Groundbreakings are easy. Accountability is hard. On Tubman Boulevard, President Joseph Boakai’s ceremony for two China-aid overpass bridges offered a ceremonial backdrop for a broader, messier question: what is the true value, risk, and ownership of this project, and how will Liberia safeguard its long-term interests?
A milestone, or a political moment in search of lasting legitimacy? The celebrations framed the overpasses as a turning point for mobility, safety, and growth under Boakai’s ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development. Yet the record reveals a tangled web of ownership disputes, opaque financing terms, and questions about governance that could undermine, rather than advance, the very outcomes the project promises.
Political credit is not infrastructure. The public debate over who “owns” the credit for this project—whether it began under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf or was revived under President Weah’s tenure—matters less than who actually delivers value to Liberians and maintains fiscal discipline. A project’s legitimacy should hinge on transparent processes, not the partisan shelf where it began.
The financing question is central. Chinese-financed infrastructure can offer needed capacity and rapid construction, but it can also shift long-term burdens to future administrations and the national budget, especially if terms, currency exposure, and maintenance responsibilities are not clearly disclosed. The public record remains thin on total cost, debt-service terms, contingency allocations, and lifecycle financing. Without such clarity, Libera’s taxpayers and future governments bear the risk of cost overruns, opaque procurement, and maintenance gaps that erode the projected benefits.
Governance and oversight are equally pressing. Independent financial and technical audits, transparent procurement records, and a public dashboard of milestones and expenditures are not optional adornments; they are prerequisites for trust. The absence of robust, verifiable oversight invites questions about how decisions were made, who signed off, and how accountability will be ensured year after year—long after the cranes have left Tubman Boulevard and the memory of the groundbreaking fades.
Local impact deserves careful scrutiny as well. The project’s promised relief to traffic and the presumed boost to traders along a congested corridor are plausible—but only if there is credible baseline data, displacement plans, fair compensation where land is acquired, and a timetable that minimizes disruption to CongTown and adjacent communities. Too often, infrastructure projects promise jobs and economic uplift without delivering durable gains for the communities most affected by construction.
Boakai’s laudable commitment to maintenance and corridor-wide discipline must translate into action. Infrastructure is not a one-off event; it is a system. A credible strategy requires predictable maintenance funding, spare-parts sustainability, and performance metrics that measure real-world effects—reductions in congestion, improvements in travel time, and improved road safety—over the entire life of the asset.
In charting a path forward, editors, civil society, and independent researchers should demand:
– A transparent cost breakdown, including debt service terms, currency risk, and lifecycle costs; public release of baseline traffic data and traffic-flow modeling.
– Clear procurement procedures, competitive bidding, and signed contracts with performance guarantees and clear dispute-resolution channels.
– Independent impact assessments on traffic relief, accident reduction, local displacement, and broader economic indicators.
– A detailed, milestone-based project timeline with public progress reports, dashboards, and post-completion maintenance plans funded and tracked over time.
The installation of two overpass bridges would be a credible achievement if it is backed by rigor, transparency, and a governance framework that endures beyond the celebrations. If Liberia can pair the road-for-growth narrative with a robust system of accountability, the project can become a genuine catalyst for mobility, safety, and inclusive development.
But if the dialogue remains opaque, if cost and risk are shuffled into a black box, and if long-term stewardship is left to chance, the overpasses risk becoming symbols of progress without progress—structurally sound yet politically hollow, economically consequential yet socially inequitable.
The clock is ticking toward the 2027 completion target. Let the optimism of a groundbreaking be matched by the vigilance of a watchdog republic. Only then can Liberia turn a ground-breaking ceremony into a groundbreaking, sustained momentum for all Liberians.
Bottom line: celebrate infrastructure when it is accompanied by transparent financing, accountable governance, and measurable, beneficial impacts for communities. Deliver the roads, or at least deliver the process that makes sure they are delivered responsibly. The public deserves both promise and proof.
