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| No Wig/Colored Hair In Dr. Weah's Government |
Liberia’s march to democracy has been a bloody one, just as it was in France, America, Nicaragua, Iraq and so on. This generation can boasting of having changed the political landscape. At the cost of 250,000 lives and a country destroyed beyond imagination.
The nation survived through the resilience of a people who have been subjected to more than a century and half of the misrule. 2006 was a turning point. 2018 is a crossroad. The CDC administration has inherited a nation at peace, full of hope, forward-looking and respected in the international community. That legacy is the greatest gift any of good institutional frameworks, forward-looking and hopeful. This is the best any outgoing administration can leave to a successor
The CDC administration has made many moves that could be forgiven and seen as learning curves. Some of these challenges could sometimes be overlooked.
However, every political act has consequences for the nation. Liberians are still wondering what happened to the billion dollars deal with EBOMAF and ETON. What happened to the five hundred million dollars promised by the World Bank to make up for the loss of the EBOMAF and ETON deals. The people never forget a promise. Liberians are still awaiting action on the recommendations of the first investigative body he set up to look into illegal payments made to the former board members of the the national oil company (NOCAL). When you break grounds, the yellow machine must be ready to plow. The Administration cannot say it will defend the Constitution when it violates the Code of Conduct, a law of the land. Liberians have endured a lot and the last they need is a litany of pipe dreams.
In a recent article on China and Africa, I thought it was a blessing – in disguise- that President Weah did not negotiate away Wologisi and Putu to the Chinese for a fistful of silver dollars. But according to the Minister of Finance and Development, Liberia went beyond that bleak situation: the administration has negotiated away natural resources of Liberia for two billion dollars to China. The Chinese will send people to determine the value of Liberia resources worth $2 billion dollars. On land, underground, and in the seas. If they had negotiated Bomi or Sinoe counties for $25 billion, ok… but the resources of the nation for $2 billion? Does anyone know what is in the waters of Liberia? Three decades ago nobody was mining gold and diamond in the southeast. For $2 billion dollars, China will come for the trees, the fish, the water, the sand, the gold, the diamond, the iron ore, the bauxite, the rocks and will send in thousands of Chinese engineers, architects, technicians to machines to carry out the process. And to access resources, China will build roads and rails paid for by Liberia with the loans it got from China.
The second issue is the impeachment of Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh. I once thought this was a beef between Honorable Acarious Gray and Justice Cabinet but then, the never-keeping-secret Senator Prince Johnson of Nimba said that President had asked for his vote and that of Senator Thomas Gruppee to impeach Honorable Ja’neh and in exchange, he would stall the War Crimes Court issue. This was in the first paragraph in another newspaper on August 31, 2018. In any other democracy, this should have put an end to the whole halahala. Is the President using the Legislature to impeach a member of the Supreme Court? Is Prince Johnson telling the truth? If that is the case, the jury has been tampered with.
Finally, there is the communication snafu, with high ranking members of the government playing tic-tac-toe about $15 billion Liberian dollars that have disappeared or were taken away or were put on the marketplace. Nobody can say for sure if there was missing, how much was missing and so on. The chief financier of the nation, the minister of finance and development planning said that people should not listen to the spokesperson of the government who happened to have been part of the past government. If anyone should know, it must be him as he
And finally, this unwarranted attack on former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in a 15 billion dollars story that has no tail and head s mind-boggling. What is there to gain in attacking a former leader who is “blamed” for helping you get to where you are? Liberia is on an economic slope and it will take a lot of work to get it back running. The confidence of the international community becomes important when you want to attract tourists, investors, and goodwill. Like her or not, Madam Sirleaf is the best spokesperson today for Liberia as far as the international community is concerned and attacking her in any way is an act of political blindness perpetrated by political hooligans. She could be the best goodwill Ambassador for the Weah administration because its failure would be a blow to every institutional reform she put in place. Transparency? Integrity? Honesty? The day everyone in the administration goes out to declare their assets and make it public, then this claim to fight corruption and impunity could be taken with a bit more seriousness.
But finally, the new trend of removing civil servants from their jobs because of the political association and opinions is a stressful reminiscence of the 1980s and 1990s when the nation was run lawlessness. This is a danger to the health of the state.
There is a rush on the part of this administration to want to do things quickly, to repair 171 years in 6 months. It took 172 years to get Liberia where it is today. It’s hard to say if people are trying to build the nation or simply cut a fast deal and get their cut.
There are many challenges but there are many good things to be proud of. The CDC can build on the positives it inherited and find local solutions to the many problems it will encounter on its path. It hasn’t been a year yet… imagine six! It is not going to get any easier.
Just stay on track and Liberia will be OK. No need to re-invent the wheel There was a roadmap.