The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
July 24, 2021

J. Patrick Flomo

At the ripe age of 174 years, the future of Liberia is uncertain and unpredictable and is sickened with the diseases of systemic corruption, massive poverty, poor healthcare system and education, weakened political institutions, and a foreign-dominated economy.

On Monday, July 26, 2021, Liberia will celebrate 174 years of sovereignty.   Each year, during the month of July, I ponder the celebratory festive mood that consumes the Liberian people regarding Independence.  The struggle for Liberia's independence is sui generis among the nations of the world.  That is, unlike many nations, Liberia's sovereignty was handed to her on a "silver platter" rather than through the sacrifice of blood, toil, tears, and sweat.

 The celebration of a nation's Independence has two primal items of importance:  the commemoration of the heroes and heroines of the fight for independence and the exaltation of the achievement of the nation in the improvement of the lives of its citizens since independence.  Can our Republic really boast of any of these two elements?  I think not. 

At the age of 174 years of sovereignty, the Republic is infested with a swamp of systemic corruption that is deeply rooted in all its functions, and it seems that it has become the norm, making it difficult to eradicate.  It has become our Republic's "Hydra." At 174 years, the Republic should have been among the developed nations of the world rather than being plagued by a dire economic situation that includes abject poverty, a deplorable public healthcare system, and an educational system that is mediocre compared to Ghana and Nigeria.  The Republic is in a state of despair, uncertainty, and hopelessness.  And, we need to wake up to these dire realties because they are “clear and present danger” to our Republic and to prevent a second implosion.  What is most disheartening is that Liberia has become the land of wasted human capital, the most valuable resource for the growth and development of the Republic.  Take for example, the streets of Monrovia on daily basis are teeming with multitudes of young men and women aimlessly crisscrossing the city without education and job training.   This is the making of the next generation of underprivileged and impoverished class in our society. 

At 100 on July 1, 2021, China says to the world, "China has arrived." The Chinese leader Xi Jinping tells the world, "the rise of China is unstoppable." Despite China's three bloody revolutions (the 1911 fall of the Qing Dynasty, Mao Zedong's formation in 1949  of the Chinese Communist Party, and the 1966 Cultural Revolution against the intellectuals) that killed hundreds of millions of people, in 1978, Deng Xiaoping set in motion the most aggressive economic reforms in the 20th century.  In less than four decades, China has almost wiped out poverty and is now the second-greatest economic power (behind the US) in the world.  That is an achievement to tout during the independence celebration.  In this same time period, Liberia was experiencing the best of times and worst of times of stable democracy, an economic boom (the 1960s), and affluence of the 1 percent. 

In four decades (April 1980) since our first bloody revolution (with a senseless 15-year civil war interregnum), Liberia is mired in massive abject poverty, the worst public healthcare crisis in its history, poor education, underdevelopment of human capital, and a high unemployment rate. Liberia's poverty rate is 51 percent in the world and is ranked #20 among the poorest countries (indexmundi.com).  At the age of 174 years, the Republic's economy is virtually controlled by foreign nationals, which I view as a long-term strategic threat to our national security and stability.  This also demonstrates our inability to determine our own destiny.  We import virtually everything to sustain our daily lives.  Among these products is rice, the most strategic product for peace and stability of the country.  We have seen how the "Grain Revolution" of the 20th century made Mexico and the Indian subcontinent self-sufficient in food, and yet, we let our huge fertile landmass lie dormant while we import rice, our staple food. At 174 years of age, our streets and highways are being constructed by the Chinese New Silk Road project rather than by Liberian civil engineers.  Monrovia, the capital city, was once considered "the small New York City" in Africa.  In the 1960s, it was the gravitational center of attraction for intellectuals from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and multinational corporations from around the globe.  Today, the city is a swamp of landfill and filth.  At age 174, government civil servants are irregularly paid, sometimes waiting three to four months.  This is a travesty for a sovereign nation that is about to celebrate 174 years of independence.

The blight of the state of Liberia painted above is rooted in its founding and the subsequent achievement of independence and the revolution of 1980.  Liberia was conceived and established by the American Colonization Society (ACS), a group of slavemasters and a few abolitionists who aimed to expurgate free slaves to prevent revolt in the American South.  At Independence in 1847, the beneficiaries of the ACS failed to create a nation that would look like John Winthrop's "City Upon A Hill," and created an "apartheid nation"—making the natives noncitizens.  Three decades after Independence, the True Whig Party (founded by darker-skinned Americo-Liberians in 1869) challenged the Republican Party and dominated Liberian politics for a century.  In the 1970s, a new progressive movement (MOJA and PAL) challenged and hoped to clean up the iniquities of the century rule of the True Whig Party.  In April of 1980, while most of the leading members of the movement were in jail waiting for execution, their desire to bring down the True Whig Party government was achieved in a military coup on April 12, 1980. 

Between 1980 and 1990, Liberia went through fundamental transformative change.  The first five years (1980 to 1985) was a period of military rule – the suspension of political activities and the constitution. The second five years (1985 to 1990) saw a new birth of political freedom – civil government, multiparty system, a new constitution, and free speech.  The progressive desire for crucible and fundamental structural change of our society and institutions got lost in the fog of political fights among the new political class. And thus, the only substantive gains from the 1980 progressive revolution were the right to a multiparty system and freedom of expression that did not exist in the past hundred years.

The True Whig Party, for over a century (1869 to 1980) planted the seeds of corruption and inept institutions. The failure of the 1980 revolution to fundamentally change the corrupt and systemic infrastructure of the government is one of the reasons why Liberia is in a state of dire uncertainty and despair. What is deeply concerning is the growing wealth gap between those in elected positions, the civil servants, and the rest of society.  What is most ironic is that the natives (the new political elites) have made their brothers and sisters far more impoverished in four decades than the Americo-Liberians did in a century. 

During the week of our independence celebration, I would welcome political and economic conversations among Liberians everywhere on the following:

• Fundamental constitutional reform to establish a true separation of powers (Executive, Judiciary, Legislature)
• The control of our economy by foreign nationals – a source of our perpetual poverty
• The exorbitant salaries of Legislators in a country where the masses live on less than $2.00 a day
• Economic inequality
• Civil servant on-time payment
• Corruption
• Poverty, healthcare, and population growth (now at 5.1 million)
• Education
• Liberia’s Grain Revolution (food self-sufficient)
• Electrification

I think such substantive conversations will serve as a guidepost for the younger generation to design and build a better second republic.  Moreover, it will make the independence celebration more meaningful and significant.

London: England.