The Government of Liberia Needs to Urgently Appoint the President of the University of Liberia

 The Government of Liberia Needs to Urgently Appoint the President of the University of Liberia

Happy New Year to my lovely wife, Mrs. Helen Garbo Kaydor, our children (Chief, Mother, Dweh, Nunnoh, Freddie, Julius, and Carter), our family members from the Kaydor and Garbo families, the people of Liberia and all global or universal citizens. Happy New Year, also, to the men and women of the media including the new Dawn Newspaper (OT the man), the Oracle Newspaper (Nat), The Investigator Newspaper (Dodoo), and the Verity Newspaper (Zac and my boy Martin Kollie-former Secretary General and Standard Bearer of SUP) for always lifting my views on national, regional, and international issues under the title: “AS I SEE IT”. Indeed, I do see a lot of things and I will continue to see a lot more. And as I see these issues, I will continue to write about them. Therefore, am grateful to these media entities that have published my views in their print and online versions in the papers without any pay. 

I am exceedingly grateful to Mr. Othello Garblah who accepted to operate or run a weekly column called “AS I SEE IT” in his New Dawn Newspaper. In fact, to his credit, he suggested that name when we were finding a suitable name for my column in his Newspaper. I promised to provide one version of this every week. I can promise again that I will write and keep providing my one edition every week. It is left with the news entities mentioned herein to publish on the day they prefer. Notably, Ambassador Garblah is a graduate of the IBB Graduate School of International Studies. He is my former student and I appreciate his support of my initiatives and engagements with the media. I hope other papers will join these newspapers mentioned to regularly publish my ideas that others call debates, analysis, arguments, etc. on national, regional, and international social, economic, political, and environmental issues.

The University of Liberia is the Nation’s highest institution of learning. The University was founded in 1952 after operating from 1852 as the Liberia College. Liberia College of Social Sciences and humanities is the College that I graduated from at the University of Liberia. I was the dux of the College when we graduated on May 28, 2003. I read Political Science with Emphasis in Comparative Government and Politics (Magna Cum Laude). History was my minor and Mass Communication was my elective. I am therefore a product of the university of Liberia, and I am proud that I am lecturing there as an Assistant Professor today. I have been in this Assistant Professor portfolio since 2018 at the IBB Graduated School. I have applied for an academic promotion many times to become an Associate Professor at the University because I have met all the policy and academic requirements. I hope to be promoted based on merit one day. No matter how long the night, the day will break. Given the significance and importance I give to the University of Liberia, I thought to write my first opinion on the University of Liberia in 2025. 

The University has been closed since the last graduation in September 2024. While the University remains closed, we who are employed there continue to be paid on the taxes earned from the blood and sweat of the struggling Liberian people. I do not like or enjoy taking pay when am not working. It is wrong and unethical to do so. Our late father always said to us to “work and be paid handsomely for the work that we do.” However, it is the Government of Liberia that is responsible for this national waste because the University, the highest state owned in the country, is closed because of some demands that University of Liberia Faculty Association (ULFA) is making.

Since the end of Liberia’s civil crises in 2003 and restoration of democratic governance in Liberia, His Excellency, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, is the first elected and Indigenous President who graduated from the University of Liberia. All others before him in post-conflict Liberia did not. It was and it is still expected that an Alumna of the University who is now the Head of State, President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Liberia will make the University of Liberia his priority. Not to do so undermines the Government’s Commitment to Education in the Country. The Liberian President, by the dictates of the University Charter produced in 1951, is the Visitor of the University of Liberia. The Charter gives him the authority to officially constitute the Board of Trustees, something that has been done already. I am aware that the Charter gives some statutory membership and non-statutory membership, but both must constitute the Board to be constituted by the President. The President has since done so. 

President JNB also has the authority to appoint the President and other officials of the University. However, despite this authority given by the UL Charter, he decided to follow existing precedent by setting up a Vetting Committee to Which all those interested in Leading the University would apply and the same Vetting Committee would recommend not less than 3 names of the most competent names amongst all those applicants. He, President Boakai, would then appoint his preferred candidate from those shortlisted candidates given him by the Vetting Committee after their interviewing and vetting processes. The vetting Committee has since concluded its job. Therefore, I expect that President JNB will appoint the University President accordingly. The President, in my view, should come from those shortlisted by the Vetting Panel.

The good news is that two former Presidents and the President of the University of Liberia Alumni were part of that team. Dr. Weeks, former President, Dr. Conteh, former President and Atty Martin Penny were there on the Vetting Team. In fact, Hon. Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, former ULSU President and former UL Board Secretary, was also part of that team. In fact, President Boakia got some members of his cabinet and senior officials and other comrades who graduated from the University of Liberia in his Government. Don’t they want other Liberian students to graduate from the University of Liberia to replace them and work in other places too? I hope that they are not just sitting and clapping for the President when the state is not doing well because the University is presently closed. 

Some of the former student leaders that are in this government are Comrades Hon. Samuel Kofi Woods, Hon. Anthony Kesselley, Hon. Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, Hon. Wilmot Paye, Hon. Jerolimeck Piah, Atty Kula Fofana, Atty Cornelius Kruah Tokpa, Cllr. Cooper Kruah, Cllr. N. Oswald Tweh, Hon. Louise M. Kpoto, Hon. Malaya Cheow, Hon. Alex Neutah, Hon. Josiah Joekai, Hon. James Fromoyan, Hon. Mohammed Ali, Hon Alaric Tokpa, Hon Dougbe Nyan, Hon. Sekou Kromah, Hon. Darlington Smith, Hon. Dickson Tamba, etc. Have all these public officials forgotten about the interest of the University? Let them not forget. So many officials in this very government will come to the professors, students, and communities for elected jobs in 2029. What would they say about their roles in the closure of the University?

AS I SEE IT, H.E President Joseph Nyuma Boakai needs to appoint the President of the University of Liberia. The government cannot preside over a closed University as is now. Why should the government keep the University closed and feel happy to continue to pay salaries of an entity that is dysfunctional? Absolutely, there is no justification for this mishap and anomaly. No government in the history of Liberia played around the integrity of the University and went free. This government would be no exception to that rule. In fact, former student leaders who graduated from the University and are part of this government must see it as their exclusive responsibility to ensure that the Visitor of the University appoint the New President of the University. In Life, delays are dangerous and too many delays are too dangerous. We, at the University, are not happy about this closure. We did not elect President Boakai, who graduated from the University to neglect or forget about the very University. All the villages, towns, districts, and counties in Liberia are represented at the University. Therefore, the Liberian people are all interested in what happens at the University. Liberians are unhappy about the closure of the University, even if they do not say this now. There is no need for any further delays in appointing the new head of the University to lead the team to Victory. The time is now. The president needs to make an appointment based on the process that he set in motion.

About the Author: Prof. Tom Kaydor, Jr. serves as an Assistant Professor at the IBB Graduate School of International Studies. He holds a PhD from the Department of Government and European Studies, the New University, Slovenia where he specialized in International Development and Diplomacy (with Security Aspects). His dissertation topic was ‘Reconceptualizing Africa’s Regional Integration for Peace and Sustainable Development.’ He earned a Master of Public Policy (MPP) specialized in Development Policy or Development Economics with Distinction from the Crawford School of Economics and Government (now the Crawford School of Public Policy), Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. He also obtained a Master of Arts (MA) in International Relations (Highest Distinction) and Bachelor of Arts (BA) Magna Cum Laude in Political Science from the University of Liberia where his Minor was History with Mass Communication as his Elective. Tom holds a Diploma in Leading Economic Growth from the Kennedy Graduate School, Harvard University, USA; and he holds other professional diplomas and certificates from Italy, UK, Pakistan, China, and Israel. Prof. Kaydor is also an Adjunct Professor of International Development Studies at the AME University Graduate School. Dr. Kaydor is an evidence-based researcher, a blogger, a columnist, and a published author. One can reach him via (kaydorth@ul.edu.lr or thkaydor@gmail.com).