The people of Liberia gathered on the streets of the capital, Monrovia, in huge numbers on Friday to protest against the corruption, high inflation and economic crisis under President George Weah’s leadership, reported CNN.
The protest was organized by the Council of Patriots (COP), a coalition of civil society groups, citizens, youth workers, politicians and opposition parties. About 10,000 people took part in the demonstration. They walked to Capitol Hill to present the government with a list of demands.
The petition was handed to Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor at the seat of government on Capitol Hill. It accused the administration of misusing public funds, violating press freedoms, and failing to adequately fund health and education programs. The petition also accused the President of constructing luxury homes for himself after he refused to publicly declare his assets.
“Weah is not governing our state the right way,” said Ishmael Hassan, one of the protestors. “The economic situation in our country is going down the drain.”
The football icon has been in power for less than 18 months. He replaced Africa’s first female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel peace prize laureate who won great acclaim but was accused of nepotism. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), inflation in the country has soared and growth has shrunk since Weah became president. The international body revised down Liberia’s economic growth forecast for 2019 to 0.4 percent from 4.7 percent in March. Inflation in Liberia peaked at 28.5 percent in December, pushing up the price of everyday items.
Internet and some social media sites were blocked to quell the protests, according to the internet monitoring platform NetBlocks.
WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Google’s Gmail service and the website of The Associated Press were among the sites affected, NetBlocks said.
Eugene Nagbe, Liberia’s Minister of Information, confirmed that social media platforms were shut down temporarily because of security concerns.
