Liberia’s desire to be developed is severely being undermined by one major
risk factor the country has ignored for the past 200 years. The risk is
that the country’s development agenda has always, and is still, being
driven by presidential vision or plan as opposed to a national development
plan. Currently, and has always been in the case, a sitting president of
the country, during his/her 6 years tenure, gets to decide how the country
should be developed; when such development should take place; where it
must take place; and how it must take place. As a result, places like
Kokoyah, Buutuo, Pleebo, etc., are yet to be developed because a
presidential directive has not been given to develop them.
This article seeks to provide an understanding of how such risk factor has
historically undermined the holistic development of the country and if not
replaced with a national development plan, could pose current and future
difficulties to developing the country.
General Overview of the State of Development in Liberia
After approximately 200 years of existence, Liberia still remains both
statistically and physically noted as one of the least developed and
primitive countries in the world. Historically, the country ranked worst
among countries of the world in many areas like unemployment, poverty,
etc. At times, she is not even referenced in other development statistics.
For example, Liberia still operates one of the most primitive and unranked
international airports in the world. The airport lacks the basic equipment
that facilitates modern air transportational services; the private sector
of the country is weak, thus leading to unemployment rate of 85 percent,
which ranks 198th among 199 countries sampled by the CIA world
fact book; and the educational system is weak, thus leading to an
illiteracy rate exceeding 50 percent.
Specific Overview of the State of Development in Liberia
Liberia’s developmental outlook at the counties and cities level is
extremely miserable and discouraging. Many places within the counties have
not experienced any form of modern development since the country was
founded more than 200 years ago. For example, 13 out of the 15 counties of
the country do not have universities, thus depriving students of those
counties college education. Unemployment rates within most of those
counties stand at approximately 98 percent since there are no jobs
available in those places. Additionally, the economies of most of these
places are largely driven by barter systems where people are forced to
exchange pepper for rice since they do not have income to purchase goods
and services.
The Major Reason behind such Massive Historical Underdevelopment of
Liberia
The major reason why Liberia is still not significantly developed after
more than 200 years is that the country’s development is based on
presidential directive. And since the president must give directive before
places like Kokoyah can ever be developed, Kokoyah still does not have
electricity and running water because that presidential directive has not
been given.
Under the historical and current country development practices of Liberia,
the president is given the exclusive right to unilaterally draft and
implement the development agenda of the country as he/she sees fit. Under
such practice, the sitting president, based on his/her political party
platform, is given the power to determine, for example, what school should
be built in the country, where such school must be built, when the school
should be built, and how the school should be built.
Development Policies Based on Presidential Platform is not a Best
Practice for Liberia
The dismal state of development of Liberia suggests that a national
development practice based on presidential directive is not the best
practice for the country. Such practice is detrimental to the development
of the country and it does not have the ability to develop the country any
time soon. The reason is that such practice is unpredictable because many
parts of the country will only be developed when the president is ready to
develop and not when the people are ready for such development. For
example, places like Pleebo are yet to be modernized because all of the
presidents of the country, including the current president, have not made
that decision to develop Pleebo.
Moreover, such practice is discriminatory, segregative, or biased. Since
the president unilaterally decides where development should occur within
the country, he/she may only develop areas of the country that are
favorable to him/her. For example, many parts of the country, including
Buutuo, have not experienced any form of major development since the
formation of the country, while Monrovia, Bensonville, and other areas of
the country that have produced a president are always being minimally
developed. Additionally, during the True Whig Party hegemony of
approximately 100 years, development largely favored the Americo-Liberians
and their associates, thus excluding indigenous Liberians residing in
places like Butaw, Karnplay, Foya, etc. As a result, about 90 percent of
indigenous Liberians are chronically impoverished. The same biases existed
during the Apartheid regime of South Africa, where many indigenous South
Africans were underdeveloped.
Furthermore, this practice does not allow development to be continuous in
the country because majority of our presidents, almost always, depart from
the developmental agenda of a past president. The reason behind such
discontinuity is that a sitting president of the country may not have any
political incentive to complete a development plan of a past president,
most especially, if he/she does not like the development policies of that
president. As a result, Liberia is filled with a number of uncompleted
development plans as well as infrastructure that could have been completed
if our development practices were not so dismal. A major drawback of such
discontinuity is that it has and will continue to misallocate and abuse
the meager resource of the country.
Another key reason why such practice is dangerous to the development of
the country is that it allows the president to impose his/her will on the
country. The president decides how the country must be developed as
opposed to the country making its own development decisions that should be
imposed on a sitting president. The problem with such a dangerous practice
is that the country will cease to be developed when the president makes
very bad developmental decisions. That is one of the reasons why Liberia
will keep looking for a messiah that can deliver her from the egypt of
underdevelopment, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, and degradation.
Unfortunately, Liberians have not understood that they and their messiahs
(presidents) don’t see development from the same perspective. Most
Liberian presidents pursue development plans that enrich them and their
selected associates, while the ordinary Liberian wants development plans
that will holistically lift the entire country out of poverty and other
chronic economic woes.
A Proposal to Holistically Develop Liberia
Liberia must establish a national development plan that will set the
country’s development agenda for the next 5, 10, 20…50 years. Such plan
must clearly and transparently define the development needs of the
country, when such needs must be met, where such needs must be met, and
how such needs must be met. Such plan must clearly set the short-term and
long-term development objectives of the country that must be implemented
by every sitting president.
The national development plan must take into consideration all of the
minimum/maximum infrastructural and other structural needs of a
functioning economic, social, and political environment. That is, the plan
must ensure that the adequate amount of modern schools, universities, road
networks, hospitals, businesses, agricultural programs, technical and
technological programs, etc.., are built in every county of the country,
including places like Butaw, Pleebo, Karnplay, Brewersville, Kokoyah, etc.
To ensure that no sitting president exploits, manipulates, or deviates
from the established development objectives of the country, the plan must
be passed into law, so that it will be binding on all current and future
presidents of the country. Furthermore, the law should establish an
independent agency that will regulate and manage the plan. Such agency
must be strictly structured in a way that will shield it from political
manipulations and exploitations by politicians, including the president.
It is very important to note that this plan does not seek to stall
presidential creativity that allows our presidents to implement other
innovative developmental objectives. However, the presidents must be
required by law to complete a fraction of the national development plan of
the country. For further information on the proposal, please click on the
following links: [1]
and [2].
Benefits of a National Development Plan for Liberia
Liberia stands to significantly benefit from the establishment of a
national development plan for the country. With such a plan, the country’s
development will be: systematic because each sitting administration will
use the same methodologies to develop the country; continuous because each
new administration will continue the development process beginning at the
stage where the previous administration ended; congruent because each
segment of the country, including all of the counties and places like
Brewersville, Karnplay, Pleebo, Butaw, Kokoyah, etc., will now begin to
experience simultaneous development; and speedy because each segment of
the country will continue to be developed on a regular basis.
Another major benefit that can be accrued from a national development plan
is that the country meager resources will efficiently be allocated with
profound results because the country will now be able to continue to start
and complete its development objectives in a timely manner as opposed to a
new president starting a new project in a new location because he/she does
not want to complete the same projects that was earlier started by a
president that he/she does not like.
Additionally, a national development plan is the only hope for chronically
least developed places like Juarzon, Morweh, Zoegeh, etc., to be
developed. Historically, these places have always fallen outside the
presidential development plans, thus leading to extreme poverty and
unemployment. A national plan can completely stop politicians and
presidents from continuously exploiting, manipulating, and discriminating
against the development needs of places like Senjeh, Konobo, St. Paul
River, etc.
Calling on President Johnson-Sirleaf, Decision Makers, and every
Liberian to take Action
This article is calling on President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the lawmakers,
the judges of the Supreme Court, leaders of political parties, other key
decision makers of the country, and the entire citizenry of the country to
establish a national development plan for the country during the tenure of
this administration. If Liberia must be developed going forward, we cannot
continue to allow the development of our country to be based on
presidential directives, which in most cases, leave majority of the
country, including places like Pleebo/Sodeken, Buah, District #4, Buutuo,
etc., undeveloped during a presidential tenure.
Liberians must understand that President Sirleaf efforts are applauded,
but she cannot and will not be able to holistically develop Liberia during
her 6 years tenure. Given the resources constraints of the country, no one
president can entirely develop Liberia during his/her 6 years tenure.
Liberia can only be developed incrementally based on continuous
contributions of successive leaders. However, history has shown us that
many incoming Liberian presidents do not complete plans of their
predecessors, thus always abandoning such plans to take on new plans of
their choosing. Therefore, we must be warned that what President Sirleaf
sees as the best development plan for Liberia, could be termed as the
worst plan by the next president who may not care much about President
Sirleaf. As a result, our country will be set back another 6 years. The
only way forward is to establish a national development plan that will
force the incoming president and all other future presidents of the
country to adhere to the minimal developmental objectives of the country.
If Liberia is serious about ending poverty, unemployment, illiteracy,
underdevelopment, and all of our economic, social, and political woes, the
establishment of a national development plan is the best way to go.
Contrary to this will clearly suggest that our leaders were only elected
to increase their own well-beings and the well-beings of a selected few,
but NOT the well-being of the people of Kokoyah.
