By By: Staff Writer
Monrovia, Liberia — Former Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah Jr. has declared that Liberia’s 2029 general elections will not be a contest over development records, but a referendum on democracy itself, warning that the country risks sliding back into “the abyss of murderous AUTOCRACY” if current trends are not reversed.
In a lengthy Facebook post on Saturday, Tweah dismissed development as the central issue of 2029, arguing that the opposition CDC “wins that contest with irrefutable data” but that the stakes are now higher.
“Rule of Law vs Autocracy”
Tweah characterized the next election as a battle between constitutional governance and authoritarian rule. He described autocracy as a system where “the whims and caprices of autocrats take on the force of law, supplanting Supreme Court opinions, enjoining treasonous passages of national budgets, reducing judges to the beggary of state manipulation.”
He further alleged that under such conditions, “state actors purloining national resources are given autocratic protection, as the architecture of national security transforms into a beachhead for transnational narcotics.”
The former minister did not name specific individuals or provide evidence for the narcotics claim in the post.
Call for Opposition Unity
Tweah said Liberia must “return to the democratic barricades” by mobilizing “all patriotic forces into the cauldron of democratic resistance.” He listed several opposition leaders as part of that potential front, including former President George Manneh Weah (CDC), Alexander Cummings of the Alternative National Congress, Benoni Urey (ALP), Musa Hassan Bility (CMC), and Simeon Freeman (MPC).
“Here in Liberia after the martyrdom of our people, the words and wishes of presidents will never be the law,” Tweah wrote, referencing Liberia’s civil war history.
Sharp Criticism of “Rescue” Government
In some of his strongest language to date, Tweah labeled supporters of the current Unity Party-led administration as “Facebook rescue puppets blinded by the glitter from the current Rescue tyranny.” He argued that 2029 is “not CDC verses UP,” but rather “THE RULE OF LAW VERSUS AUTOCRACY.”
He posed the election as a choice for Liberians: “Would Liberians… agree to subjugate themselves to lawlessness and plant the seeds for their potential national annihilation? Or do they course correct in 2029 and tell the Rescue miscreants that autocracy once obliterated shall never be allowed to rear its villainous head in the annals of Liberian statecraft!”
Tweah served as Finance and Development Planning Minister under the CDC administration of former President George Weah from 2018 to 2024. The CDC lost the 2023 presidential election to President Joseph Boakai’s Unity Party, which campaigned under the “Rescue” banner.
Since leaving office, Tweah has been one of the most vocal CDC critics of the Boakai government on social and economic policy, subsequently facing legal battles for corruption during his stewardship as minister of finance and development planning.
His latest statement signals an early attempt to shape the narrative for 2029, three years out, by moving the debate from service delivery to democratic governance and historical memory.
Political analysts note that framing elections around “autocracy vs democracy” is not new in Liberia, but Tweah’s call for a broad opposition coalition ahead of 2029 marks one of the first public efforts to unify disparate opposition figures under a single banner.
