Monrovia- March 29, 2025: Activist Martin K. N Kollie has joined others to condemn President Boakai for his display of ultra opulence while millions of Liberians are jobless and tens of thousands of civil servants remain underpaid and working poor.

Full press statement below:

We condemn Pres. Boakai for his display of ultra opulence while millions of Liberians are jobless, and tens of thousands of civil servants remain underpaid and working poor

March 28, 2025

President Boakai is flaunting Luxury while tens of thousands of public school teachers, health workers, security personnel, and civil servants in general remain largely underpaid and unpaid. Our investigation has confirmed that Pres. Boakai, who promised to run a modest government in 2023, now rides in a 2025 Lexus LX 700HR Super Ultra Luxury SUV valued between US$115,000 and US$150,000.

Amid increasing public discontent and student protests, President Boakai seems to ignore the harsh conditions he once criticized under ex-president Weah. When ex-president Weah flaunted his luxurious vehicles, including a Polaris Slingshot, President Boakai criticized him.

Today, we note with disapproval of Pres. Boakai’s use of a Lexus Super Ultra SUV amid extreme hardship across Liberia. This is opulence, too, and we condemn it. This is not modesty. This is a public waste. While criticizing his predecessors for riding luxurious cars in 2024, Pres. Boakai even alluded and echoed so loud that “he can ride a wheelbarrow.” Is this the “wheelbarrow” that he was talking about?

If it was wrong yesterday in the world’s eighth poorest country with an unemployment rate of over 90 percent, it is also wrong today. Last Fiscal Year 2024, a whopping US$1.1 million was spent off-budget only to buy cars for Pres. Boakai and VP Koung’s convoys. In the coming days, we will evoke the 2010 Freedom of Information (FOI) Law, compelling EPS Director Sam Gaye to make public the financial report of the purchases for the US$1.1 million cars.

We call on Pres. Boakai to readjust and take a moment to reflect on what he promised our people in 2023. This was never the promise made in 2023 to flaunt with Lexus Super Ultra Luxury SUV while our people suffer and struggle every day to eke out a living. This is not “Rescue”. No president rescues a poor and aid-dependent country with such extravagance.

Our hospitals and schools are deplorable due to financial constraints, but you are comfortably riding a Lexus. Monrovia and almost everywhere in Liberia are dark and lacking safe drinking water, quality education, advanced medical care, improved housing, social security and welfare, but you are riding Lexus Super Ultra Luxury SUV. This is a promise betrayed. While such an opulence is on display, there are thousands of volunteer teachers and health workers, including doctors, who are still not on payroll.

Someone must tell the President the truth. And we are committed to that for the sake of our people and country.

Signed: Martin K. N. Kollie
Exiled Liberian Activist