Africa-Press – Liberia. By Dr. Chris Tokpah
Good intentions are not enough. Liberia needs solid public systems, not short-term fixes, to lift its people from hardship.
When a lawmaker proposes a twenty-five million United States dollar fund to help struggling Liberians pay rent and school fees, it naturally catches attention. It sounds compassionate. It sounds urgent. And in many ways, it sounds right. But when you look deeper, it raises an important question: Are we fixing the problem or simply soothing the pain for a moment?
Representative Fonati Koffa recently called on the House of Representatives to establish a Social Safety Net Fund to ease the hardship of vulnerable citizens. I have not yet seen the full details of his proposed bill, so I will gladly be forgiven if it contains more than the summary he shared. But based on what we know so far, the idea, though well-intentioned, is another short-term political solution to a long-term national crisis.
There is no doubt that the town is hard. Families are burdened by rent, tuition, and rising food prices. Parents work hard but often cannot keep up. These are real struggles. But the answer to such hardship cannot be another temporary fund. Liberia’s problem is not that people cannot pay rent or fees this month. It is that our public systems have failed for decades, with underfunded schools, neglected housing, and a government that responds to deep poverty with shallow remedies.
If we are serious about change, we must focus on building systems that make people less dependent on relief. Instead of paying school fees for a few families, let us make public education truly free and functional. That means paying teachers on time, improving infrastructure, providing textbooks, and expanding vocational and digital skills training. That is how we build equity and opportunity, not through annual relief funds that vanish after elections.
We have seen what happens when policies are announced without planning for sustainability. The decision to introduce free public higher education, for example, was a noble idea meant to expand access. Yet it was implemented without the necessary financial framework, leaving public universities struggling to remain operational and to provide quality education for students. This is exactly what happens when government policy focuses on relief instead of reform. It creates the appearance of progress without the structure to sustain it.
And rather than using public money to pay private landlords, let us revive public housing programs that offer affordable rent to own options. Liberia once built such communities, and we can do it again with better planning and partnerships. This approach would not only house our people but also create thousands of jobs in construction, carpentry, plumbing, and engineering.
The proposed funding sources also raise red flags. Cutting legislative benefits and reducing foreign travel are admirable, but they will not generate twenty-five million United States dollars. Borrowing from the National Social Security Corporation (NASSCORP), which manages workers’ pensions, would only shift the burden from today’s families to tomorrow’s retirees. That is not reform; it is redistribution of suffering.
True compassion requires courage, not convenience. If we want to protect our citizens, let us think beyond handouts. The Legislature should focus on three sustainable priorities:
These are not glamorous ideas, but they are nation-building ideas. They strengthen systems instead of personalities. They leave structures, not slogans.
Liberia’s challenges are real, but they are not beyond repair. What we need is not another relief fund that dries up by next year, but bold investment in the schools, homes, and opportunities that make relief unnecessary.
If the goal is to ease hardship, then let us do it the right way by building a country where families do not need to beg for school fees or rent in the first place. That is not just compassion; that is justice.
About the Author
Dr. Chris Tokpah is the Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness at Delaware County Community College in Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in Program Evaluation and Measurement, an MBA with an emphasis in Management Information Systems, and a B.Sc. in Mathematics. Dr. Tokpah also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Research Methods and Statistics in the Ph.D. program at Delaware Valley University. He is an independent consultant who supervised baseline studies and evaluations sponsored by the World Bank, IDA, Geneva Global, USAID, and the African Development Bank. He is a co-owner of the Center for Research, Evaluation, and Policy (CENREP), a Liberian consulting firm that specializes in strategic planning, monitoring, evaluation, social science research, and training services.
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