Liberia is preparing to celebrate 179 years of independence this Sunday, July 26, marking its place as Africa\u2019s oldest republic following its founding in 1847.<\/p>\n
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While the nation achieved self-governance decades ahead of most continental peers, nearly two centuries on, the anniversary lands amid severe economic headwinds. Over half the population continues to live below the poverty line, food insecurity remains widespread, and despite agriculture being framed as a key national growth engine, recent state budget allocations reveal notable cuts to the sector.<\/p>\n
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President Joseph Boakai\u2019s administration has staked its policy agenda on the “ARREST” plan, a national strategic blueprint centered on Agriculture, Roads, Rule of Law, Education, Sanitation, and Tourism.<\/p>\n
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Speaking on the significance of the milestone, Dr Bheki Mngomezulu, Political Analyst and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy at Nelson Mandela University, highlighted that while national themes offer hope, real progress hinges on executive will.<\/p>\n
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“Whenever a country celebrates its independence, it looks back: how far have we gone, where have we made missteps, and what can we do going forward? Ultimately, the reason why our continent is not developing, and why Liberia is not where it is supposed to be, boils down to the calibre of leadership and the failure to use resources for the benefit of the people,” said Mngomezulu.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36706,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-40498","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"179 Years on, leadership and economy take centre stage on Liberia's Independence Day","published_date":"2026-07-24 13:14:59","news_description":"179 Years on, leadership and economy take centre stage on Liberia's Independence Day","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40499,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40498\/revisions\/40499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}