Disability Rights Activist Appeals to President Boakai to Create  Senior Special Assistant  Post

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ADNews-Monrovia, Liberia: A Liberian Disability Rights Activist, Dakpannah U-Thant Nicholas Smith, has appealed to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr. to establish and appoint a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities within the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.

In an open letter addressed to President Boakai, Smith said the proposed position would help place disability inclusion, accessibility and equal opportunities at the center of national decision-making.

Smith, writing as a concerned citizen and disability rights advocate, said persons with disabilities remain among the most marginalized groups in Liberia despite the country’s legal and policy commitments to protecting their rights.

Below is the full letter:

 

His Excellency Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr. 

President of the Republic of Liberia 

Executive Mansion 

Capitol Hill, Monrovia, Liberia 

Your Excellency:

I respectfully present my compliments to your esteemed office and write as a concerned citizen and Disability Rights Activist, appealing for the establishment and appointment of a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities within the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.

In Liberia today, persons with disabilities and special needs constitute a significant portion of our population—recent analysis indicates that more than one in ten Liberians live with a functional disability, with 8.7 percent of the population aged five and above experiencing some level of difficulty in performing basic activities. This figure stands alongside earlier international estimates that suggest the true proportion may be even higher due to the long-term impact of civil conflict and the Ebola epidemic, with some studies placing the disability rate closer to 16–20 percent. Yet, despite this reality, people with disabilities continue to face deep poverty, limited access to education, and exclusion from meaningful economic and political participation; one major survey estimated that 99 percent of persons with disabilities in Liberia live in extreme poverty.

These structural challenges are compounded by lingering cultural stigma, where disability is often misinterpreted as a curse, witchcraft, or punishment rather than a human rights and development concern. While there have been important legal and policy gains—such as Liberia’s signing and ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the creation of the National Commission on Disabilities, and the adoption of a National Action Plan on Disability—implementation remains uneven and fragmented across ministries and agencies. In the education sector, for example, the Department of Science, Technical, Vocational and Special Education received only 0.28 percent of the Ministry of Education’s budget in FY 2023, with no clearly defined national allocation for special education services, leaving most schools for children with disabilities dependent on non-governmental and faith-based organizations.

Your Excellency, I recognize and commend the commitments you have already demonstrated toward inclusion and social justice, including your reaffirmed support for inclusive education for children with disabilities during your engagement with deaf students and educators. Liberia’s disability-related policies and commissions, as well as tax incentives and employment targets for persons with disabilities in the workforce, are encouraging steps that signal the government’s desire to build an inclusive society. However, without a dedicated senior adviser or special assistant at the highest level of government, these efforts risk being disjointed, under-resourced, and insufficiently aligned with the broader national agenda.

It is within this context that I humbly appeal for the appointment of a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities situated within the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs—the body charged with coordinating the activities and operations of the Office of the President. This strategic placement would ensure that disability inclusion, accessibility, and equal opportunities are not treated as isolated social welfare concerns, but as cross-cutting national priorities embedded in governance, economic planning, security, infrastructure, education, and health.

A Senior Special Assistant on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities would, at minimum, be mandated to: 

– Provide direct, expert counsel to the President on laws, policies, and programs affecting persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups, ensuring that all major presidential decisions are tested against principles of accessibility, non-discrimination, and inclusion.

– Coordinate disability-related initiatives across ministries—particularly Education, Health, Gender, Children and Social Protection, Labour, Public Works, Transport, and Justice—so that the CRPD, the National Action Plan on Disability, and sector-specific policies are implemented coherently rather than in isolation.

– Lead a presidential agenda on inclusive budgeting, encouraging realistic allocations for special education, assistive devices, accessible infrastructure, and social protection programs that move people with disabilities out of extreme poverty.

– Strengthen data collection and evidence-based planning by working with the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), the National Commission on Disabilities, and civil society partners to update disability statistics regularly, as recommended by recent policy briefs and advocacy reports.

– Serve as a formal liaison between the President and disability-focused organizations and networks—such as the National Union of Organizations of the Disabled (NUOD), the Liberian National Association of the Deaf, and allied NGOs—ensuring that people with disabilities are consulted, not merely spoken for.

This role would not duplicate existing functions; rather, it would consolidate and elevate them to the level of the Presidency. Advocacy groups have already begun respectfully urging your office to appoint a dedicated disability adviser to guarantee that matters of equality, accessibility, and social inclusion are considered systematically at the highest level of national decision-making, noting that your advisory team presently includes legal, youth, political, religious, and security advisers but no dedicated expert on disability inclusion. By establishing a Senior Special Assistant on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities, your administration would respond directly to this call and set a powerful precedent for inclusive governance in Liberia and the wider region.

Moreover, such an appointment would send a clear moral and symbolic message: that persons with disabilities are not charity cases or afterthoughts, but rights-holders and citizens whose perspectives must shape the national agenda. It would align Liberia’s domestic practice more closely with its international obligations under the CRPD, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and related human rights instruments, further strengthening the country’s reputation as a democracy that prioritizes dignity and equal opportunity for all.

Your Excellency, I make this appeal in a spirit of respect and partnership. As a Disability Rights Activist, I stand ready—along with many other advocates, organizations, and families of persons with disabilities—to support such a Senior Special Assistant in building bridges between the Presidency, line ministries, and communities on the ground. I am confident that under your leadership, the creation of this role would help transform disability from a peripheral concern into a central pillar of national development, in keeping with your vision for a more just, inclusive, and prosperous Liberia.

I respectfully beseech your honorable office to consider this request and to initiate the necessary steps—whether through executive action, consultation with the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, or engagement with the National Commission on Disabilities and disability organizations—to appoint a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities within the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for your kind attention to this appeal and for your continued service to our nation. I remain hopeful that under your leadership, persons with disabilities and special needs will see their rights, voices, and aspirations more fully reflected at the heart of governance.

Respectfully submitted,

Dakpannah U-Thant Nicholas Smith

Disability Rights Activist

Republic of Liberia