“Liberia Playing With Fire: VP Koung Says Poor Population Planning Threatens National Progress”

Monrovia, Liberia: Liberia's Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung didn’t sugarcoat anything when he took a podium in Monrovia. He warned that Liberia is “playing with fire” if it continues to treat population issues as an afterthought instead of a national strategy.

According to Koung, population isn’t just a set of numbers buried in government documents it is “the destiny of the Republic.” Whether Liberia’s fast-growing population becomes a national advantage or a dead weight, he said, depends entirely on the decisions the country makes now.

“Our youth represent energy. Our women represent resilience. Our children represent tomorrow. And our workforce represents productivity,” he told the audience. “But without planning, all of that potential becomes pressure instead of progress.”

Koung didn’t hold back on where he believes the real responsibility lies. Development, he argued, is not magic and it’s not luck  “It happens by law, by policy, and by budgetary support.” And if those elements are missing, population growth will drag the country down instead of lifting it up.

It was under this urgent tone that the Vice President launched the Legislative Committee on Population and Development (LCPD), themed “Putting People at the Center of National Development.” The committee is tasked with making sure population growth aligns with Liberia’s social and economic priorities, not works against them.

Senator Dabah M. Varpilah, who heads the Senate Committee on Health and now chairs the LCPD, laid out the early steps: a framework document, terms of reference, a work plan, and functional office space  established with support from the United Nations Population Fund. She said the committee will focus heavily on policy alignment in demography, youth development, gender equality, and sexual and reproductive health rights.

Delivering remarks for House Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon, Representative Nehker Gaye reinforced the urgency. Population and development, he stressed, cannot be separated a country’s demographic makeup shapes its economic and political outcomes, whether leaders acknowledge it or not.

Senator Prince K. Moye, speaking on behalf of President Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence, committed the Senate’s support, especially on the budget side an area Koung had emphatically pointed to as non-negotiable.

The launch pulled in diplomats, UN agencies, development partners, lawmakers, and civil society leaders, signaling that this isn’t just another committee on paper it’s a call for Liberia to stop drifting and start planning.

And Koung closed the event with a reality check meant to echo long after the ceremony ends:

“History will not judge us by the committees we launch. It will judge us by the lives we improve.”