Monrovia, Liberia — Mohammed Foboi, an opposition politician in Montserrado County District #14, has raised concerns over recent interventions by the National Port Authority (NPA) and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) at the University of Liberia (UL), describing them as symbolic gestures that fail to address deeper funding challenges at the nation’s largest state-run university.
The NPA last week announced a US $25,000 donation for the purchase of chairs, while the LPRC committed to renovating bathrooms across UL’s campuses. Both corporations are among Liberia’s top three state-owned revenue-generating enterprises. However, Foboi said their contributions ring hollow given that neither has met its statutory obligations to the national budget over the past two years.
“This failure has directly contributed to the underfunding of the University of Liberia, which has been largely dysfunctional for the past six months,” Foboi told reporters.
His comments follow a recent General Auditing Commission (GAC) report, which revealed that at least US $2 million allocated to UL in the 2025 budget was misappropriated by the Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile, UL President Dr. Layli Maparyan has said that just over US $200,000 would be sufficient to undertake key renovations at the university.
Foboi argued that Liberia’s broader development challenges stem from what he called a culture of “tokenism over institutionalism,” where leaders and institutions favor small, symbolic donations instead of ensuring sustainable systems and transparent investment.
“What the University of Liberia needs is not charity from public corporations or political figures,” he stated. “It needs reliable, transparent, and adequate appropriations through the national budget.”
He warned that continued neglect of higher education would weaken national institutions and deepen cycles of poverty.
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