By Fedesco Cisco Tolbert:
In recent days, Liberia has been filled with celebration, especially among government officials. News of the country passing the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) scorecard has been met with jubilation from Monrovia to Maryland County. Social media is buzzing, radio talk shows are animated, and many see this achievement as a green light for a new wave of foreign assistance.
But beyond the applause and congratulatory messages lie deeper questions:
• Is passing a scorecard enough to build a nation?
• Is this the change or “rescue” our people voted for?
• Is this any different from our age-old dependence on foreign aid?
• Is this truly the victory we believe it is, or does our excitement expose a painful truth about how we measure national progress?
For a country 178 years old, passing a checklist designed by another nation should not be our highest source of pride. And expecting foreign aid as a reward should not be our national development strategy.
What the MCC Scorecard Really Means:
The MCC scorecard evaluates countries on governance, economic freedom, and investment in people. Passing it is a positive signal. It means Liberia is showing signs of improved governance, better fiscal management, and stronger efforts to fight corruption. Does this deserve recognition? Yes. But it is no different from the achievements of previous administrations that also reached similar targets. So, it should not be treated as a monumental breakthrough. We must be honest with ourselves: the MCC is not a development plan. It is a grant program, a temporary intervention. A helping hand, not a ladder to prosperity.
Why We Must Stop Celebrating Aid as a National Achievement
Every time an aid announcement is made, we react with excitement greater than the unveiling of a national industry, a factory, or a major investment project. We celebrate grants more loudly than we celebrate homegrown innovation. This mentality keeps us trapped in the same cycle that has held Liberia back for decades.
Foreign aid, no matter how generous, does not build nations. Serious governance, long-term planning, and economic reforms do.
Aid does not grow industries.�It does not raise productivity.�It does not build a competitive economy.�It does not create sustainable jobs for the thousands of young Liberians entering the labor force each year.
Aid, by its nature, is temporary, conditional, and externally controlled. Hence, Our destiny as Africa’s oldest republic cannot be built on someone else’s charity. Our real path to prosperity should be foreign direct investment and homegrown innovation, not foreign direct aid.
I could at least understand this dependent mindset 20 or 25 years ago, when we were emerging from the civil war, a history our leaders still use as an excuse for a lack of innovation and vision.
What Other Nations Did Differently:
Nations with similar histories of conflict and poverty did not rise on grants. They rose on investment, innovation, and human capacity development. Let’s Consider a few examples:
Rwanda: From the ashes of genocide, Rwanda rebuilt not through aid dependency but by attracting investment in aviation, tourism, manufacturing, and technology. Today, it hosts global brands like Volkswagen and operates one of Africa’s fastest-growing airlines.
Vietnam: Once war-torn, Vietnam opened its economy to investors. Today, Samsung alone accounts for nearly 20% of Vietnam’s total exports. Millions have been lifted out of poverty—not through charity, but through jobs, skills, and industrial growth.
Mauritius: A small island nation that transformed itself into a financial and tourism powerhouse by focusing on private-sector growth, stability, and investor confidence. These nations did not wait for scorecards. They built environments that attracted investors, and investors built industries that changed lives.
Liberia Has Extraordinary Potential to do far better:
We have fertile land, abundant natural resources, a youthful population, and a strategic Atlantic coastline. But potential without direction remains unrealized.
To change Liberia’s story, we must:
• Strengthen the rule of law and fight corruption—seriously, not ceremonially.
• Stop using youth-centered politics as entertainment and start implementing real policies that create opportunities.
• Make the cost of doing business affordable, predictable, and fair.
• Fix electricity—not as a political slogan but as a national emergency.
• Build roads that connect markets, not just communities.
• Invest in technical training, digital skills, science, agriculture, and youth entrepreneurship.
• Create an investment climate that makes global companies see Liberia as a destination—not a charity case.
These are the pillars of real development—how a nation truly thrives.
We Need a New National Mindset:
Passing the MCC scorecard should motivate us, but it should not satisfy us. It should push us forward, but it should not define us. The real victory is not when we pass a scorecard designed in Washington. The real victory is when Liberia designs a development model that makes foreign aid unnecessary.
The day Liberia celebrates the opening of a major manufacturing plant, a technology hub, an export-driven industry, or a Liberian-owned corporation expanding globally, that will be the day we can truly say Liberia is entering a new era.
Until then, we must stop confusing temporary relief with long-term progress and direct our energy toward achievements that are permanent and transformative.
Liberia does not lack intelligence.�Liberia does not lack potential.�Liberia does not lack natural wealth.
What Liberia lacks, and what we must urgently cultivate is a development mindset that values productivity over charity, investment over aid, and self-reliance over dependency.
So yes, let us appreciate the MCC moment. But let us also remember:
A nation does not develop by passing someone else’s test. It develops by building its own future.
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-Fedesco Cisco Tolbert-
An activist, former student leader, and a doctoral candidate at the prestigious George Washington University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. And also a prominent resident of Montserrado District #10.
