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shelters reconstruction in Northern Israel in
preparation for future military conflicts.and his diverse military
experience includes service as a drill instructor for basic and navigational
training, member of an anti-chemical warfare unit, military-settler liaison
during the Gaza Disengagement and last July — military and municipality
consultant during the Lebanon-Israeli War.
After the election of Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf to the presidency in Liberia, Nuah resigned from his job and
returned to Liberia to open a business. He began farming and opened a firm
called Isra-Lib Ltd. to initiate joint ventures between Liberian and Israeli
companies. Security, agriculture, medicine and mining were several of the
fields he was planning to engage in. Expecting an end to the diamond
sanctions, Padmore began brokering a deal with an Israeli company to gain
investment capital to begin industrialized trade and mining. He returned to
Israel to begin discussions with investors when the Israeli war with Lebanon
broke out and Padmore returned to active military duty.
In a recent interview from the Holy Land, I asked Nuah how
Liberia could benefit from his resourcefulness in its task of rebirth and
national building. He answered by saying that firstly, there was the need to
identify several underlying factors such as socio-psychological that are
fundamental to understanding the breakdown of the Liberian nation fabric.
Nuah candidly averred that these factors are building
blocks needed to resolve the "deep divide" among Liberians. He sees no
immediate short term resolution to the Liberian problem and opined that the
issue is compounded by the lack of qualified human and material resources on
the ground. He, however, admitted that Liberians in the Diaspora had the
fortune of being highly qualified individuals who could lend immensely to
the rebuilding of the country but didnt have the incentive to return home to
this task.
Liberians, he noted, must be empowered to earn a simple,
decent living and that goverrment should take bold initiatives to develop
the economy, decentralize its system, improve its communication network and
help build a middle class. Nuah has helped successfully develop desert land
in Israel into productive farmland. And relying on his early training in the
field of Agriculture, he touted the myriad of benefits of a self sufficient
Liberia.
Given its past notorious designation as a pariah nation, I
asked Nuah, how Liberian can now establish itself as a stabilizing entity in
the West African sub-region. According to this Liberian luminary, the
country has the unique advantage of its historical experience which, he
stressed must be fully utlilized to its benefit and that of its neighbors.
Nuah has no political ambition in the near future but says
he is willing to help the government of Liberia with free consultancy.
And so again we see another opportunity for Liberia and
Africa to benefit from a son of the soil, Nuah Padmore, whose service in the
Holy Land, Israel, points a finger to Africa's oldest Republic now on a
rebound from strife and war. |
