– Pres. Boakai Acknowledges The Threat of Youth Unempowerment
By G. Bennie Bravo Johnson
Monrovia – President Joseph Nyumah Boakai has warned about the consequences of failing to address youth unemployment, emphasizing that sustainable job creation is critical to Liberia’s stability and future. Speaking at the 2025 second sitting of his cabinet, themed “Coordination & Information Dissemination in Government: Why It Matters,” President Boakai urged his officials to accelerate efforts to tackle the pressing issue of youth empowerment. “We have to speed up with the backlog for empowerment. Our youths have gone to school and graduated, but if they don’t have jobs we are in trouble,” he said.
He asserted that though there are problems of special interest that one has to solve, national interest must supersede all other interests.
“You can solve a special interest problem but if the country problem is not solved, we are in trouble.”
The President admonished his officials to get engaged and work with those they met in their offices to keep the offices active and functional enough to bring forth benefits for the good of Liberians. “We have to work with those people we met in our offices because if we don’t we will have to paralyze offices and the work of the Liberian people will not be done.”
Meanwhile, President Boakai charged young people to desist from violence, intimating that violence has the proclivity to scare away potential investors.
“There is violence everywhere. They are burning places down. Even the investment we are trying to encourage violence is scaring them away.”
The President asserted that violence is a major issue that has to be solved by the government. Therefore, admonished the Minister of Justice to use the laws to deter violence. “Three times now, they have burned down Sethe Wealla farm. These are issues that we have to solve. There are laws on recklessness. We need to look at those laws critically and make a decision because even the Bible says, “Be angry and sin not.”
