MONROVIA –On the heel of continued growing public perceptions that attribute the poor state of Liberia and its people to uncontrolled corruption, specifically within the public cycle, Sinoe County Senator Crayton O. Duncan, has widened the debate to another account.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
While many believe that corruption is responsible for the country’s underdevelopment, Senator Duncan sees it differently, averring that the menace is just responsible for a minute portion.
Speaking at the popular ‘Palaver Hut’ of the state-run University of Liberia (UL) at the invitation of the Student Unification Party (SUP) on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, the Sinoe County lawmaker attributed bulk of the country’s failure to the very Legislature, of which he is a member.
He claims that the Legislature is responsible for 80 percent of Liberia’s problems, while corruption accounts for the remainder 20 percent.
According to him, members of both the House of Representatives and the Liberian Senate have inherently reneged their duty to properly hold the Executive into check as enshrined in their responsibilities.
“Corruption brought us down to where we are today, yes, we agree. But don’t ever think that corruption is the main reason for our undergrowth. I never had peace at the House of Representatives and so I decided to ascend to the Senate. But things have remained the same. The so-called democracy we talked about is practiced on the floor,” he told the student group amid chanting of battle cries.
“At the Legislature, elected officials want to be friendly with the President and his cabinet to get favors to be re-elected. They believe that by being friendly with the President and his cabinet they will have paved roads in their districts of counties. And so they try to appease the Executive. Our country is not suffering only because of corruption, but the exploitation of our resources without demand of accountability from the people who you elected.”
“Bea Mountain, for instance, makes billions while we haven’t got a billion over the years in our budget. We have people at the Legislature who don’t have the spine to tell the President the truth. About 80 percent of our suffering is based on fear of our representatives and Senators to engage in changing our bad concession laws.”
Accordingly, Senator intones that the inability of elected officials, particularly members of the Legislature to stand and fight for the Liberian people.
The Sinoe County Senator, who is reportedly endeavoring to become a president also, points out that like former President Weah, President Boakai too has made no new changes to the old order as it relates to eradicating corruption.
“The people saw Weah as part of them, a man from a poverty background who played football to better up his life, even though he mismanaged his football wealth. He got elected by the people, but the first thing was to build a condominium of 40 apartments. Boakai too, the same. Within just two years, we are witnessing the construction of a US$10M palace in his home.”
