Monrovia-It is regarded as “rat race,” the squabble between the ruling Unity Party (UP) and former Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administrations regarding the statuses of development projects. As the current administration digs in the heels, the former is not dosing at all on the question of “who owns the projects?” Every passing day, the issue gets uglier and bitterer. For the UP, it is about continuity and the finisher doctrine, while the CDC is pushing for credit and recognition doctrine. As The New Republic reports, this is exactly the point of former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah when he said his former boss should be given credit for the New Redemption Hospital project..
As the debate between the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, CDC, and the current Unity Party administration over the status of various projects across the country continues unabated, former Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah is pushing the latter to recognize the former’s role in initiating said projects.
The debate about which administration started or should be credited for ongoing projects continues to rattle the national space, with CDC officials insisting they are the engineers behind them while ruling party officials claim to be the ones doing the heavy lifting.
From roads, energy infrastructure, and now the new Redemption Hospital in Caldwell, officials are at each other’s throat, trying to take credit while also discrediting the other.
On behalf of the former CDC administration, Tweah took a swipe at current Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuah, stating that the CDC administration completed the new Redemption Hospital at 70%, yet the Rescue Government wants to claim it while saying “CDC did nothing.”
In a strongly worded post on social media that has since gone viral, Tweah wrote “The Redemption project I have posted encountered serious challenges we had to resolve with the World Bank.”
Tweah said credit for the project goes to Presidents Sirleaf and Weah, while telling the UP administration “Time is running out on RESCUE to develop its own projects and President Boakai may leave office with nothing to show.”
He insisted “If you cannot develop your own projects, at least give credit to President WEAH for the ones he financed that you are only completing because he left power. That’s all we are asking. And it is not a big ask at all. It’s just an honest ask. What are your own RESCUE-financed projects, three years now in leadership, even with a $1.3 billion budget? We want to see it!”
According to Tweah, had the CDC won the election it would be the ones “completing all our projects across multiple sectors.”
The latest flashpoint is the new Redemption Hospital in Caldwell, a state-of-the-art 200-bed facility meant to replace the dilapidated Redemption Hospital on Bushrod Island, initiated under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf with World Bank funding, then stalled due to procurement and design challenges.
Upon taking office and reviewing the documents, Tweah said the CDC government resolved those challenges with the World Bank, secured financing, and pushed construction to 70% by late 2023.
However, the Unity Party government, which took over in January 2024, has now accelerated completion, with President Boakai visiting the site multiple times and the Ministry of Health projecting opening in early 2026.
For the Boakai administration, the hospital is evidence of Rescue delivering, while the CDC insists, it is evidence of Rescue inheriting, critics said.
It is not just the Hospital, the same debate has played out over roads, such as the RIA Highway, Gbarnga-Salayea, Sanniquellie-Loguatuo, and sections of the southeastern corridor which the CDC says it negotiated, financed and started them. But the UP administration says it is completing and paying for them.
The same goes for energy where the CLSG line and expansion of Mt. Coffee and rural electrification, CDC claims credit for energizing, while UP claims credit for connecting.
Invincible Sports Park and Duala Market built by CDC, now maintained by UP.
Critics say the pattern is familiar in Liberian politics where every government completes the previous one’s projects and claims them as its own.
Tweah’s attack was directed at Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuah, who has repeatedly said the CDC government left behind empty coffers, huge domestic debt, and unfinished projects without funding.
Ngafuah, in his recent budget and economy presentations, has argued that the $1.3 billion budget for 2025 is being used to pay off old debts, stabilize the economy, and fund unfinished projects responsibly, including Redemption.
Tweah rejects that, arguing that CDC left behind a financed infrastructure pipeline, including World Bank, AfDB and bilateral funds, that the current government is simply implementing, while failing to initiate its own signature projects.
“What are your own RESCUE-financed projects, three years now in leadership, even with a $1.3 billion budget? We want see it!” Tweah asked.
The question resonates because the Boakai administration’s ARREST Agenda, Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation, Tourism, is yet to produce a flagship project that is fully conceived, financed and started under its own watch, critics say.
Supporters counter with the deployment of yellow machines, the $1 billion domestic revenue milestone, and ongoing road maintenance.
Political analysts say the credit war is more than semantics, it is about 2029.
For the CDC, which lost power by a narrow margin of just less than 20,000 votes, claiming ownership of projects keeps its legacy alive and tells its base “We did this.”
For the Unity Party, which campaigned on “Rescue,” admitting that it is completing CDC projects undermines its message that CDC did nothing.
In the middle are Liberians who care less about who started a project and more about who finishes it.
“The patient who will be admitted to the new Redemption Hospital does not care whether it was Sirleaf, Weah or Boakai. He cares whether there are drugs, doctors and electricity,” a health worker in Caldwell said.
Senator Amara Konneh, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has urged both sides to focus on execution rather than ownership, noting that PSIP execution in health and education is still only around 4%, domestic revenues sit in commercial banks for days before reaching the Consolidated Account, and fuel price and bad road crises are raising costs for ordinary people.
“Who started it matters for history. Who finishes it and runs it well matters for the people,” Konneh said in a recent hearing.
The “give credit” debate is not new; it is an old Liberian parlance.
President Sirleaf was accused of claiming projects started by President Gyude Bryant. President Weah was accused of claiming projects started by Sirleaf. Now President Boakai is accused of claiming projects started by Weah.
What is different this time is the scale that nearly every major project under implementation today has a previous administration’s fingerprint.
Tweah’s final line sums up the CDC frustration that “If you cannot develop your own projects, at least give credit to President Weah for the ones he financed that you are only completing because he left power. That’s all we are asking.”
For the Boakai government, the response has been that it will give credit when due, but we will not inherit debt without questioning it.
Until both sides agree on a joint project registry, what was started, what was financed, what was completed, and by whom, the war over credit will continue.
And while politicians argue over who owns the hospital, mothers in West Point still give birth on the floor of the old Redemption, waiting for the new one to open – no matter whose name is on the plaque.
About The Author
