By P. Vangerline Kpotoe
MONROVIA, Sept. 10 (LINA) – A Disability Advocate U-Thant Nicholas Smith has Urged H.E. President Joseph N. Boakai to Appoint Senior Assistant on Special Needs at the level of the Presidency.
In an open letter to President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Sr., on Thursday Sept 7, 2026, Smith appealed for the appointment of a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Special Needs and Equal Opportunities inside the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs.
According to Smith, recent analysis shows 8.7% of Liberians aged five and above live with some level of functional difficulty. Other studies, factoring in the effects of war and Ebola, put it as high as 16–20%. Yet one survey estimated that 99% of persons with disabilities in Liberia live in extreme poverty.
“Your Excellency, persons with disabilities are not charity cases or afterthoughts. We are rights-holders and citizens whose voices must help shape the national agenda,” he asserted.
Beyond poverty, Smith emphasized that stigma remains a daily battle and that too often, disability is still wrongly seen as a curse or punishment instead of a human rights issue.
He furthered that Liberia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, stating that the National Commission on Disabilities exists but the President has spoken in support of inclusive education.
Smith, who is a person living with Albinism, pointed out that in FY 2023, the Department for Special Education got just 0.28% of the Ministry of Education’s budget, stressing that most schools for children with disabilities still depend on NGOs and churches. While at the presidency, there are advisers on youth, security, legal and religious affairs — but none dedicated to disability inclusion.
He emphasized that it is important for President Boakai to appoint a senior adviser whose job would be to bring disability to the center of government, as well as advise the President directly to make sure every major decision is tested for accessibility and inclusion.
Smith cited that said position will coordinate across ministries — Education, Health, Public Works, Labour, and others sectors, adding that disability policies don’t work in silos.
He, however, explained that the position will Push for inclusive budgeting for special education, assistive devices, accessible roads, and social protection.
He called for the need to improve data by working with LISGIS and the National Commission on Disabilities to get better numbers as well as be the bridge between the Presidency and groups like NUOD and the Liberian National Association of the Deaf, so people with disabilities are consulted, not just spoken for.
“This role would not duplicate what exists,” Smith explains. “It would consolidate and elevate it to the highest level,” he maintained.
For Smith, the appointment is about more than policy. It’s a moral statement and that such an appointment would send a clear message: that persons with disabilities must help shape Liberia’s future.
Smith believes that it would also align Liberia more closely with its promises under the Convention on the Right of Person With Disability (CRPD) and African Charter on Human Rights.
“Under your leadership, Mr. President, we can transform disability from a peripheral concern into a central pillar of national development because a Liberia that is more just, inclusive, and prosperous for all,” he noted.