor to be history already and to focus on other issues. Hope your campaign on bringing back the NPP Agenda doesn't resurface.
As VP, hope your justification for the mayhem Charles Taylor committed is not amplified. You are Liberia's VP and as such, everything that will be said and done will carry that tag.

Being the first Female Vice President and for all its symbolism, congratulations. As you know the fight for inclusion is an unending one. Hopefully, you will pick up where Madam President stopped. The rape bill that is near amendment, the Domestic Violence Act, the political representation bill and many others. Of course, I do not expect you as an individual to achieve all of this. Building a critical mass is important.
Please Madam VP-Elect, your campaign for salary increment for senators or top elected officials must remain in 2017.
Liberia needs policies for all and not few.

Elections are now over, we have returned our political ammunition in the warehouse for safekeeping. Your collective success is Liberia's success. The opposite is Liberia's burden.

We wish your team well.
God bless the motherland. Liberia first, Liberia last!
Think, Love and Build Liberia!

Kula V. Fofana
A Liberian Activist