By: Julius Konton
Former Liberian Vice President Chief Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor has effectively turned the 2029 elections in Bong County into a referendum on development, urging voters to judge political leaders by what she describes as “tangibles” rather than personalities, party loyalty or campaign rhetoric.
In an interview, Taylor argued that the administration of former President George Manneh Weah and her tenure as vice president delivered more visible and measurable development interventions to Bong County than the current administration of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung.
Her comments inject an early political dimension into what is expected to become a closely watched contest for Bong County ahead of Liberia’s 2029 general elections.
“All of what they are doing are our projects which we did not dedicate and we went for campaigning, and I think that was the mistake we made,” Taylor said, referring to projects she contends were initiated under the former Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration but later completed or dedicated under the Unity Party government.
She said the next election should not be reduced to a contest between individuals or political personalities, but should instead force voters to examine what successive governments have actually delivered to the county.
Taylor’s central argument is straightforward: Bong County voters should compare governments on roads, schools, technical education, public infrastructure and other measurable improvements.
“We have gone three years now, and I am yet to see similar benefits from this Unity Party government for Bong County as was done in the CDC government,” she argued.
The former vice president specifically pointed to road interventions and the development of technical and vocational education as examples of what she considers major achievements of the Weah-Taylor administration.
Her comments come against the backdrop of a broader infrastructure debate in Liberia, where successive governments have frequently claimed credit for projects whose planning, financing, construction and commissioning span multiple administrations.
That distinction is particularly important in evaluating Bong County’s development record.
Public records show that development projects in Bong cannot always be cleanly assigned to a single administration.
For example, a Swedish-supported Village Track Access Road initiative targeting Bong, Lofa and Nimba was already being advanced under the previous administration.
In December 2021, the Ministry of Public Works announced a 300-kilometer program covering the three counties, including 70 kilometers for Bong County.
The current administration subsequently expanded and advanced rural-access initiatives.
In March 2025, the Ministry of Public Works announced plans for 60 kilometers of village access roads in Bong County, targeting Zota, Panta, Salala, Suakoko, Yeallequelleh and Jorquelleh districts.
By June 2025, the government and Sweden had officially launched a broader 195-kilometer Village Access Roads program covering Bong, Lofa and Nimba.
The figures illustrate why infrastructure credit in Liberia’s political discourse is complicated: one administration may initiate or secure financing for a project, while another may execute, complete or dedicate it.
While Taylor says she has yet to see comparable benefits under the Boakai-Koung administration, official government records show that projects have been initiated and commissioned in Bong since the Unity Party came to power.
In July 2025, President Boakai and Vice President Koung commissioned a US$3.2 million modern secondary-school investment covering new senior secondary schools in Gbarnga, Bong County, and Ganta, Nimba County.
Each school was valued at approximately US$1.6 million, with support from the World Bank’s Improving Results in Secondary Education project.
The government also announced in January 2026 the rehabilitation and construction of 59 kilometers of farm-to-market roads in Bong County under the Tree Crops Extension Project Phase II.
The project was designed to connect farming communities with markets, processing centers and storage facilities while reducing transportation costs and post-harvest losses.
These initiatives provide evidence that the current administration has projects underway in Bong, although the political question of whether they match the scale, visibility or impact of the previous administration’s interventions remains open to voters.
Road infrastructure is likely to remain one of the most politically potent measures of government performance in Bong County.
President Boakai’s administration has made road maintenance and rehabilitation a central component of its development agenda.
In August 2024, the president established a Road Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Financing Committee chaired by Vice President Koung to assess Liberia’s road network and identify financing mechanisms for road construction and rehabilitation.
The government has also reported substantial national road interventions during its first two years, including the paving of 121.87 kilometers of roads between January 2024 and December 2025, alongside the maintenance of 783 kilometers of major roads, according to figures cited by the administration.
For Bong, however, the most significant development came in July 2026, when President Boakai dedicated the 81-kilometer Gbarnga-Salayea road, while also breaking ground for additional road corridors connecting Salayea-Konia and Zorzor-Yeala.
That development complicates the former vice president’s assertion that Bong has seen little tangible progress under the current administration.
At the same time, Taylor’s argument is not necessarily disproved by the existence of new projects.
Her contention is essentially about comparative impact: whether the volume and significance of projects delivered under the CDC government were greater than those delivered under the Unity Party government.
That is ultimately a question that requires project-by-project comparisons, including costs, financing sources, completion dates, beneficiaries and measurable outcomes.
Taylor also used the interview to push back against comments attributed to Bong County Senator Prince Moye suggesting that she was politically constrained or “held in bondage” during the CDC administration.
She rejected the characterization.
“Yes, we had some challenges, but I was not held under bondage as claimed by Senator Moye. And if that was the case as he alleged, Bong County would not have benefited under the CDC government as they did,” Taylor said.
The claim introduces another layer to the growing political contest in Bong, where Taylor’s political legacy, the CDC’s performance and the current Unity Party leadership are increasingly being placed side by side.
Taylor maintains that whatever political disagreements existed within the former administration did not prevent her from advancing projects for Bong County.
Technical and vocational education has been another area Taylor has associated with her development record.
During her tenure as vice president, Taylor publicly promoted technical and vocational education and participated in efforts to expand vocational training opportunities in Bong County.
In 2018, she broke ground for a vocational training center in Fuamah District, describing technical and vocational education as an important component of Liberia’s development strategy.
Bong County has also continued to feature in technical and rural infrastructure initiatives beyond the CDC era.
A 2023–2024 project involving the Bong County Technical College included construction of a vehicular access road and bridge, demonstrating the increasingly interconnected nature of education and infrastructure investments in the county.
Taylor’s intervention comes more than three years before Liberia’s next presidential and legislative elections, but her message could become an important template for political debate in Bong County.
Instead of asking voters simply to support a party or personality, she is challenging them to examine the physical evidence of governance:
Which roads were built?
Which schools were completed?
Which communities gained access?
How much was spent?
Who benefited?
What projects were initiated by one administration and completed by another?
Those questions could prove more consequential than campaign slogans.
The emerging debate also exposes a longstanding problem in Liberian politics: governments frequently inherit projects from predecessors but later receive political credit for completing them, while outgoing administrations often claim ownership of initiatives that were unfinished when they left office.
For Bong voters, therefore, the 2029 test may ultimately be less about who first announced a project and more about what was actually delivered, at what cost, to how many people, and with what measurable impact.
Taylor has now put that standard squarely on the political table.
Whether Bong County voters accept her assessment of the CDC’s record or conclude that the Boakai-Koung administration has delivered a stronger development portfolio will depend on the evidence voters can see and verify before they enter the polling booth in 2029.
For now, one thing is clear: the battle for Bong’s political future is already becoming a battle over who can claim the county’s most tangible development legacy.
