To our new Government, this is My Two Cents for 2024!
By Arthur David |
Liberia is a remarkably interesting nation. Since its beginning, we cannot become organized. We know all our problems; we can articulate, discuss, and name them, but we cannot seem to find a real leader to lead the fight against these ills successfully and find solutions to them. We move from one failed leader to another.
Now again, to me, we have taken another leap of faith. Some are saying, how can we expect a man, who is aged and rumored to not be in the best of health, who in recent times has made poor decisions and allowed others to decide for him, to be able to lead a nation, critically challenged on every front, out of the mess we are in? Will those who are saying these things, be proven wrong? TWT.
As a Liberian who has seen a lot more than most of the population alive, I will add my two cents to the national discourse again. I did the same thing when Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became President in 2006. She had some achievements but was also a failure overall. In 12 years, there was no reconciliation. I want to see Liberia moved out of this perpetual state of underdevelopment and to join the present group of countries that are moving to become developed technologically and infrastructurally. This must begin with a leader who understands what leadership is and is willing to provide that leadership. It must be patriotic, nationalistic, and ready to make the necessary sacrifices and take the tough decisions to get the nation going in the right direction. This will also involve a social, cultural, educational, economic, mental, and psychological revolution, involving a shift in our mindset as Liberians. Who will lead this fight? The President-elect? The selection and composition of the new team of officials will be a signal of the seriousness of this incoming administration. Let me add, we need a group of Liberians, led by a real leader, who will be ready and willing, to say, we will make the needed sacrifices to develop this country for our children and grandchildren.
What are some of the age-old problems that we continue to deal with?
- Corruption in all public ministries and private entities.
- A very dirty country, especially Monrovia. Open sewage spewing in the streets and garbage all over, especially in our graveyards and on our beaches. Can you imagine?
- No enforcement of zoning laws – alleys are blocked, and people are allowed to build and sell anywhere and everywhere. People build houses without inside toilets, so open defecation is still a problem, especially on our beautiful beaches.
- Too many children are out of school, selling in the streets with no concern for their safety and no fears or restrictions from the police or city officials. UNICEF reports that in 2022, Liberia has the largest number of out-of-school children in the world, 56% of primary-school-age children. Is this something to celebrate?
- There are not enough public schools; there are not enough real schools.
- There are not enough hospitals and clinics; there are not enough real hospitals with adequate equipment and staff. WHO reports that in 2023 we will have 1 doctor for every 20,000 people in Liberia. All serious medical issues must be handled outside of the country or the person will likely die.
- The Liberianization policy is not working. Actually, very little is working in Liberia. Too many aliens are allowed to do jobs that Liberians can and should do. So-called investors are allowed to come to our country and do retail business. Do we have anyone in Leadership who is thinking? 64% of our population lives below the poverty line. 1.3 million people live in extreme poverty.
- Public entities are staffed with political, nepotistic, and social appointees. Most of those people do nothing in those entities but receive salaries and other benefits, and the offices are overstaffed.
- The President is given unfettered powers to appoint so many people in government, which creates a patronage system where everyone feels like they are only accountable to the President. So, a weak, absentee, corrupt, and clueless president creates a failed state and the citizens continue to suffer.
- Most of the roads in the country are a big mess. Public Works is a big joke. Small potholes will turn into craters without any intervention from those responsible. Is there a road maintenance crew somewhere in Liberia?
- Revenue collection is another grave issue. While this could be a huge income-generating base for the government, some of the people tasked with this are so poorly trained, clueless, careless, and so bent on getting something for themselves that millions of dollars go uncollected daily. The government could get enough resources from taxes on real estate and businesses, automobiles, electric power, water resources, port services, police traffic violations, telecommunication services, airport services, public transportation, concession agreements, etc. But Those entrusted with this valuable sector do poorly in collecting legitimate government taxes, dues, and fees. Sometimes, you must beg and pay bribes for the clerks and agents to allow you to pay your taxes and fees.
- The unlimited spending of the President and other government functionaries needs to be seriously addressed. How can the president travel by private jet when the country cannot pay its loans to the World Bank and other Creditors? How can sick government officials be flown overseas, on chartered flights, for first-class medical treatments when the citizens do not have working X-ray machines in most local health centers? How can government officials be given gas slips, scratch cards, expensive automobiles, housing allowances, and other benefits while thousands of children are out of school and not enough public schools? How can the President call for extra sitting of the Legislature and they be paid one month salary and benefits for working for one to ten days? How is this even possible? Where are the eyes, hearts, and brains of these people? How can a President spend 48 days outside the country, with an entourage, using public funds without any dividends to the poor nation? Recently, a gas tanker wrecked and the more than 100 persons dead and wounded were scattered in hospitals that were struggling to provide adequate medical care to these people due to the lack of the needed equipment and supplies. What was very disheartening was that the seriousness and urgency attached to the medical needs of government officials were totally missing in this case. Message sent is, the lives of the government officials are more important than that of the citizens.
- The issue of extremely low salaries needs to be considered as a national emergency. A minimum wage needs to be set that takes into consideration the prevailing economic situation in the country. One set of persons cannot be paid very well, with all kinds of benefits attached, and the other set is paid slave wages.
- The issues of national identity, basic awareness in citizenship, patriotism, nationalism, health and sanitation, education, culture, common decency and etc., are issues that continue to negatively affect our nation.
- Kickbacks is a major corrupt practice that is killing the country. Government functionaries in charge of disbursing public funds to legitimate recipients, will demand kickbacks, before they pay those recipients. Business people who perform work for government or provide goods to government, will connive with government functionaries to inflate the costs of these goods and services and the extra funds are shared between these government functionaries and these unscrupulous business people. This is killing the government and must be stopped.
I have some suggestions for those leading the nation beginning in 2024.
- All public employment should be vetted through the Civil Service Agency. A real payroll audit should be conducted to give the government a legitimate and authentic civil service.
- The assets of all appointed public officials must be declared and made public. If one wants their assets to remain private, they should stay or enter the private sector.
- Auditing of all public entities should immediately commence and become an integral part of the government’s ongoing operations. Prosecution and restitution should follow.
- The Leader must lead. A real leader needs competent, qualified, and trusted lieutenants to assist in getting the job done. But the leader must possess a degree of discernment, common sense, a vision for the nation and be able to articulate it and work on his vision for the nation every day.
- All school-age children should be enrolled in school by the government. How can we have leaders entrusted with state power and resources, sit so comfortably, when a sizable portion of the nation’s children are not in learning institutions? Is this leadership? This is a crime. Government must embark on an educational revolution, where teachers are being trained at all levels, new schools are being built, and the existing schools are engaged to find ways to strengthen all the substandard schools that are causing more damage to the future of the children under their care by giving them a weak education foundation that may cripple them forever.
- All public medical facilities should treat all those needing care. Citizens continue to die from minor sicknesses and diseases that could easily be treated if there was access to care. Priority should be given to health care, education, agriculture, and roads, as opposed to government travels, perks, high salaries and allowances. This is one of the areas that real sacrifice needs to be made.
- Road work crews should go out daily to make interventions on the nation’s roads. You cannot have people on salary for road maintenance sit down all day doing nothing when the roads are deplorable. Funds should be set aside in the budget to get this done, instead of giving $30,000 dollars to each legislator for community engagement. This is another crime made legal by these people.
- The cities and communities must be kept clean. A presidential mandate must be enacted so that no one throws trash in the streets and neighborhoods. The garbage in all our communities and streets in all our cities is an outright disgrace to all of us. One European Ambassador in 2022, insulted Liberians, when he said, in all of his work and travels around the world, Monrovia was the dirtiest city he had seen. Can you imagine? The city corporations need sanitation technicians to head these entities and given the proper support to get their work done. A clean environment is directly connected to health and wealth. A garbage collection and disposal system are a must.
- All heads of government entities should be appointed based on merit. Anyone not meeting up with their responsibilities should be relieved of that post and replaced. Liberia is too backward for the government to be run on friendship, family relationships and partisanship. The same people who have held the same positions, who have been unable to innovate, think outside the box, and inject new ideas and ways of doing business into those positions and entities should, please not be appointed again. People with experience, education, a proven track record and a back ground in their fields should be appointed in all areas of this new government. If old man Boakai, president-elect, brings on board, these same recycled and failed Liberian politicians, who can only work in failed governments after failed governments, then he would have failed from day one. How can you be a minister over a ministry and you cannot even keep the bathrooms in that ministry clean?
- The war and economic crimes court must be set up. There can be no lasting and genuine peace without justice. It is nonsensical for warlords, killers, and criminals to be given state power, with access to state resources, for them to lord it over their victims with impunity. Failure to do this will show no leadership, and the state will remain unreconciled and a failed one. If these categories of individuals are in positions of power, our poor country will continue to be as it is.
- The rule of law must be enforced. Without an environment where the law is upheld, the society will be unsafe and chaos will prevail as it has been in Liberia for a very long time now. In such an environment, no serious and credible investor will venture. Even our own citizens, who have lived overseas and prospered and want to come back to explore opportunities, will hesitate and think twice. Motorcycles and Kekehs must be given guidelines and meet requirements. Automobiles and trucks must be given guidelines and meet basic safety requirements. The entire Police Force must be overhauled with a new leadership, a new mandate, and retraining of every personnel of the force. Some officers need to be discharged and replaced. Sting operations must be carried out by trained investigators to weed out corrupt judges, law enforcement personnels and other government functionaries. Corruption must be fought.
This is it: The government needs to attract investment. To do this, a few things must be put in place: The rule of law and order has to be upheld and enforced. Sanitation must be addressed at all levels. The place must be clean. Vocational and technical education must be prioritized and encouraged. When investments come to Liberia, if we lack the qualified technicians and labor force to do the jobs required by the investments, then we will depend on our West African neighbors to supply us with the skilled labor necessary to meet the requirements of the investors. We will also lose investments if we lack the skilled manpower.
A reliable Electric grid and a safe and constant Water supply are also a priority. Real and Serious Investments require these utilities. Roads that are useable and passable are another big need. Roads require huge expenditures and will require time to work on them to make them all weather roads, but while we are working on them, we must also have a designated road maintenance crew in every county. These crews will be responsible for the roads to be useable and passable all year round.
From my experience, there are some major things that the government must put in place. Some call it, a conducive environment and the citizenry will add a lot and make the nation better for all of us.
I know there are more things that we need to work on as a nation and people, but I will stop here for now.
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