VOICE OF IBRAHIM NYEI - COCORIOKO

Statement on the Political Stalemate in Liberia

2011-11-06T14:30:00.000-08:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
November 6, 2011

Recent developments in Liberia around the presidential election are appalling and deeply worrisome - signaling a stalemate of unpredictable consequences. We take note of the complains of political parties after the first round of the 2011 general and presidential elections, but we are yet to be convinced of the claims made to judge whether they are valid enough for their actions thus far. The threat of boycott and the careless and abusive campaign statements from opposing camps, including the resignation of the Chairman, and exit of key staff members of the National Election Commission in the middle of the process speak of a volatile situation needing urgent attention to protect the people of Liberia against extremist political attitudes. Immediate security actions and direct engagements by the international community are needed to prevent the situation from deteriorating into violence. By now the international community should have learned sufficient lessons from the tragedies that resulted from elections in Kenya (2007 - 2008), Zimbabwe (2008), and Ivory Coast (2010 -2011). Thanks to the United Nations Mission in Liberia and ECOWAS for their roles so far.

At this point it is important to mention that the prevailing developments in Liberia are not spontaneous, but are products of pos-conflict governance leakages which the administration overlooked. There are governance leakages which have all built up to numerous political crises out of which the current situation is just one product. Two key issues can be considered here as part of the leakages. The first was the failure of the administration to lead the country into a broader national process of Constitutional reform. Constitutional reform is a key and fundamental element of postwar reform, and had this government embarked on such an initiative key issues of national controversy would have been sorted out and addressed. Rather, the administration chose to support and conduct a referendum month to the election. It was from this controversial referendum the current tension around the elections began.

Second is the lukewarm approach of the government to transitional justice issues, mainly national reconciliation. Transitional justice goes in tandem with constitutional reform in postwar governance reform processes, and it is the basis upon which people deal with past grievances and accept each other for the future. Eight years after the war, Liberians are yet to have collective and clear understanding of the causes of the conflict and the role of various actors, and the way forward to a peaceful future. This is largely due to the controversy that resulted from the TRC process. Today, people feel free to issue threats of violence and even disrupt national processes without fearing consequences. At the same time, the people still seem to be deeply divided on ethnic issues, and the growing patterns of remerging wartime alliances during these elections speak volumes of deep-seated grievances and conflict mentalities.

Also important to mention here is the fact that the class of politicians presiding over Liberia today have a conflict-prone mentality, and there is complete lack of trust among themselves, thus making it difficult for them to participate in meaningful competitive democratic processes without threats, violence and actions inimical to modern democracy and civilization. Unfortunately, there is no meaningful challenge to the political excesses and inherent failures of this class of politicians that have presided over Liberia since the 1960s. The lack of challenge is due to the continuous cooptation and manipulation of elements in the succeeding generations.

Let us realize now that it is time to give new face to governance and politics in Liberia in response to the emerging 21st century challenges of peace, democracy and progressive development. Of course the current class of politicians lacks the trust and energy for this century, so it is time that they are retired from politics and government where they are not productive as evidenced by the state of affairs in Liberia over the past decades.

Thus a new breed of leadership is needed if Liberia must move forward with the pace of development and globalization in this 21st century. The energy and innovative skills of the emerging generations can save the people of Liberia from the emotional and physical pains of poverty, violence, and injustice caused by the current batch of politicians, and will raise Liberia beyond its current status of a puppet state in the international community.

LET THE WORLD HELP SAVE SOMALIA FROM THE TWIN TRAGEDIES!!!!!

2011-08-11T11:05:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
Tragedies have befallen the people of Somalia. They need every assistance at this moment to survive. A cup of water, a piece of bread, a quiet environment (silencing the guns) can save a life today in Somalia. What is happening in that East African Nation can happen anywhere, and most of us in other parts of the world have experience the same tragedies, but with different magnitudes.

We are all aware that humanity is facing numerous challenges in today’s world. From climate change, environmental degradation and pollution to violent conflict, drought, famine and poverty, humanity is under the worst attacks. It is now clear from events around the world that trouble in one country can affect a whole region and most likely the world. Currently the UN is saying that about 3.6 million people are at the risk of starvation in Somalia, and more than 11 million people across the horn of Africa have been affected by drought this year.

In Somalia, there is a twin tragedy – drought and violent conflict. This must claim the attention of the whole world to join hands and save the innocent children of Somalia from dying from starvation and preventable causes. Violent conflict itself comes with its own tolls on humanity and nation states everywhere. Conflicts forced people to refugee lives during which they lost their human dignity, cultural trainings and heritage, and during violent conflicts people are faced with the prevalence of several diseases like cholera, diarrhea, etc. the United Nations has taken account of these things during conflicts. Drought and the seemingly intractable war in Somalia have separated the people and spread them around the world in search of a good life. Generations of Somali children may lose their identity and heritage.

In some countries, while the greatest wish babies or children have is to get the latest produced toy, or the technological gadget like video games, iPhones and Androids, their peers in Somalia are crying to get water to drink and food to eat as you read this piece. Let us be reminded that we all have one humanity, we must therefore empathize with them and mobilize resources to give them drinking water and bread to eat. This cannot be done by speeches and rhetoric any longer, but an emergency action.

The consequences of drought are not far from what mankind is deprived of like during a conflict – food, water, shelter and degradation of human dignity. The people of Somalia are suffering from a conflict and famine at the same time.

The world must now stand and pay attention to the plight of the innocent people of Somalia. We know that the world cannot fight drought easily since it is a natural disaster, but violent conflict can stop. Let us all for the sake of humanity call on the big powers to help stop the violence against the innocent people of Somalia. This must be done immediately without the considerations of ‘strategic interests’. The interest here must be peace and to save lives. If a stable government is in place in that country and the Somali people are at peace, they will be able to prepare themselves for disasters like these. But it is now beyond their control… bullets are flying, suicide bombers are looking for them, their creeks have gone dried, their seeds are not sprouting, and their cattle are dying.

The way forward is to make peace. Allow humanitarian aid to reach the people. This is a call to all militant groups, mainly Al-Shabaab that the people you want to rule are dying. If you all continue this trend you might have no more place to establish the 'Islamic State' you are fighting for. Be reminded that Allah Almighty has forbidden his followers from destroying innocent lives. You have an opportunity now to accept the general amnesty from the Transitional Federal Government and join the peace process to rebuild your country. Your people are scattered around the world against their wishes. People everywhere want to be home no matter what. But your country has become the worst place to be, only because of violence. The solution is Peace. Peace for the sake of Islam. Peace for the Sake of the innocent children of Somalia – they too need a future in their home country.

Liberia Decentralization Policy: a roadmap to participatory governance and development in Liberia

2011-08-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Liberia’s political tradition of hegemonic rule of an elite class was a major factor that led to the numerous civil uprisings and the subsequent violent conflict that lasted for fourteen years. Since independence, governance and development activities have been concentrated in the capital and in the hands of a very few people with the president at the center of this imperial authority. This has led to the marginalization, disenfranchisement and deprivation of the vast majority of the people in the country, particularly the counties.

Societies learn from lessons of history to correct the present and set a progressive agenda for the future. For Liberia, it is by now an established fact that the top-down approach to development has not worked well, for the same reasons decisions made from up-to-down have not generated popular support. This has been one of the problematic issues with good governance in Liberia. The need therefore to reexamine and reengineer the system of governance, and set for an effective devolution of political, fiscal and administrative powers to the people in the sub-national units cannot be overemphasized. This will get them deeply involved and at the same time strengthen democratic governance, and accelerate development across the country.

In 2006 the Governance Commission in collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs embarked on a process of laying out a framework for local government and decentralization in Liberia. The development of this policy was different from the traditional ‘arm chair’ style of making policies in the country, instead, the teams embarked on consultations nationwide in series of meetings, conferences and workshop to solicit the views of county government officials, chiefs and traditional leaders, civil society and media groups and representatives of youth and women organizations. It was from theses national consultations that a national decentralization policy was developed. This article analyses the policy and its implications for governance, democracy and development in Liberia. Here, I argue strongly that Liberia’s governance, socio-economic and development problems and/or challenges are underpinned by the over-centralization of power at the presidency, defined in ministries and concentrated in the capital; and that decentralization is not the absolute solution, but a necessary road roadmap to follow.

Overcentralization and the problem with governance
An overly centralized government is a product of hegemonic and elite rule. When a specific class or party wants to dominate all sectors of a nation’s life, it tends to gather and control the instruments of power through agent-loyalists and draft biased policies and laws at the exclusion of the people. Through this process, the vast majority of the people becomes marginalized and deprived from the natural wealth and opportunities of the country. With this, a skew process of wealth distribution ensues, and coercion, patronization, and force – used by a selective few individuals – is used to govern. This is where the rule of law is subverted, and dissents are suppressed as was witnessed under the True Whig Party in Liberia. The military dictatorship that metamorphosed to a civilian autocracy mirror-imaged the oligarchy it overthrew and governed the same way. This led to a general level of suppressed distrust and grievances, all of which led to the 14 years civil war – defined by destruction of the social and material wealth of the country.

It is therefore accurate to say that overcentralization undermines the principles of democracy as it deprives the vast majority of the people from public discourse and participation in governance. It supports corruption of state resources, and concentrates development mainly in the capital city and sometimes the home towns of the powerful elites. Besides Monrovia, a quick visit to county cities that have produced former presidents can tell the conspicuous discrimination and deprivation in development. For example, compare the infrastructures of Harper (Maryland), and Zwedru (Grand Gedeh) to Barclayville (Grand Kru) and Cestos (Rivercess).

It is also worth adding that the kind of imperial and strongman leadership that Liberian leaders have exhibited over the years is supported by the Constitution. Attempts were made by the 1986 Constitution Commission to redistribute power, but the military regime overturned the Commission’s proposal and introduced what Liberia has today through the Constitutional Advisory Council. In the Current Constitution, the appointing power of the president stretches to appointing the lowest statutory officials like district superintendent and district commissioners. The president also has the power to dismiss a paramount, clan and town chiefs elected by the by the people (Article 56 Sec. B).

Postwar Attempts at Decentralization in Liberia
The 1986 Constitution of Liberia gives the President the power to appoint superintendents, other county official and officials of other political subdivisions (Art. 54 Sec. D.). It further states in Article 56 (A) that all such officials ‘appointed by the President pursuant to this Constitution shall hold their offices at the pleasure of the President’.

This of course, has been the pattern of governance in the country. Officials of government work at the pleasure of the president rather than the people, even at the lowest unit of government, say for example district commissioner. The extent of the power of the president has even reached the two other branches of government – the Legislature and the Judiciary – through political maneuverings and financial manipulations; even though the Constitution, on the principles of ‘separate but coordinating bodies’, forbids this as a means of supporting checks and balance in government. This is another way in which the power has been centralized and controlled at the Liberian Presidency.

However, the return to civilian democratic rule in the country was a first step to bringing sustainable change. Even though there have been no constitutional reform process directed at reducing the power of the imperial presidency in Liberia or addressing some of the controversial issues in the constitution during the transitional period, the first postwar government through a presidential initiative introduced programs and decision-making processes aimed at empowering local citizens to participate in choosing county officials, and managing local development projects. By this initiative the president shared her constitutional privilege with the people by asking citizens of each county to send forth three names from which she will appoint a county Superintendent. This was done to choose the first set of Superintendents during the dawning days of the regime, but this practice had since been abandoned; the president has appointed several local officials, and changed superintendents without broader consultations with the communities. This process could have been improved upon, and would have engendered sufficient local participation in decision making had the president continued it and extended it to include the appointment of district commissioners and city mayors.

A second attempt at empowering the local county governments and decentralizing development initiatives was the establishment of the County Development Funds (CDF) through which budgetary allotments are made in the annual national budget for the counties and supervised by the local authorities. The people in the counties have also been regularly consulted in deciding development projects. A landmark achievement was the development of a County Development Agenda (CDA) for the counties. There have been lapses in the implementations of the CDAs however.
The continuation of the county development fund program is building sense of local ownerships around the country. Through this process local citizens and civic groups are usually demanding accountability from the county leaders, and this is expanding debates on development decision making and expenditures. In some counties, citizen’s demands for accountability in the use of the CDF have exposed the corrupt maneuverings of county officials, and in some cases, led to their dismissals by the President. With this experiment, one can just imagine how improved governance and accountability would be if the people are involved with decision-making, and are allowed to take ownership of development projects.

These developments cannot be considered as substantial efforts at decentralization due to the lack of a legal regime, as well as a general lack of sustainability and administrative frameworks. Second, they remain a presidential project and as the president has shown in preserving the privilege of appointing county superintendents and other local officials, she can also stop the CDF initiatives. A well carved and legally mandated decentralization framework remains the means to participatory democratic governance and sustainable local development in the country. It is in this direction that the Governance Commission led a nation-wide consultation process to develop the Liberia National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance.

The Decentralization Policy
The National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance has been adopted by the Cabinet, and the President of Liberia has written a Foreword to it, expressing her endorsement and support to its provisions.

This policy, as mentioned earlier is a product of mass consultations with local leaders, scholars, professionals and Liberia’s international development partners. It lays the framework for an ambitious devolution of political, fiscal and administrative powers to the sub-national political units of the country – counties and districts. Its rationale is to legally establish and promote local self-governance and advance mass citizens’ participation as a foundation for democratic governance. In a system of semi-autonomous and effective local governments the prospects of improved service delivery at all levels of society and economic empowerment abound. How then does the policy intend to attain decentralization in Liberia?

Three main types of decentralization and several precepts of democracy and development are proposed from a careful review of the policy. The three types of decentralization proposed are: Political, Fiscal, and administrative.

Political Decentralization: This type of decentralization is concerned with the process of political decision making and power distribution at the sub-division level (county level). Its key features include elections, power redistribution, participation, representation, etc. The policy aims at a radical distribution of power and decision making among the people of Liberia and the presidency. It proposes elections of superintendents, district commissioners, and city mayors. It also promotes the establishment of lawmaking structures in the county to make local ordinances, plan development, pass budget and decide on county expenditure. The benefit of such is that the Liberian people will participate more effectively in local affairs and build ownership – as it will devolve power to the responsible local bodies elected by the local people, who will also decide what development they want through public consultations. Development decisions that are taken by the local people is usually bottom-to-up and most likely to produce substantial impacts.

Administrative Decentralization: This involves the transfer of responsibilities for planning and management of public/government functions to sub-national governments or to sub-national agencies of central government in the sub-national units. Either of the two are forms of administrative decentralization, but the transfer of responsibility from a hierarchical central agency to sub agencies in the political units can best be described as deconcentration, and its agents report to superiors in the central administration rather than local authorities or the people that are affected by their operations. This is the current wave of ‘decentralization’ in Liberia. And the problematic issues with these ‘decentralized’ programs of the ministries and agencies are that they lack efficiency and inter-agency coordination. With local offices in the counties some key primary functions are still decided in Monrovia. For example, even though the Ministry of Health has County Health Teams and administrations, birth certificates are only prepared and issued at the Ministry Head Office on Capitol bypass, and while the Ministry of Transport boasts of a decentralization program, driver licenses are still only given at the Ministry’s offices on Broad Street. How then does the policy address the issue of administrative decentralization?
Under the National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance, local governments in the counties will plan and administer their own institutions of service delivery, and these institutions shall function as departments of the local government unit. For example, it is expected that programs of health will be implemented by the local department while the Ministry of Health at the national level will lead, develop, supervise and coordinate national health policies. The same for basic public services like education, water, electricity, transportation and infrastructures. The county government will employ its own staff to run these departments.

Fiscal Decentralization: This involves the devolution of fiscal power to sub-national governments. Its key features are (i) assigning tax (revenue) collection responsibilities to local governments and (ii) legally empowering local government to expend local revenues for service delivery. Both are proposed under the decentralization policy. Under our current system of government revenue collection agents from the Ministry of Finance are found actively working in the counties with no direct link to the local administrations. These agents collect revenues that rarely return to the counties as we can see the level of underdevelopment in the countryside. In every county there is an effective revenue collection mechanism, but there are not effective service delivery institutions. The need therefore to empower local governments to collect taxes, generate revenues for local development, and make expenditure decisions independently cannot be overemphasized if Liberia must advance as a develop nation.

Under the decentralization policy county governments will collect taxes and raise revenues from licenses and permits issued to local business. A system of inter-governmental transfer will also be promoted through which the national government will give annual subsidies to the county governments and local taxes redistributed among the counties and the national governments.

The above three are the forms of decentralization that development experts have described in so many discourses as effective and common internationally. Liberia seeks to radically transform its system of governance by decentralizing in all three dimensions. What then are the potential benefits of decentralization and what are the precepts of democratic governance that this system will advance in Liberia?

Overall, decentralization can help to advance a number of democratic principles and socio-economic development initiatives. If decentralization works in Liberia in line with the policy advanced by the Governance Commission it will engender mass participation of citizens in governance and promote downward accountability in the use of the country’s resources. Participation and accountability are distinct principles of democratic governance. In terms of economic development, legally empowered and functional local governments in the counties can enhance responsiveness to the range of citizens’ demand for basic services in health, education, electricity, water and infrastructures.

Nature and Structure of Local Governments
Liberia is embarking upon a form of decentralization that will make local governments autonomous but within the unitary state system. Liberia therefore, according to the policy ‘shall remain a unitary state with a system of local government and administration which shall be decentralized with the county as the principal focus of the devolution of power and authority’. There is no federal state system created here, as some critics of the process, including government officials would argue.

To ensure the protection of the national sovereignty several issues including those of foreign affairs, national defense and security, immigration, law enforcement, money and banking, and administration of justice are left exclusively as functions of national government.

The county governments shall be headed by a superintendent elected by the people and the county legislative branch (named in the policy as County Legislative Assembly) shall comprise of citizens elected from the districts of the county, and all paramount chiefs. This body shall meet quarterly to make local ordinances, plan development, and pass a budget for the year.

Challenges
It is worth noting that decentralization – the devolution of power and authority to local governments – has its own limitations and challenges. The challenges to decentralization in Liberia range from political and constitutional issues to technical and financial/economic issues. For decentralization to work in Liberia as laid out, the policy has to be passed into law by the Legislature and be submitted to a process of constitutional amendment to accommodate legally conflicting provisions of the policy. This challenge is now left with the Liberian people to call on the Legislature to begin hearing on the policy and pass laws that promote decentralization. However, due to limited and poor information, most Liberians are not aware of the benefit and processes of decentralization. This can be overcome by local civic organizations and ordinary citizens engaging and lobbying with their lawmakers on decentralization. It is also important to engage individuals seeking higher positions in government, particularly in the legislature, and begin to ask questions on how they will support decentralization in the country.

The technical issue with decentralization is associated with capacity – both financial and human resources. Liberia is currently ranked amongst the poorest countries in the world, and with a significant portion of its people illiterate. The country’s public sector is also faced with a human resource deficit which Liberia’s international partners are assisting to resolve by sending and funding expatriates, including Liberian Diasporas to work for the government. The financial ability to run effective local governments in the counties is also a potential challenge particularly in the case were most of the counties lack economic activities and active markets. Effective decentralization does not stop to establishing local governments and making them autonomous; it requires capable administrative units in the local governments to respond to the local people. If county governments and officials are unable to deliver functions that local citizens expect from them, the potential benefits of decentralization are unlikely to be realized. If this happens in Liberia, the country will be compelled to do recentralization since the local governments cannot perform the functions required of them. In order to avoid this, the process of implementing decentralization must begin with building technical human resource capacities and creating economic corridors around the country.

And finally, decentralization means that local power and social dynamics might disadvantage some groups. Women, youth, and strangers (or minority groups) might be negatively affected. Therefore, a well functioning and participatory process is needed as the lowest social unit – at the town level.

Conclusion
Decentralization is the way forward to sustainable democratization and economic developments in Liberia. With a National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance, Liberia now has a unique opportunity to build upon in advancing the rights of its people to participate in making decision that affect them. Decentralization has been a language long introduced in Liberian political discourses and attempts by successive administrations have not attained enormous benefits. The current administration has led a breakthrough by endorsing a decentralization policy. It is now about time for mass citizen awareness and support for its enactment into law and subsequent implementation.

The process of decentralization will not end at passing the policy into law and amending the constitution, it continues with building institutions of good governance in the counties, and laying the foundations for democracy and the rule of law to prevail. Encouraging the development of the skills of young Liberians in engineering, governance and policy making, medicine, economic, business and finance and other relevant fields is critical to countering the potential human resource challenges that will face local governments in the future.

It is however worth cautioning that expectations will have to be controlled because with such a deeply entrenched political culture, Liberia cannot break the yoke of its overly centralized and imperial system of governance in a few days. Let it therefore be made clear that this process has to evolve over time through a systematic process of planning and implementing.

Mary Broh Must be Called to Order: Human Rights Violations Unacceptable

2011-07-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

It has come to our attention that the Acting City Mayor of Monrovia, Madam Mary T. Broh is using an iron-fist leadership by intimidating and harassing residents with her Monrovia City Police Force in and around the city of Monrovia. Madam Broh is in the habit of harassing civilians she accuses of littering the streets or for leaving children walk alone in the streets. She at the same time convicts her accused and punishes them publicly. The nature and style of such use of power is no different from the sad days of Chuky Taylor and his Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU). The only difference is that Chucky and his ATU were well armed, and we can only imagine what would happen if Broh and her Monrovia City Police were armed.

Madam Broh must realize that as Acting Mayor she has very limited power which she must fully exhaust before going beyond the margins. She must also be informed that as Mayor – acting or proper - she has no prosecutorial power to try, nor a judicial power to convict and sentence people. I have personally witnessed her excesses, and the report by Front Page Africa of a helpless mother convicted in Broh’s ‘street court’ is troubling. Front Page Africa online reports and shows picture of a woman ‘pumping tire’ for allegedly leaving her child walk alone in the streets of Monrovia. This is a serious miscarriage and an abuse of the rights of that poor woman. This woman is a mother of children to be humiliated publicly for an alleged crime. Besides, she has her rights under Liberian laws to defend herself in court for any allegations against her. That right was not recognized, but abused by the Acting Mayor and her troops. This is a terrible signal of the emergence of a powerful and unchecked establishmentarian in President Sirleaf’s inner circle.

We use this time to call on the City Council of Monrovia to put the Acting Mayor to check and define her terms-of-reference openly. We also want to call the immediate attention of President Sirleaf to these excesses and to make her know that they have the proclivity of undermining the human rights credentials of her administration

Signed
Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
Independent Campaigner for Democracy and Social Justice

Nyei's Speech at the National Legislature

2011-05-16T06:04:00.001-07:00

Speech Delivered at the Public Hearing on the African Youth Charter at the Legislature on May 13, 2011 by Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei, President of the National Muslim Students ; Association of Liberia

Honorable Chairman and Distinguished Members of the Joint House Committee on Youth and Sports, Judiciary, Gender and Child Development; Officials of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education; Fellow Youth Leaders; Members of the Press; Ladies and Gentlemen

I bring you greetings from the National Muslim Students Association of Liberia. I feel honored by the invitation to make a presentation before this August body on the African Youth Charter. Africa has a growing population of young people, and the youth constitute a very significant element in the continent’s development. In Liberia alone, about 64% of the 3.5 million people are below the age of 35. It is within this category that the repository for the transformation and development of this country lies.

Liberia has a large reservoir of youthful talent and we can build this country on using the energy of the youth. But only if we give young people opportunities to realize their potentials. Until the policy makers tap on those talents by creating the necessary environment for the individual and collective advancement of the young people, we will continue to vacillate in poverty and illiteracy.
The African Youth Charter presents a unique opportunity for the development of the African continent. The charter is a roadmap to poverty reduction, good governance and the rule of law in every African state, and Liberia cannot afford to be left behind as this progressive train of youth development rails through the continent.

All of the provisions of the African Youth Charter have appeared in so many different forms - in speeches made by politicians, or in policies designed by successive governments in Liberia, but never promulgated nor implemented. So there is nothing really strange in the African Youth Charter in Liberia, and there is nothing stated in the Charter that is not of immediate priority to our development as a post-war nation, and as a third world economy. We therefore have no option in Liberia, but to ratify this document and mainstream it in our development programs.

Let me call your attention to some thematic areas of the Charter honorable ladies and gentlemen.
The charter defines youth as individuals between 15 and 35 years of age; it outlines the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of young people, as well as the duties to be performed by Liberia as a signatory state, to advance the rights of young people.

I. Youth participation in Governance
In Liberia, young people have played a major role in the various stages of our country’s development, but in most cases as proxies fronting for people with parochial and hidden agendas. Sometimes young people who have been given the opportunity to participate in public activities have benefited mostly as a result of extreme roles in political processes, and so their participation end up not as a right, or on the basis of merit but as a dividend from a ‘do or die’ campaign. The African Youth Charter creates a legal framework for youth participation. Ladies and gentlemen if this charter is ratified in Liberia, young people will have the right to actively participate in all aspects of our political and socio-economic developments.

In Liberia, the minimum age requirement for one to become a member of the House of Representatives is 25, 30 for the House of Senate and the 35 for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. Those are fairly young ages, and the AYC calls for that. But what is lagging in Liberia is the necessary instrument of economic empowerment and sound education that facilitate conscientious participation. A system of generational complicity denies young people in many ways; and the property accumulation laws restrict many young and competent people from competing for roles in governance. Therefore, honorable lawmakers, we from the National Muslim Students Association of Liberia believe that ratifying this charter and overseeing its implementation will facilitate youth participation in local governance and decision making at all levels in Liberia.

The ratification of this Charter will just be a one step, because the local version which is the National Youth Policy of Liberia will also have to be enacted into law by your honorable August body. The next stage will be supporting and overseeing its implementation through appropriate budgetary allocation, and demanding transparency and accountability in youth service programs.

II. Education and Skills Development
One of the problems we have in Liberia today is the unavailability of quality education to young people all over the country. In some parts of the country where there are schools, there will be no quality; and in some areas there is no school at all. Every society that pays lip service to education indirectly promotes poverty and underdevelopment. Liberia needs affirmative action on education for its marginalized youths, particularly those in rural communities, and the girls. This Charter advocates for equal access to all levels of high quality education. Multiple forms of education are proposed to us – including formal, non-formal, informal, distance learning, and life-long learning – so as to meet the diverse needs of young people. The problem of education in Liberia cannot be overemphasized, and the need for our country to develop and adopt methods of education that are relevant to our contemporary needs cannot be understated. Ratifying, domesticating and implementing the African Youth Charter will take us a long way in building trained manpower for the development of this country which will in effect reduce poverty considerably.

III. Economic Empowerment and Sustainable livelihoodsUnemployment among Liberian youths is contributing to many social problems in our country. The real data on unemployment is not yet clear, because there have been debates in the country on what constitute employment and unemployment, and the arguments have mostly been on political conveniences. But the reality is clear to us that most of our young people do not have job, or do not have the capacity for the job available, or there is no job at all. We cannot make everybody to get the same level of training and education before making employment available across the country; but I am sure we can lay the foundations through which everyone can get a livelihood from the level and quality of training he/she gets.

Unemployment in Liberia is largely a youth issue. This has been marked as a trigger of crime, deviant behavior and even violent conflict. The African Youth Charter affords young people the right to gainful employment and mandates states to focus on macroeconomic policies that lead to job creation for young men and women. In particular, Liberia will be required to develop measures to regulate the informal economy, where the majority of young people work, and to promote alternative employment opportunities and entrepreneurship. Let me state here that the economic empowerment of the young people of Liberia will go a long way in providing for the livelihood of the entire population.

IV. Peace and Security
Conflict is another issue that limits developmental opportunities for many young people across Africa. We are quite aware of the role of the youth in the civil wars that destroyed this country. Peace and security cannot be sustained without the participation the young people. The AYC mandates states to engage in capacity strengthening of young people and youth organizations in the fields of peace building, conflict prevention and conflict resolution. In addition, under the Charter, Liberia like any other signatory state will be obligated to condemn armed conflict and institute all possible measures to prevent the participation, involvement, recruitment and sexual slavery of young people in this context.

Finally, Distinguished Lawmakers, ladies and gentlemen, let us be clear about our intention to develop and transform this country. We need no more agenda on youth development in Liberia than the African Youth Charter and its local version the National Youth Policy. You need no more vision of progressive development, economic empowerment, youth participation than the African Youth Charter. So for those of our leaders who have always entreated us with speeches, the African Youth Charter is a one stop shop opportunity for you to demonstrate your intention and commitment to Liberia’s development through the young people.

In addition to the numerous rights afforded to young people, the charter also outlines the responsibilities that young people bear towards their families, the society and the state. It is of paramount importance that young people become the custodians of their own development, partake fully in citizenship duties, and contribute towards the economic development of their country. With these rights young people will become the vanguards of developing Liberia, preserving, its cultural heritage, making it compete with other nations globally. Therefore honorable lawmakers, I believe you want the best for this country, and you cannot afford this to be delayed. The National Muslim Students Association of Liberia therefore recommends that you concur with the House of Senate in ratifying this Charter.

I thank you all.

Nyei's Speech at the US Embassy Public Diplomacy Section

2011-05-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

Speech Delivered at the Interactive Panel in Commemoration of Young African Leaders Forum at the United States Embassy Public Diplomacy Section in Monrovia, May 12, 2011by Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei, President of the National Muslim Students Association of Liberia

Her Excellency Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, Officials of the US Embassy, Members of the Panel, Invited Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen

I bring you greetings from the National Muslim Students Association of Liberia. I am personally gratified and honored by your invitation to speak at this Young African Leaders Dialogue. This day also falls in the month we celebrate what has been popularly dubbed as ‘African Liberation Day’. I have been one of those who have continuously challenged the limited concept of African liberation under the guise of territorial sovereignty. But as an Afro-optimist encouraged by the emergence of progressive intellectualism in the African youth, and the wave of democratization of African politics, I am filled with the hope that one day Africa and its people will be free of the scourges of poverty, bad governance, and neo-imperialism.

Two days from now (May 14) we will be celebrating in Liberia what we call ‘Unification Day’. As we meet here today my fellow panelist and distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we must in mutual exchanges make attempts to understand ‘Unification’ in the context of developments in our country. I am particularly pleased by the theme of this occasion: ‘Unification – a meeting of the minds’; because it is only through meetings of the minds we will be able to discern the complex problems of our country, and derive sustainable solutions.

What then is Unification in the context of Liberia? And what do we have to show as a symbol of Liberian identity that serve (s) as the natural magnet that pulls us together and portray a Liberian affinity amongst us in Liberia, and amongst Liberians in other parts of the world. What distinguishes a Liberian from other people of the black race?

Our country has suffered years of marginalization in its political and socio-economic spheres since independence. In fact, the foundation of the Republic of Liberia was rested on separatist and segregationist premises which are historically responsible for the cultural confusions, and class divisions we have. We have been haunted by this segregationist establishment, and today we find it very difficult to neutralize those forces that keep us apart. With freed men and women from the United States of America imposing American traditions on African people, two different cultures and traditions in addition to the numerous different African sub-traditions existed in Liberia and in constant confrontations. The result today is a nation with a people in lost identity. This is probably why Prof. Amos Sawyer has launched an enquiry into the kind of civilization in Liberia. Prof. Sawyer has asked “is Liberia an outpost of American civilization or an element of African civilization?” I hope from this forum we will be able to answer this question, and not only that, but to popularly promote the kind of civilization that we find common to our heritage, and which is appealing enough to unite us as Liberians – children of African ancestry.

Language is the lifeblood of every culture and civilization. It constitutes a significant instrument of identity which every society cannot afford to lose to the uncontrolled wave of modernity. We have English very unique to us, and up to now we have not developed and popularized a script on our Liberian English. This Language could be an effective means of official written and spoken communication in promoting a unique identity and unity amongst us. We also have languages in Liberia that have written scripts to promote a language identity for this country.

In some countries Like Kenya, Swahili is popularly spoken in addition to English, and in Rwanda Kinyarwanda, French and English are all used as official languages. This is happening in other African countries, and there are many parts of Africa with a common general language that promotes unity, even if not for official transactions, like the Tri language in Ghana, the Mende in Southeastern Sierra Leone. So I join those in Liberia who advocate for the teaching and popularization of a Liberian language, and I implore those carving our national vision to consider the issue of language as an instrument of unity and identity.

It is true that we do have multiple identities, many of which are competing identities. One of the challenges of governance in Africa, particularly Liberia today has to do with how we manage our various ethnic, religious, and other identities. We are too divided in Liberia on the basis of ethnic and religious identities – and in most cases at the expense of our national identity. We do not simply want to stop considering our diversity as stumbling blocks to development; we want to begin to use our diversities as building blocks for development and democracy in Liberia. With a common national identity and a sense of Liberian unity beyond ethnic and sectarian considerations we can develop a progressive and democratic state in Liberia.

Now my fellow countrymen let me remind you that we cannot discuss unity in the face of mounting national challenges and in a country rolling on shaky political foundations. Let me remind you that after 14 years of civil war we are yet to reconcile our differences - and to date - the necessary political leadership is lacking in addressing looming political crises that still hang over us as vestiges of the civil war.

We still have a constitution that needs to be generally overhauled as part of our post-conflict governance arrangements, but today we see a quick-fix process attempting to patch the constitution to suit electoral conveniences; we have an emerging citizenship crises: some of our countrymen are coming back and want to regain their Liberian citizenship in addition to other citizenship they obtain when they were forced by circumstances back home. We also have other African nationals who have had children and are growing their own communities here in Liberia. Those children know other home, but Liberia, and very soon they will begin to make demands for citizenship.

We have an overly centralized political governance system that still concentrates power and wealth in the capital and at the presidency. We need to find solutions to the above and the many other crises that hang over this country. That way, we can easily unite our people and build a progressive country.
The civil war exposed the deep-seated grievances and divisions that exist in this country even beyond the Native-Settler divide. After the civil war, we ought to learn lessons and build on our shortcomings.

I say again that we have not yet reconcile the various forces to forge this country ahead. And I believe that unity in postwar Liberia will highly depend on how deep we reconcile our people. Reconciliation and unity cannot be donated by any donors. Reconciliation and unity depend on our emotional attachment to our country. Our love, loyalty and readiness to serve our country are emotional elements that serve as bedrocks in building a progressive state.

Thus, for us to be united we must be nationalistic. Nationalism is gravely undermined by tribal, religious and class interests, individual or sectarian motives. Our national renewal and rebuilding therefore must be characterized by love for our country and countrymen which supersedes class or individual interests. Former American President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, ‘’I am an American, a Texan and a Democrat – in that order’’. He meant his love for America was beyond the others. We, too, in Liberia must learn to rank our Liberian nationality above all other connections and identities.

I thank you all

THE IMPORTANCE OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION TO LIBERIA

2011-05-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com

Note: This article was first published in the 2010 Report of the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding in Monrovia: “Strengthening Freedom to Further Democracy in Liberia: Attacks on Freedom of Expression 2010”.

Freedom of information is today a social and political necessity needed to advance human liberty and security in the contemporary world of globalization and increasing democratization. Today, with the advancement of technology, it seems no one has control over information dissemination, and no one is capable enough to deny the people of their rights to know. The internet has broken the barriers, and authoritarian regimes no longer have control over the media and the civil society in advancing free speech and access to information. The impact of globalization is also playing a key role in opening human societies and making information to cross borders without delays. What is now gaining steam, is that after years of ebullient advocacy in Africa for free speech and rights of the people to know, African governments are yielding demands of their people in allowing freedom of information and freedom of speech - essential pillars of democracy - to flourish, not necessarily by the discretion of a sitting regime, but as a statutory law.

Freedom of Information is a fundamental right and a critical element of all freedoms desired by humanity. This right fully supports the much talked about freedom of expression, which is impossible without a ‘right to know’ and a ‘right to access public information’. The importance of the right to information have been recognized by numerous international legal instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. All of the above instruments are clear on the right of the people to access public information, and obligations of states to make information available to the people. It is explicitly stated in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa that “Public bodies hold information not for themselves but as custodians of the public good and everyone has a right to access this information, subject only to clearly defined rules established by law.”

With demand from civil society and human rights activists and the media, states are passing legislations aimed at improving access to information and promoting free speech. These legislations are declaring public information as properties of the people, and that they have the right to access them at any time of their convenience without any thorough process of scrutiny. These laws are commonly called Freedom of Information Law (FOI Law). Many countries in Africa have drafted FOI bills. By the end of 2010 very few countries in sub-Sahara Africa including Liberia, Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Angola had FOI Laws.

In April 2008 Liberian civil society groups led by the Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) and the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) petitioned the Legislature with three draft media and free-speech related legislations including the FOI Law. CEMESP continuously engaged the process by regularly issuing policy briefs, advocating for the passage of the FOI Law, and creating public awareness on the draft laws. The efforts of CEMESP, the PUL and other civil society groups that participated in this campaign proved very successful with the passage of the FOI Law in September 2010. With this development at hand Liberia has been counted among nations that now have FOI Law and by extension a country that respects the people’s right to know, free speech and free expression. What then does Liberia intend to benefit from the passage of an FOI Law, and how important is this law to the country and its people?

There are numerous benefits a country can reap from an FOI Law, particularly when enforced. Some countries with FOI Law still have challenges in implementing them, and some hide under the guise of confidentiality and privacy laws to deny people access to relevant information. However, a country with a law and culture of making public information ‘public’, and easily accessible stands to grow faster in promoting democratic governance, improving security, promoting integrity in transactions, and promoting human rights and free speech.

The general objective of Liberia’s FOI Law is to promote effective, equitable and inexpensive exercise of the right of access to information, and to establish clear and concise procedures for requesting and providing information. This law mandates all public entities to establish publication schemes that will regularly provide detailed information regarding their core functions, nature of activities and operations and information they possess.

Freedom of Information promotes democratic governance. A fundamental objective of democracy is to promote civil liberty. A critical element of civil liberty itself is free speech, and free speech is only enhanced with unfettered access to information. With an FOI Law in place, Liberians can without restrain, access any information needed to demand accountability from their government. An environment in which citizens and government regularly interact in open space as a result of available information and education promotes accountability, and a system in which government operations are open for public scrutiny builds platforms for democratic governance, enhance accountability and deters acts of corruption.

Many local and international researchers including students have always expressed as challenges the reluctance and refusals of Liberian bureaucrats to make information available to them when doing assessment of government or conducting studies relative to the country’s development. This is actually a culture of secrecy inherent in Liberia’s public servants, and it is nourished by motives of corruption. But with the passage of the FOI Law, there are prospects that Liberia’s hidden information – good or bad – are bound to be published. Chapter 3, Section 3.1 of Liberia’s FOI Law states that all information held by public bodies or institutions receiving public funding shall be made accessible, and may be inspected, and open for reproduction. The Act further stated in Section 3.2 that every person irrespective of their nationality may request, receive and reproduce information held by public bodies as well as private bodies that are supported by public funds.

To enhance this process of implementing the FOI Law in Liberia, mainly in making public information accessible, the civil society must redefine the advocacy in promoting freedom of information in Liberia. The passage of the Law must be seen as the legitimate beginning of a process, but not an end. The civil society and media organizations particularly free speech campaign groups like CEMESP must launch intensive civic awareness campaigns on the FOI Law in Liberia and how it can be utilized by the citizens. The new campaign for freedom of information in Liberia must begin with an advocacy for the implementation of Chapter 2 of the Law which is focused on the regular publication of information by public institutions. Demanding the establishment of resource centers or public libraries that will be reference points for public information in Liberia will go a long way in promoting FOI.

In conclusion, the Freedom of Information law is particularly important to Liberia as a postwar nation, where acts of corruption, suppression of free speech and bad governance contributed to civil uprisings and violent civil conflicts. A well articulated and implemented FOI Law stands to carry Liberia forward in promoting public accountability and equal treatment of all of its people under the rule of law. The FOI Law is important in the fight against corruption and mismanagement. Freedom of information in Liberia will contribute to the education of the people by enforcing the rights of the people to know. Above all freedom of information provides appropriate platforms for citizens and their leaders to know about each other and in this interaction give grassroots legitimacy to the government. FOI is not only a responsibility of the government; its enforcement also requires responsible citizenship and compliance from everyone. Therefore, civic awareness campaigns must not only be limited to sensitizing the people about their rights under the law, emphasis must also be laid on their duties and obligations under the law.

Broad Day Democracy in Nigeria: An Observer’s Account

2011-04-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com

The emergence of people’s power through various means of exercising their franchise to decide who leads and who goes where is taking root in Africa. Strongman politics and guerrilla warfare, and politics of machinations are gradually wearing away. Presidential Elections were held in Nigeria on April 16, 2011, and it was indeed a remarkable experience for millions of people to see for the first time, that their votes really counted, and that those whom the majority voted for in the preceding National Assembly elections and the presidential elections are the ones declared as winners. A friend of mine on the ECOWAS team, chilled by the development in his country told me that he was in tears to see Nigeria moving in such a progressive way forward. He recalled an experience of the 2007 elections during which he was a poll observer for a gubernatorial candidate. In no time according to him, strongmen stormed the polling area with sporadic gun fire, scared people away and stole the ballot boxes. That robbery was intended to turn the results in favor of the candidate whom by the people’s votes was overwhelmingly rejected. So the people’s franchises were stolen. Court actions ensued, and after three years, with gradual reforms in the judicial system itself, the people’s candidate was declared the winner.

There were many of such instances according to observers’ accounts in 2007. For the most part, all international observers and domestic observers declared the elections and the victory of the People’s Democratic Party as a product of a fraudulent process, and daylight robbery of the people’s vote. Today, Africa’s largest democracy is turning the tide. And it is worth nothing that for once, the time of the people has arrived in Africa. In Tunisia and Egypt, with no opportunities for free and fair votes, the people devised other means at self-determination, and they are now in full control. In Libya, efforts at self-determination had turned violent, so one cannot easily describe the process in Libya as a mass people’s movement for self-liberation since western-backed oppositions have stolen the show by means of guerrilla tactics.

Nigeria stands to be the most populous nation in Africa with so many diversities in culture, religion and political traditions. Its role as the dominant power in West Africa demands from it moral authority through the proper conduct of its domestic activities, without which its influence in the sub-region would be questionable. The country is gradually transforming itself and wants to begin to lead by examples. The 2011 Presidential Election, albeit some minor skirmishes and violence in areas traditionally unstable, is a turning point for the country and can be seen as the first brick in the building of a larger democratic system in West Africa. Several other countries have proven worthy of credible electoral process before – Liberia (2005), Ghana (2008) Sierra Leone (2007)- while Ivory Coast was still in the vestiges of a crisis resulting from electoral fraud and strongman defiance of a rejected candidate-president. One would have thought that the processes that railroaded Goodluck Jonathan to power as Vice President of Nigeria in 2007 could have been re-invented to make him president in 2011. But this time he took a comfortable ride with huge support from the people, securing over 22 million of the 39 million votes cast, and his party’s victory anchored in high degree of legitimacy.

We saw it broad day and we can testify that this time the people’s voices sounded aloud. We know that there were places where irregularities were reported and bombs were thrown to intimidate voters, and observers. But from reports from around the country, from international and local observers, the election was credible, and was conducted in a free and very transparent environment. What I saw at the polling stations I visited as an ECOWAS Observer , the word ‘transparent’ will be an understatement in describing the openness of the process. At the polling stations voters defied the burning sun and stood in their numbers to see the counting of their votes. Poll officers, mostly members of the Nigeria National Youth Service Corps were vigilant and one could see in them a commitment to a call to national duty – to serve their country at this critical time in organizing and leading a transition. They collated the ballot papers just under a canopy that was used as a polling station while we all stood looking and the determined voters scattered all around. With a mega phone, the counting process began. And a ballot paper will be lifted and displayed for the crowd to see which party is marked. The crowd would all join in a chorus and count in a way reminiscent of my kindergarten classes “1! 2! 3! 3! 4!...” I was really impressed by this incredibly remarkable development, so I turned to a colleague and said ‘this is a broad day democracy in Nigeria’. From that polling station, and several others no single voter could doubt his/her role in the process, and neither could anyone doubt that the votes were fairly counted.

Processes like these are supported and rooted in credible institutions run by people of high moral and ethical rectitude. With a history of terribly fraudulent elections, many Nigerians previously thought that they were only going to participate in a process of window-dressing a victory for an incumbent leader who would at the end disregard their opinions and rig the process. But the incumbent president committed himself to a free and fair process; the oppositions, too, committed themselves to a peaceful and fair election. A University professor was appointed to chair the electoral commission. The man, Prof. Attahiru Jega, in the words of many Nigerians, is a ‘prophet who God had sent to deliver Nigeria from the demons of theft and electoral malpractices’. Jega’s leadership gave a very huge legitimacy to the process. His personality alone saved the Independent National Electoral Commission from disparagements. Jega mobilized a group of professors and collaborated with the Youth Service Corps to do his ‘prophetic delivery’. The Nigerian press, too, was very vigilant. The press ensured that all sides and events were covered thus giving the people a broader opportunity to weigh every side in making their decisions.

The violence in some parts of the country has no legal ground for turning over the people’s verdict. The violence is rooted in ethnic and sectarian cleavages which has been brought forth to darken the credibility of a successful democratic process. We make no attempt here to gown the entire process with a plain white cloth, we know some parts were stained, but overall, we witnessed an unprecedented people’s victory in Nigeria through a presidential election that was conducted broad day and votes counted broad day. The first was the National Assembly elections of April 9 which observers believed the Presidential election learned a lot from, and of course, the skirmishes from that process were worked out to ensure the success of the Presidential Election of April 16. From the presidential poll, lessons learnt will be used to make the gubernatorial elections of April 23 a more successful one. And so this is how every society recovers and builds itself. From a history of violent transitions, rigged elections, military putsches, Nigeria is now transforming to a democratic society. The process must not stop to elections, but the system of governance must be democratically strengthened so that what has come with a trumpet of input legitimacy can have a broader output legitimacy – that is governing in a way that ensures equitable distribution of resources, justice for all, sound financial and administrative management, and broader participation of the masses of the people. We are sure Nigeria will get there, and of course the rest of West Africa will flourish in ‘broad day democracy – Elections in the day, and governance in the day’.

Remembering Stanton Peabody: A Tribute

2011-04-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

When I first met Mr. Stanton Peabody, by his age then, he should have been a retired person, but on the contrary, he was a classroom teacher and an active journalist for the Daily Observer Newspaper. This was in 2007, and I was a Junior Student at the A.M.E. University. My encounters with him went well beyond the classroom. My major was Political Science, and minor Print Journalism. So the Course was News Editing and Writing. I owe much of my practical skills in writing features to his lecture, and tutorials. In February 2008, Mr. Peabody announced his birthday to the class, and as young students, we asked him where were we going to ‘boil’ or ‘kick the dust’, he laughed and told us to read our lessons, and that was the only gift he wanted from us. This tells how much he was interested in making more print journalist for Liberia, before he departs the world; successfully, he died as an accomplished person. He had taught hundreds of persons before we met him. Some of my friends are today active journalists, that is a vocation I love too, but I am now immersed into public policy, governance and development research.

That February of 2008, Mr. Peabody or Bob Stan was 77 years of old - old enough to be a grandfather to any of us - but he was our teacher, so much committed. Our Class was on the second floor, and we all needed to climb long stair cases before reaching that afternoon class. Mr. Peabody was never late, and I can’t remember anytime that he was ever absent as was the case of most of the young lecturers. His style of teaching was through lectures and so many drills. A requirement for that class which ran every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday was that each student submits a written news story before sitting in class. By the next class sitting Mr. Peabody would have read each submission, and evaluated them all. As students, some of us some times will default, and we won’t submit, but he didn’t care. Everyday there will be new exercise, either in writing a news headline, a news lead or writing a news story from a long press release. He kept all of those exercises, and surprisingly at the end of the semester, he distributed every paper with no one complaining of a missing exercise paper. All of Peabody’s exercises had made each of his students capable journalists – everyone had something to say that he or she had learned about news writing and editing.

He was so jovial a man, and he left me with a name. He was the only one who ever called me that name to the extent he forgot my real name, and would sometimes while ask me ‘what is your real name again’? One day, as President of the National Muslim Students Association of Liberia, I signed a press statement which was syndicated to the various media institutions. As editorial consultant at the Daily Observer, he ultimately saw the release and even made it published in the paper. So when we met, this was what the jovial old man had to tell me: “So you want to be the Ayatollah of Liberia; do you want to make Liberia an Islamic State’? And we both laughed about it. From that time till his passing, he never stopped calling me Ayatollah. Even in the classroom, he would call me Ayatollah. So on many other occasions, when I go around this old man, I tried listening to him to hear about his struggle as a journalist under repressive and authoritarian regimes in Liberia. One time, I passed by the Daily Observer office, and I asked to see him, just to joke, I was told he has not been coming due to sickness. This time he was eighty years old.

The next time I met him was in July 2010. I had accompanied Dr. Amos C. Sawyer to the launching of Mr. Kenneth Best’s book on Albert Porte. By the time we entered the hall, we met the old jovial Peabody, and this was what he had to say to Dr, Sawyer: ‘What is this Ayatollah doing here?’ Dr. Sawyer asked in return ‘who is Ayatollah?’ He said ‘this young man’, holding my hand, ‘he never writes anything except releases advocating for Muslims in Liberia, I am sure he wants Liberia to be an Islamic State’. We all laughed! Dr. Sawyer introduced me as his assistant. Peabody introduced me too, as his former student, and with compliments. I felt flattered by his compliments.

At that same occasion, I went back to the old man just to sit and listen to him. So I asked him for a copy of the book just to glance, he said he was doing a book review. This is a book of over three-hundred pages and this man at eighty was editing and writing newspaper articles everyday and at the same time doing a book review. His energy and penchant for writing beats my imagination; he never left the profession he loved so dearly. That taught me so many lessons. No wonder why he became a hero of journalism in Liberia.

From that time I did not talk to Peabody again, I only read his writings, and maybe once in a while saw him and just said hello until he finally stop going to the Daily Observer office. At last, while in Transit to Abuja at the Mutarla Muhammed International Airport in Lagos , Dr. Sawyer turned to me and said, ‘Ibrahim do you remember Stanton Peabody… he told me once you were his student’? I said ‘yes’, and in returned he said “well I am sorry, he died yesterday (referring to to Tuesday April 12, 2011), I just got an email on that news”. I became instantly dumbfounded.

So Peabody had died, but he left behind cadres of young and determined writers that he trained. He left behind lessons of courage that every journalist must learn to keep up the profession. Those of us who had not yet become practicing journalists, it is impossible for us to leave the media activities, particularly feature writings, because what we learned under this old man is too worthy enough that to be wasted. His passing is a sad thing for us on earth, but he was called, and It was God that called him, I am sure if he gets the equipments and time, he will practice journalism in heaven, because this was a profession he lived his life for. His passing is like the burning of a historical diary…what a loss to this country?

Ivory Coast after Gbagbo: The Road to Peace and Security

2011-04-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com

After intense international political and diplomatic pressures, followed by sustained military operations by his opponents, Ivory Coast’s long time political icon and defiant strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, has met an unfortunate political end. Gbagbo’s calculations probably ended up in the negative quadrant of the plane. He allowed himself to end a long history of so many years of unrepentant Ivorian nationalism and ten-years of presidency in disparagement. As of his fall, historical verdicts shall emphasize more on the troubles he created in which thousands of his kinsmen died, millions forced to the harsh lives of refugees, and the debris he left his flourishing country in. After losing to a long time rival, Gbagbo sidestep all efforts at negotiation, hoping for a Kenyan, or Zimbabwean style government of inclusion. Gbagbo’s fall must now signal a strong warning to autocrats, that with the emerging consolidation of regional powers, strongmen can now lose weights.

But Gbagbo has gone. Is this the end of the troubles he created? Experience reminds us that the fall of a single person (president) does not necessarily solve problems of systemic governance failures, particularly when rooted in ethnic and sectarian cleavages. Just around Ivory Coast, in Liberia and Sierra Leone, strong men fell; but the negligence to do institutional and systemic reforms led to prolong crises and violent disorders. The new Ivorian project after Gbagbo must therefore learn from the pitfalls of the projects in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Even though there were rebels challenging the Jospeh Momoh’s All People’s Congress in Sierra Leone, his fall in 1992 constituted no guarantee to peace and stability. As we witnessed in the ten years that followed Sierra Leone was engulfed in a civil war characterized by terrible human tragedies and social breakdown. In Liberia, Samuel Doe was painted as the demon holding back the country’s progress, Liberians thought that the end of Doe would have stabilize the country, but Doe’s demise just 10 months after a rebel invasion proved to be a piecemeal of a huge trunk of catastrophe to unfold in the next 13 years. With these experiences, conflict and security analysts believe that Ivory Coast is yet impulsive and unpredictable. However, despite the trivialities and fragility of the situation, there are opportunities for transformation and renewal. First, the participation of the larger international community in the crisis demands its participation in the rebuilding process. The support of the international community will therefore hasten peacebuilding activities. A second opportunity is the desire of the Ouattara government to reunite and reconcile the country, as was declared in his first address after the arrest of Gbagbo. The French security engagement in Ivory Coast is also among several other opportunities that can be exploited to stabilize the country.

The greatest challenge the situation in Ivory Coast will face is in the prosecution of those persons and institutions who have committed gross human rights violations. This will put the Ouattara administration in a serious dilemma - to prosecute Gbagbo’s loyalist who unleashed terror on the people while protecting his (Gbagbo) strongman-hold to the presidency after his electoral defeat; and to submit for prosecution those of his (Ouattara) own loyalists whom in the process of getting him installed as the elected president committed mayhem against the Ivorian people. The ethnic violence that sprouted in the wake of the crisis will also pose a stiff challenge to the reconciliation process if efforts are not made to stop political persecutions.

The elections of 2010 signaled to us that both Ouattara and Gbagbo do not enjoy original support of a significant portion of the Ivorian masses. As a matter of first choice, only 32% percent of the Ivorian voters wants Ouattara as president, while only 38% wants the incumbent Gbagbo. It is clear that the country Ouattara has taken over, about 68% of its decision-making population originally marked against his candidature. Ouattara preference came only when the people, by law, were constrained to choose between him and Gbagbo. This time Ouattara got 54.1% while Gbagbo got 45.4%. Again, a sisgnificant portion of Ivorian voters constituting 45% disapproved Ouattara’s candidature. The above analysis is intended to make us understand that the two men do not enjoy the confidence of the people at first choice, there is therefore a huge challenge of convincing the Ivorian people. What then are the way forward for peace and stability after four month of chaotic struggle for the presidency?

Ivory Coast is geo-strategically positioned in West Africa, and its instability could spill over terribly, and remake a cycle of violence in the Mano River sub-region or beyond. We must be reminded of the spill-over effect of the Liberian civil war that has still not been substantially dealt with. Liberia’s fragile peacebuilidng process is getting overburdened by an influx of refugees from Ivory Coast. The threats are in human security, border porosity, and the mercenary trade Liberia’s postwar economy is exporting. The Ivorian project must therefore be well calculated from both within the country and in the larger international community. This article does not claim to be absolute solutions to the Ivorian crisis, neither an academic treatise, but its recommendations cannot be overemphasized as relevant elements to the peace and stability of Ivory Coast and the Mano River basin.

State Reconstruction: The state in Ivory Coast was approaching near failure. Empirical data from expert institutions will in the future tell us of the state of the Ivorian State amidst the 2010-2011 crisis over the presidency. But what is certain is that the Ivorian judiciary (Constitutional Council) was partially drawn into a political crises that has rendered its integrity and credibility muddy; and the parallel running of two governments spoke of a bloated, polarized and partisan-driven civil service. Both the judiciary and the civil service reforms must be at the heart of the state reconstruction project in Ivory Coast. Institutions of the state must be reconstructed that they may regain public confidence and efficient service delivery capacity. One of the challenges of postwar governments is in the management of the people’s expectations. Ouattara’s government will need strong state institutions that will be effective in public service delivery.

National Reconciliation and Justice: The 2010 election which was intended to reunite the country (North and South) ironically deepened the existing cleavages as a result of the crisis and violence that followed the elections. Rather than beginning with a process of a united government, the Ouattara Government will have a challenge not only in reconciling and uniting the North and South, but reconciling political and other ethnic cleavages that spawned in the aftermath of the elections. The Ivorian reconciliation and justice project is blessed to have lessons from Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Liberia, genuine reconciliation is yet to be achieved as politicians gamble with findings of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would be important for a grassroot civil society movement to lead reconciliation and healing projects in Ivory Coast, while the international Criminal Court deal with issues of retributive justice for individuals who perpetrated mayhem against the population. Thanks to the Ouattara government for inviting the ICC to investigate the situation. As was indicated above, Ouattara’s dilemma will be in submitting some of his loyalists for prosecution, if indicted by the ICC. This was the case of Sierra Leone’s Tejan Kabbah when he had to submit his ally Chief Hinga Norman, leader of the Civil Defense Force (Karmajors) for prosecution. As part of the reconciliation process, Ouattara needs to appoint a prime minister of broader appeal from the professional, technocratic, or academic segments of the Ivorian society. His current prime minister may not appeal significantly to the people who supported the Gbagbo and who were victimized by the New Forces. Appointing someone of signicance acceptance among the majority of Ivorians will be critical to reuniting the people and running a credible government with popular legitimacy.

Disarmament and Security Sector Reform: Disarmament and Security Sector reform are very important in stabilizing and rebuilding violent-ridden societies. Security and political analysts are most often confronted with the questions of ‘who should be disarmed’ and ‘who should be recruited in the new security agencies’. The Ivorian case is not too different from the security systems polarization that took place in Liberia and Sierra Leone during their crises. There are slight differences though. In Ivory Coast, an elected president was rejected by the military forces, and supported by rebel forces. Careful Observations must therefore be given to security reform in Ivory Coast to avoid its further privatization and politicization. At this point it will help were the United Nations to assume full responsibility of the security systems in Ivory Coast. This will require the deployment of more troops and logistical and financial support to the UN Operations in Cote d’Ivoire. With the UN in charge, the New Forces, the Young Patriots, and the Army can go through a process of disarmament; demobilization and the moderate segment of the army go through a systematic process of reorientation.

Good Governance and Democratization: The 2010 elections in Ivory Coast and the crisis that ensued make it difficult to classify the state of Ivorian democracy. The results of the election as was announced by the Electoral Commission amidst insecurity and threats spoke of a credible electoral management body, and the machinations of the Constitutional Council exposed the weaknesses of democratic institutions in the country, which is characteristic of many African nations. A functional democratic government will contribute significantly to the stability of Ivory Coast after Gbagbo. The divided Ivorian media will have to be reoriented and given a free space to operate independently of partisan, regional and/or ethnic affiliations. A strong civil society must be supported to form part of the governance process, particularly in monitoring human rights, freedom of association and of the press. Democratic governance is now a foundational element of 21st development, and it is supported by broader participation of people at all tiers in decision making. The Ouattara government must ensure a significant decentralization of decision-making and promote a policy of mass participation, efficient service delivery and wealth distribution.

Finally, the road to peace and stability cannot be done in an isolated framework. The Mano River Union must play a greater role in following-up the process, particularly in enforcing sub-regional security. Security agencies in the border areas of the Mano River basin must be strengthened to protect civilians, deter invasions, and enforce peace in the sub-region. I end this with a reminder to leaders of the sub-region of my proposal for a sub-regional Mano River Peace and Security Council, and a joint paramilitary border patrol agency in the basin. These recommendations were sent to the Chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee of the Union, Hon. Amara Konneh, during the Union’s strategic planning session in Monrovia in 2010.

South Sudan and the Challenges of Modern Statehood

2011-03-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

The year 2011 began with a remarkable developments for the people of Sudan (both North and South), and this marks an interesting development in Africa. For the North, they have seen the extent of their power and control extensively abrogated, while the Southerners believe they can now boast of ‘real first class citizenship’ in their own country. As a result of a 2005 peace deal Southern Sudanese have unanimously voted for independence, breaking them away from the Republic of Sudan. This development is likely to encourage secessionist movements across the continent and even the world to push forward. Moreover, other oppressed regions are likely to begin considering demands for independent states. But with a new state of South Sudan, expected to be declared in July 2011, what are the possible challenges in running a functional state in this 21st century - sustaining peace, promoting social development, advancing human security, rule of law and security?

Concept and Functions of a Modern State: Can South Sudan Live to the Task?A capable modern state is one that maintains local stability and provides for the human security needs of its people through the provision of effective justice and rule of regimes, social services in health education and sanitation. Critical also, to the stability and proper functioning of a modern state is broad-based participatory democratic governance. Two major characteristics of sovereignty are territory and population and South Sudan is reported to have a vast land area (territory) and a large population of over 4 million people. Beyond territory and population, the legitimate control on the use of violence as theorized by Max Weber, is a fundamental function of the state. This means the state is the sole institution with a monopoly and right to use violence, but with this right of the state being tempered with by non-state actors (mainly rebel movements), state sovereignty have increasingly come under threats, particularly in Africa. How prepared then is South Sudan to run a functional modern state?

With the huge turnout in the referendum of January 2011 and the overwhelming vote for an independent South Sudan state, there is no doubt of the resolve of the people of that region to be united in a single nation-state for their self advancement. The rise and ultimate success of the Sudanese People Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) speak to the weakness of the original Sudanese Republic in its control of the legitimate use of violence. Other states in Africa have experienced civil wars during which the state authorities were challenged and the consequences were mass human tragedies and overall state failure. Some of these states, like Liberia, end up becoming pariahs and burdens on the international community. How then can a functional modern state remain in control of the use of violence? The use of violence in the context of state sovereignty is not limited to the use of force, but also that the state is the sole institution of law and order and the sole provider of security to which all of its citizens subscribe and depend on.

A modern state can therefore maintain its control over violence and strengthen the integrity of its sovereignty by instituting effective systems of democratic governance through the rule of law. The new state of South Sudan has a real opportunity to learn from the numerous cases of state-failures in Africa. Some of the lessons well taught can be found in the annals of the recent history of DR Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia. But the challenges in South Sudan itself have evolved overtime with internal disputes among the local regions, ethnic groups, and a struggle for power. Analysts have suggested that the fulcrum of the superficial unity in South Sudan is formed around the collective desire for an independent state, but that there are more internal divisions capable of threatening the stability of the new republic. This transitional period must therefore be used to address the challenge of reconciliation, build a cohesive national identity, and unite the people into a Southern Sudanese nation without which a capable Southern Sudanese state is illusive.

With unity and strong national identity fostered among the different classes, regions and ethnicities in the South, the new South Sudan Republic can now perform its traditional functions as a modern state and participate in the international community. The primary functions of the contemporary 21st century state as suggested by Ashraf Ghani et al include, a legitimate monopoly on the use of violence, administrative control, sound management of public finances, investment in human capital, creation of citizenship rights and duties, provision of infrastructure, regulation of the market formation, management of the assets of the state, effective public borrowing and management of international relations, and maintenance of the rule of law. The attainment of all of these has been the real challenge facing the states in Africa, and had been underpinned by strongman politics, cronyism and weak state structures. South Sudan will have to start first by establishing a strong governance system that will guard against strongman dominance, and class or sectarian manipulations.

The Challenges and Prospects At hand
As a new country, South Sudan is faced with so many challenges first in setting up, and then in implementing state functions as outlined above. The challenges are conspicuous and can be traced to problems emanating from the years of neglect, civil war and geography and economy. A major challenge of the South currently is to reduce and stop the violence in the region and enforce internal security which entails disarming armed bandits, establishing a strong national police force and an army. There are reports of continuous hostilities and violence in the major towns in the region and its surrounding. Street attacks and public killings, like the broad day murder of a government official (reported by the BBC Feb. 9, 2009) are troubling for this new country. South Sudan needs to begin to build an economy that will support its people and provide jobs for its vulnerable youths. Violence in every society plays a role in determining the economic future of that society. Despite the fact that South Sudan is a land-locked area, it has numerous economic opportunities as can be seen in its geography. This region is blessed with vast grassland and forest, and has been the citadel of Sudan’s oil economy. Sound public management is therefore needed to maximize benefits from the natural resources so that they too, like in other countries, cannot be ‘natural curses’ on the people that own them.

The management of the body-polity of South Sudan will also be a serious challenge after July 2011. Determining and upholding to constitutional processes of leadership and governance will be critical in predicting the future of the country. Will the SPLM, like other liberating guerrilla organizations, cling onto power with an iron fist; or will it open the process for broad based participation, open space for the press and the civil society? These are all issues need to be looked into as this state emerges.

The issue of citizenship will be a recurring problem in this new country. People that have once lived together as one and became divided only over political issues are highly inseparable. There are many people from both the north and south born to the same families and tribes. Many successful southerners that invested in the north will find it difficult to return home, and will also find it difficult to live as foreigners in a place they once considered their country. This question of citizenship will feature highly during political processes, land ownership and land rights, and wealth distribution; and are most likely to lead to conflicts and violent crises. One way to deal with this is for the political leaders of both the North and South to reach an agreement in which the people in each area that were originally Sudanese be left to determine their nationality before July 2011.

A grand prospect for a progressive and stable South Sudan republic lies in the euphoria surrounding the victory from the referendum for independence. Despite internal divisions, the collective campaign and victory from the independence vote can be seen as opportunities for unity, and this needs to be adequately utilized and built upon. The numerous international aids and the plethora of regional and intergovernmental organizations open for the participation of this new country are grand opportunities for speedy economic growth, international cooperation and peace.

Many local developments, like the acceptance of the referendum results by the North and positive declarations by Southern leaders speak of a brighter future for this new African state. The growing hostile diplomacy between the North and the South in the aftermath of the vote constitute a serious challenge to peace and security in the regions of central and eastern Africa. The AU must now consider a durable peace mechanism between the North and South as a priority; and must also lead the front in supporting statebuilding and peacebuilding efforts in South Sudan as a new member state. But how does the secession of the South impact political activities on the continent and what are the implications for peace and stability in Africa?

Implications of the Secession on African States
The formation of a new country in Africa by July 2011 will significantly impact the discourses of international politics in Africa. First the number of countries at the African Union and the United Nations will increase by one; consequently, there will be new strategic alliances.

A significant lesson from the guerrilla success of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) is that other active and dormant secessionist organizations around Africa will gain courage and inspirations to press on with their separatist agendas. While it is the rights of people everywhere to fight for their self-determination, the re-ignition of violent secessionist struggles in Africa will destabilize the continent. In cases where the secessionists are fighting for an exclusive ethno-national state, the challenge might be much difficult as compared to regions where people of multi-ethnicities mobilize against marginalization and advance a common political and eco-social agenda in initiating causes of self-liberation. There are secessionist’s movements in nearly all of the regions of Africa, and the forging of alliances with these movements by already existing sovereign states, are potentials for regional-wide conflicts that will threaten even the stability of sovereign states. In Sudan alone, where the recent secessionist victory is recorded, there are also separatist movements in both the west and east fighting for independence. In the terribly failed state of Somalia alone, there are more than two autonomous regions fighting for self-determination, this is further deepening the crisis in that country. Despite, the failure of the Biafrans to gain independence from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, there are still triggers in that country that are capable of dividing it or keeping it in perpetual instability. Militancy in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, and demands by some ethnic groups for self-actualization continue to threaten Nigeria’s stability. The Casamance region of Senegal and Cabinda region of Angola are regions that have active organizations, and there are needs for immediate settlements in those places to avoid prolong fighting. A number of organizations in Africa representing ‘marginalized and oppressed’ peoples and regions are also part of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), a Netherlands-based organization of separatist movements and activists around the world.

Conclusion
The SPLM/A had gained a remarkable victory in leading a guerrilla struggle for the independence of the people of South Sudan. The weakness of the state in Sudan contributed to this division. South Sudan must be nurtured and supported to live up to the expectations of its people. The AU must lead an effort of negotiating peace in the South before the state is declared in July 2011. Other African states must now begin to initiate internal reform processes that will positively transform the lives of their peoples in all regions, ethnicities and communities. A critical point to note from the emergence of separatists movements across Africa is that the centralized state system has failed markedly. Most African governments do not have efficient state security and social services accessible to majority of their peoples, particularly rural regions and areas far from political headquarters. Africans must now begin to experiment with decentralization, a system that will entrust power to the local people in every given area, and through which the people will manage their own politics, resources and institutions. With effective systems of decentralization working in African states, significant progress will be made at poverty reduction, and the strengthening of democratic governance. With the involvement of the majority of the people in the decision making processes (the politics), and the distribution of resources (the economy), violent conflicts from greed and grievances will reduce in African states, and ultimately there might be no need for the rise of secessionist/separatist movements.

Marginalization and Inequality in the Justice and Rule of Law Systems in Liberia

2011-03-02T09:37:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Liberia’s history of governance from 1847 to the fall of the True Whig Party oligarchy in 1980, and to the fall of the military dictatorship in 1990 has been characterized by marginalization and inequality in the distribution of the nation’s wealth. Even after those two periods, the years of crisis also witnessed similar governing arrangements. Indeed, warring factions found eloquent justifications in using the terms ‘marginalization and inequality’ as a means of rallying mass support for their factions. Membership of a warring party became a prerequisite for participating and/or benefitting from the country’s wealth. Ironically, however, only selective members of these factions were able to benefit from the distribution of the state resources, leaving most of the foot soldiers and citizens excluded from the spoils of the crisis.

Given the above history, the perennial challenge of the country remains limited or no participation of the majority of the people in the political direction of the state – or lack of good governance. This is generally underscored by the poor quality of the law, or no effective system for addressing grievances in the country. It is within this corridor – the interaction between the citizens and the state – that needs focused attention.

Marginalization, Inequality, Poverty and Conflict in Liberia

In the past, political marginalization through which the majority of the people were excluded or limited from the state formed the basis for establishing the two economic classes in Liberia. This is anchored in Jeanne E. Arnold’s (1995) definition of marginalization and how it builds social inequality. Arnold (1995) defines marginalization as a process by which established or emerging elites create socio-economic relations of superior versus subordinate/dependent through manipulations of labor and distributions of social services (See Jeanne E. Arnold (1995): Social Inequality, Marginalization, and Economic Process: Chp. III Foundation of Social Inequalities). In Liberia, this socioeconomic arrangement thrives because the political system had been structured to marginalize and systematically impose on majority of the people. For example, schools, hospitals, public utilities and recreation centers were limited to only selective few of the population nestled in urban enclaves like Monrovia. Consequently, the relationship between handfuls of elites (mainly senior public servants) to that of the majority has been that of superior-to-servant; and in some cases, low level government workers, including military officers, drivers, and office assistants have been used as house helps by their superiors.

On the basis of this structural arrangement, the majority saw the state and the functionaries of government as ‘personal’ properties of senior officials, until lately in the 1970s when a group of ‘progressive’ Liberians mainly from indigenous communities mounted a challenge to the status quo and demanded participation. This challenge and demand for a wider democratic space was preempted in 1980 when the military unseated the ruling oligarchy at the applause of the marginalized masses. This euphoria was short-lived as the military regime became infested with ethnic rifts, and assumed a character of repression and dictatorship. Nonetheless, the new government officials, mainly illiterate soldiers and their cronies, and members of the ‘progressives of the 1970 suddenly became Liberia’s new elites.

Under this arrangement, military officers took senior positions in government and civilian employees were given military ranks and uniforms. Leaders from the three frontline advocacy groups against the True Whig Party autocracy – the Progressive Alliance of Liberia, Movement for Justice in Africa, and the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas – were all incorporated into the military government, thus giving them status in the class of elites.

Reflections on these historical patterns of class and elite constitution in Liberia form the premise of this article: access to political positions has defined the class divide in the country, and has also determined who deserves full justice and who does not. In other words, the dominance of one class (elites) in one sector of Liberia - its politics - empowers that class to spread its influence to other sectors. Consequently, Liberia’s political elites have always formed its economic elite as well. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in its final report clearly indicated that the exclusion of the majority of the people from the affairs of the state, and the foundations on which the state was established as a separatist state to ‘civilize, and Christianize’ were part of the causes of the civil war, and have further contributed immensely to poverty in Liberia.

The struggle for participation by the marginalized groups in Liberia, and the insatiable desire for everyone to be part of the governing class, which may subsequently give him/her membership to the economic class is another succinct explanation for the intractability of crisis in Liberia.

Resolving these issues must be through a systematic process of institution building, particularly in governance and the rule of law. An effective governance system that will promote equal participation and efficient service delivery to every part of the country is critical to addressing the issues of marginalization and inequality. Also important is the opening of economic corridors that for private sector development that will facilitate the growth of an economic middle class.

The right of every citizen before the law and the availability of means to get access to justice at any given point in addressing grievances cannot be overemphasized. The strengthening of public institutions that will provide services in a way that individuals are left to blame for their own progress or failure can properly address structural violence in Liberia.

Judiciary and Rule of Law Reforms

The Rule of Law is a concept that represents the ideal function of the modern state in addressing the interests of the community and the general population of its territory (See Swiss Agency for Development Corporation: The Rule of Law Concept: Significance in Development Corporation). Basic indicators for a functioning rule of law system include: An adequate functioning judiciary, equality of all citizens in legislations and the application of law; the separation of powers between the legislative, executive, and the judiciary; the respect of human rights (both civil and political rights); the primacy of the constitution; the principle of the legitimacy of the administration; and the human security of every citizen etc.

The above are very relevant to present day Liberia, particularly during this post-war recovery era. The Government of Liberia Poverty Reduction Strategy generically addressed all in separate ways, and some cut across the four pillars.

Judicial and rule of law reforms are addressed in Pillar Four of the PRS: Strengthening Governance and the Rule of Law in which the GOL‘s goal is ‘to work in partnership with all citizens to build and operate effective institutions and systems that will strengthen peace and promote and uphold democratic governance, accountability, and justice for all’ (See Republic of Liberia (2008): Strengthening Governance and the Rule of Law; Poverty Reduction Strategy). A broader focus in this pillar is placed on increasing participation of all citizens in governance and public policy decision-making processes. The remaining sections speaks of justice and rule of law, but with little details. This is also stated in the 2009 -2011 Strategic Plan of the Judiciary. Realizing that the GoL placed little emphasis on judiciary and rule of law reforms in the PRS, the plan contends that ‘even though its (the GoL) major contribution will focus on governance and the rule of law, the effective functioning of the Judiciary is also a necessary prerequisite for success in the remaining three pillars of the PRS’ (See The Judiciary of the Republic of Liberia (2009); Strategic Plan 2009 -2011.

Challenges

The justice system and the Judiciary in Liberia have faced many challenges that can be traced as far back as the founding of the country. The Judiciary has been manipulated by the Executive Branch of Government in many instances, and most of its dispositions in both lower and upper courts have supported and further explained the inequalities in the dispensation of justice in Liberia.

However, the challenges face by the judiciary and the enforcement of the rule of law are not limited to its manipulation by the Executive Branch, but also extend to its huge technical and professional deficiencies to function effectively. Many cases are left unaddressed; and many persons are accused and detained for very long periods before or without trial. These and many more have eroded its confidence in the eyes of the very people it is serving. As a result many persons or communities have resorted to mob actions or violent uprisings as a means of settling grievances. In February 2010, angry citizens burnt to death an officer of the Liberia National Police, after he allegedly killed a resident of their community. This reaction of the citizen was in response to the slow process of justice delivery in the courts, which has caused extreme lack of confidence for the judiciary and rule of law systems among the people.

In rural communities trial by ordeal or traditional means, mainly through the application of magical ‘science’ is used by local people as alternative to statutory judicial process. This justice process has numerous ways for its trial process. One example is the laying of a very hot iron on the foot of suspects, with the belief that only the guilty person can be burnt in this process. Verdicts from such trials are usually highly contested like in courts, but there is no source of last appeal.

Since the launch of the PRS the process of judiciary and the rule of law reforms has been a daunting one for the government of Liberia, and it is observed that the three-year implementation period as set within the PRS is too limited for such a herculean task. The following are still major issues to ensuring equal access before the law as a means of dealing with the long system of marginalization and inequality in Liberia: Limited number of court houses in most parts of the country; Limited number of law enforcement officers around the country (particularly rural communities) – in most rural communities police officers are hardly seen, and in some parts individuals volunteering as community police erect checkpoints on main highways, and lack capacities to arrest or enforce any laws. Magistrates, public defenders, prosecutors, and even judges in courts in the rural communities are under trained. An observation at a magisterial court hearing in the Cestos City Hall (Rivercess County) in April 2010 further convinced me that the state is not fully functional at the level of the counties, and the local people are left to survive their own way. Yet, they look up to that system, despite its conspicuous faults. In some counties, County Attorneys are lords unto themselves. In Bomi County for example, a County Attorney used his title to intimidate people for a contested farmland in which he has vested interest.

Political influence on law enforcement officers- Liberia is yet to establish an effective system of rule of law to which every citizen must account. Public officials constantly interfere with the work of the police, particularly in cases of their interest. In July 2010, an officer of the Liberia National Police was badly flogged on order of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. This situation became a heated political issue when member of his political party rallied at his gate to stop his arrest by the LNP. Additionally, the following challenges are still in the judiciary; Unresolved cases on courts’ dockets; Limited or no action against corruption – even with a professed anti-corruption agenda, there is still a class system in the ruling administration on which the rules for accountability are compromised. Prosecution or dismissal for corruption in the government remains selective, and the president in some instances will publicly defend officials indicted by audits and special investigative committees; Lack of adequate legal representation for indigents litigants and accusers.

In the midst of the numerous challenges faced by the judiciary and the justice system, some progresses are however noteworthy. The problematic issue remains whether the progresses made can be institutionalized and distributed equally across the country. Carving out a national strategy for sustaining these reforms will go a long way in assuring equal opportunities to justice in Liberia, and enhancing popular participation of Liberians everywhere. Some notable progress made thus far include, the establishment of the James A.A. Pierre Judicial Institute; The deployment of public defendants and county attorneys in the counties; The establishment of the judicial budgetary independence; The building of modern court houses in some counties; The building of new police stations in some counties; The recruitment of college graduates to be trained as magistrates for lower courts.

Conclusion

The Poverty Reduction Strategy represents a well defined program for post-war development in Liberia provided its implementation is well articulated and sustained and its vision pursued forward beyond 2011. Despite the numerous inadequacies of resources, and the challenges face by the current administration, significant progress is being made in reaching out to communities with public goods and service, particularly justice. The most problematic issue remains the delivery of services to rural communities, particular security and the enforcement of the rule of law.
The judiciary needs a well carved out program of de-concentration in the country to ensure that people everywhere, no matter their social or economic statuses, have access to institutions of legal remedy to settle grievances.

Citizens have resorted to mob violence in Liberia because of the slow pace in addressing their grievances through the court system. Informal sectors are left on the fringes of the state creating alternative power and authority independent of the state. Additionally, corruption and parochial interests are gravely undermining the rule of law system. In most cases the sale of justice begins with law enforcement officers at the expense of indigent people. This has continuously led to distrust for the system, and has increased cases of crimes and mob actions. The best way to address these (mainly mob violence) is to build a system of integrity in the judiciary, and build the capacity of law enforcement and judicial officers, not only through education and training, but also through pay and incentives reforms that will motivate staff and improve integrity and professionalism.

Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt: Lessons for African Autocrats and Revolutionaries

2011-02-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com

A wave is blowing across the Middle East and North Africa, and there are prospects for other oppressed people in sub-Sahara Africa to gain inspirations from this wind of change blowing upward. Interestingly the people’s power is challenging and bringing down – in matter of days – regimes that have maltreated them and mismanaged their resources. What is doubtful is that whether sub-Saharan Africa, a region whose history is replete with violence and civil crises, can succeed in toppling kleptocrats and autocrats without arms? Two of Liberia’s respected young intellectuals (Ali Sylla and Ali Kaba) argue that such revolutions are mainly possible in ‘highly conscious societies’, they therefore doubt the capacity and ability of the people of sub-Saharan Africa to imitate their northern counterparts in self-organizing and liberating themselves. A reflection of what took place before toppling Mobutu in Zaire, Doe and Taylor in Liberia, Momoh in Sierra Leone, and the numerous past and current civil wars in the region led me to accepting their postulation. I concur that if Liberia had a conscious civil society in 1979, the True Whig Party oligarchy would have come to an end without going through a high scale violent struggle, or if indeed the people were weary of the dictatorships of Doe and Taylor the long bush path to destruction would have been averted and a mass nonviolent citizen protest against the harsh excesses of said regimes would have installed a democratic order.

The Middle-east and North Africa have proven to be different in expressing grievances at autocrats. The people’s power in this region has made significant changes like the Iranian revolution of 1979 and other past civil disobedient actions in that region. Egypt and Tunisia have demonstrated real people’s power in the 21st century, and this is snowballing across the region. What are the lessons now?

Revolutionary successes in Tunisia and Egypt have taught new lessons to African autocrats that they cannot perpetually marginalize and oppress their people, and the people of Africa have been reminded that the real power is in their hands, and where socio-economic conditions become unbearable, political processes repressive, mass mobilization for non-violent revolutions can make the necessary change popularly demanded. Egypt and Tunisia have indeed taught good lessons in 21st century Africa. Interestingly, the developments took place in a continent where processes of regime change and even electoral processes have been very violent. In some instances, military coups hijack constitutional processes, or for the ‘better’ put end to resented dictatorships. In 2010 alone Africa was experiencing civil wars largely necessitated by bad governance and dictatorship in Somalia, Darfur Region of Sudan and DR Congo. Countries like Guinea and Niger were under military leaderships while Madagascar was under a pariah civilian regime that came to power through a putsch.

Unlike the cases of unconstitutional regime changes or military putsches across the continent, no international group or nation has announced any form of sanction or suspension of membership or diplomatic ties against the popular people’s action in either Tunisia or Egypt. Powerful nations and organizations have praised the resilience and determination of the people in their attempts to liberate themselves without armed struggle. This must also teach us that no force is powerful enough to condemn a popular success of regime change planned and executed by the people. Liberia, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, and some other conflict-affected countries in Africa became pariahs because their revolutions were led by greedy and power-drunk politicians whose only motivations were to ascend to power and get access to state resources. Those were not revolutions popularly supported from the grassroots.

What African leaders need to learn now is that they can leave power just in days when their people grow weary of their excesses. This lesson must be a motivation for immediate reforms across the continent. Reforms in constitutions that promote popular democratic participation and accountability are critical to addressing present day governance challenges in Africa. The people’s power in Tunisia and Egypt were expressed against regimes that spanned more than two decades, and resentment has begun to grow in Cameroon and Libya against strongmen rules. This means that Africans are getting increasingly angry with old fashioned leadership, and want to experiment with new ideas of the 21st century deposited in the marginalized young population. Constitutional reform processes must therefore be clear on term-limit for elected offices, and be specific on age range for political offices. Young people are the engine of political development and economic growth across the world. They have shown it in Egypt and Tunisia, and they are mobilizing in Algeria, Libya and Bahrain. They must therefore wake up for national leadership.

In some regions, like in the West, young leaders are progressively ending the poverty of their people through contemporary innovations. Africa is still led by politicians from the 1960s. In Liberia for example, it is most likely that emerging young politicians and technocrats will not easily succeed in transforming the country to a 21st century nation-state with its attendant opportunities while politicians from the 1970s are still struggling for space in the process. Leading oppositions and the key figures in the ruling party in Liberia are politicians from the 1970s - with the least age being 67 - who are still mounting efforts for another six-year political challenge. These people are also succeeding by machinations, co-optations and manipulations of the young people. How then can the young generation lead a progressive and nonviolent revolution in sub-Saharan Africa?

The young people of Africa need to stand up for their rights and demand from their governments accountability in the use of resources and the exercise of power. More to that, the young people need to work and build mass consciousness among their people and begin to take political challenges for higher offices. They must motivate and inspire their people into revolutions that will positively transform their societies and make socio-economic opportunities equitable. These revolutions must be accompanied by strong desires and passions for ending the suffering of the people of Africa. Honest and sincere revolutions in the name of the people can only be executed by young men and women who have high moral character and high sense of political and social responsibility to their people and community.

As for Mohammed Bouazizi of Tunisia, he believed that by committing suicide would have ended his suffering as a young university graduate without a job under a regime that have oppressed him for decades. The self-immolation of this young vegetable seller in December 2010 was the sacrifice for the redemption of his people and his country from an unbearable autocracy. The end of Bouazizi’s life and the liberation of the people of Tunisia has become an inspiration for the self-emancipation of oppressed people worldwide. Bouazizi’s self-immolation did not only expelled Ben Ali and his cronies from Tunisia, but has cost Mubarak his job of 30 years, and is threatening the foundations of other autocrats in Africa. May the souls of Mohammed Bouazizi rest in peace, and may the arches of his soul from the self-immolation be a fertilizer for democracy around the world. Bouazizi has gone to join ranks with other martyrs of African liberation. The ways to commemorate Bouazizi and to ensure that his sacrifice does not go in vain are to ensure that democracy flourish in his native Tunisia and Africa at large; that socio-economic opportunities in employment, heath care and education be available and affordable for the people of Tunisia and Africa at large; and that young Africans continuously challenge autocracies and begin to work towards transforming their countries for the better.

Prejudice of Ethnicity and the Disenfranchisement of the Mandingoes

2011-01-27T10:03:00.000-08:00

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XX
Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com

We begin this edition of the series with cautionary notes on the devastating consequences humanity has suffered resulting from either emotional or physical expression of ethnic prejudices. In the Great Lakes region in Africa, Rwanda and Burundi have continued to suffer ethnic differences expressed violently. In Sri Lanka, differences between the Tamils and Sinhalese led to years of civil war with the Tamil leaders forced into exile repeatedly calling for a separate Tamil state. In Liberia, we need not mention of the tragedy of the 1990s when rebel forces launched an invasion and specifically targeted Krahns and Mandingoes for elimination. With over millions of Tutsis and Hutus killed in Rwanda and Burundi, the two ethnic groups continue to live together. And with the attempted genocide against the Mandingoes, they are still around and progressive than ever before. This is meant to remind us all that no one group can completely eliminate any other group in a country or anywhere. If this was possible there might have been no Jew after the Holocaust.

We lay the above historical premise to draw attentions to what seems to be a recurrent provocation of the Mandingoes in Liberia. Let it be known that the peacefulness members of this ethnic group have exhibited in the midst of trials and tribulations, even from state authorities, cannot easily be borne by other ethnic groups in some places. In the 1990s, there was a genocide attempt that failed miserably. Today discrimination against this ethnic group have manifested itself in many ways including provocations, public denials, and harsh questioning of their citizenship; and now, it seems a real opportunity has come for their ‘nemeses’ to disenfranchise them from the forthcoming elections. This by extension is to effectively deny them their citizenship. Individuals assigned at voter registration centers have acted as though they were trained to be critical of only elements of the Mandingo ethnic group. This, they do by questioning the citizenship of people who carry names associated with this tribe. There are several factors that should be considered in the Mandingo case which many Liberians do not understand. The only postulate they have used is that Mandingoes are from Guinea, and therefore anyone bearing name associated with this ethnic group if from Guinea. How weak or intellectually strong is this postulate? We declare the debate open.

A point of clarity to make here is that Mandingo is not the only Liberian tribe found in other countries. An understanding of the political concept of transnationalism can answer many questions around ethnic groups found in multiple countries and regions, and how they have maintained their ethnonational identities without interfering with their individual citizenships. In the Mano River basin alone, the Kissis, Mendes, Lormas, Kpelle, Gios, Krahns etc, are transnational ethnic groups with members bearing different citizenships. Scholars have attributed some of these to the creation of artificial boundaries as a result of Western colonialisms in Africa. Another point we need to clarify here is that the attempted genocide against the Mandingoes in the 1990s forced them into exile and children born to those exiled families in refugee camps in Sierra Leone, Guinean, Ivory Coast and elsewhere are returning home with limited knowledge of this country. They are entitled to Liberian citizenship like any other Liberian born inside or outside of the country. Unfortunately, and very preposterously, immigration officers, and voter registrars judge people’s citizenships by their accent in English or the standards of English they speak. What’s about those Liberian government officials who speak like Americans or Europeans? Can that be used as a measurement of citizenship? Of course not! (A second debate is left opened). Sadly, As a result of growing prejudices against the Mandingoes in Liberia, the stereotype has been constructed in a way that a Guinean Kpelle or a Sierra Leonean Kissi for examples, can easily be considered Liberians than naturally born Liberian Mandingo citizens.

Reports from around the country, mainly Bong County and around Monrovia speak of continuous denials of the Mandingoes in the voter registration exercise, and that those successful face thorough scrutiny than any other registrants. Denial of a person in an isolated community is not limited to that person, but constitutes a target of a larger community with hundreds of thousands of people. We must know that we are at the crossroad in determining the next direction of this fragile, but ‘stable’ country, therefore we must continuously remind ourselves of our bitter past. What we achieve as a nation during the fourteen years of internecine feud must be the best lesson for us if we are to move forward. A short term employee or contractor with no advance training is wrongly suited in determining someone’s citizenship, or by extension disenfranchising a person. I mean the citizenship of a person should not be determined at the discretion of a contracted voter registrant.

Liberians will have to call themselves to order, and be reminded that the grievances from unbearable prejudices against ones ethnic group can be responded to terribly, and that the toll such grievances have had on humanity are too tragic to be stated here.

We see the current trends of ethnic differences as issues crossing over from the civil war that remains unaddressed seven years after the war. It is hard time for our country to begin to address critical issues concerning national identity, citizenship and the use of ethnic, sectoral and religious differences as forces of development rather than forces of division. Ethnic prejudice against any single ethnic group in Liberia must be discouraged because they are sources of chaos. As I conclude, I am filled with hopes that one day the diversities in this country will collectively strengthen us to build a nation that will value individual worth rather than ethnic or religious affiliations.

- In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice the Pen Shall Never Run Dry

A Country for Sale: How and Why Poor Liberians are Selling the Country to the Bourgeoisie

2011-01-20T02:45:00.001-08:00

Critical Issues of National Concern XIX

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com

A specter is haunting Liberia. This specter seems different from the ones that came in the 1970s, the 1990s, and the early 2000s. This time, it seems, having survived decades of poverty in harsh socio-economic conditions and hopelessness, many poor Liberians have resolved to sell their most powerful constitutional possession to those of their fellow countrymen that have become wealthier by preying on the state. The same people have over the years unleashed poverty, illiteracy and injustice in the country as a means of enhancing wealth and consolidating power bases.

Article One of the Constitution of Liberia states that ‘All power is inherent in the people. All free governments are instituted by their authority and for their benefit and they have the right to alter and reform the same when their safety and happiness so require. In order to ensure democratic government which responds to the wishes of the governed, the people shall have the right at such period, and in such manner as provided for under this Constitution, to cause their public servants to leave office and to fill vacancies by regular elections and appointments’. The powers discussed above are in the citizens’ vote, and petitions for impeachments of elected officials and petitions for legislations. In an emerging democracy like Liberia, the citizens exercise this power periodically, like after every six years or in the event of death of an elected official. Their ability to demand and evaluate the outputs of the government as part of the process of ‘assessing output legitimacy’ is weak due to manipulations, poverty, and mass illiteracy’.

Why are the people selling their constitutional power to vote? Many Liberians believe that whether they participate or not, they will remain disaffected by the state and its policies. Observations and experiences from travelling around Liberia indicate that effective state institutions for service delivery and security are absent in almost 90 percent of the country. The people have had limited roles and their power-to-vote comes just every six years, and the output legitimacy of successive governments have been very weak. Currently, the people have developed serious apathy towards the electoral process, and now they believe that their votes are only legitimate instruments of giving individuals power and wealth. This is being discussed in public transport vehicles, market areas and community squares. A young woman said openly on a taxi cab that she cannot ‘do voter registration free of charge’ when others are being paid to register. With about 68 percent of the population in abject poverty, it is assumed that only about ten percent enjoys real ‘wealth’, and that those wealth are directly traceable to the Government of Liberia. This means, those considered wealthy Liberians, must have either worked for the government, still works for the government, or are close relatives of former government officials. Some of them are in giant size businesses, which cannot survive without the support or manipulation of government officials. With a seemingly competitive democratic space, the cash must be spent to retain political seats that will ultimately give unfettered access to economic opportunities. The repetition of this process after every six years will keep the poor poorer, and make the rich grow richer. How this vote-buying market running and what are other motivating factors behind it?

Liberia is built on a system in which access to political power gives an individual dominance and influence in the economy. This is to say, the easiest way to economic fortune in Liberia, is to seek political power. This is why the bourgeoisie are doing all they can to retain their status, either by retaining electoral offices, or by graduating from presidential appointment to autonomy in the legislature, where they will by law, set their own salaries and benefits. There is a huge profit in this business: pay for votes with as low as 20 to 30 US dollars, donate bags of rice to poor people, and expect to get in return over US 5000.00 and hundreds of gallons of gasoline monthly, guardsmen, home servants, and high lobby fees.

This is a dramatic and ironic occurrence in our process of democratic development. After years of agitation for participation, the process has now been opened and we have a seemingly level playing field. Wealthy and influential Liberians, mainly government officials are taking people to legislative districts of their interests to register for the pending election. With voter registration on-going, thousands of people, mainly young voters (young people are over 60 percent of Liberia’s population) are transported from their communities to far away electoral districts by rich Liberian politicians, where they will be paid to register and in return vote for the same politicians. The prices vary per area and distance. In some places, you register and give your card to the rich Liberian and get 20 USD and make a promise that you will collect the card on voting day and mark a ballot in the favor of that rich Liberian. Consider after this transaction that your share of the country has been sold or permanently leased for six years. If socio-economic conditions remain the same, you may renew the lease agreement after another six years.

The justification they have for transporting voters is that they are facilitating citizens who wants to go back to their counties of origin to vote. Interestingly, these people did not transport citizens to their counties of origin during the 2008 census, something that might have recorded high populations for those areas and put them under considerations for development programs, if any. Doing this at the time of voter registration have exposed their selfish motives.

The long time effect of this on our country is that it will deepen systems of marginalization and promotes predatory regimes. Citizens’ frustrations with predatory and marginalized systems have been expressed aggressively around Africa. The civil war in Liberia has probably not revolutionized the country to the equitable advantage of all of its citizens. The secession of southern Sudan, the recent fall of the long time ruler of Tunisia, Ben Ali, the fall of the Marxist regime in Ethiopia (1990), were aggressive citizens’ actions that resulted from long time grievances and frustrations.

With the country being sold to the rich politicians, it is obvious that sincere individuals with advocacy and strong leadership backgrounds in communities will be effectively disenfranchised due to their financial impotencies. Political parties are scrutinizing aspirants on the basis of their financial power and their willingness to pay huge sums of money to buy votes. Instead of sitting and allow the poor people to unsuspectingly sell their rights, and by extension their country, the civil society must now take the lead to do massive civic education in communities. This civic education must consider among other things how to choose leaders, rights and duties under the constitution, and methods of scrutinizing certified candidates – this must also consider individual competence, integrity, leadership charisma and moral and criminal records. High schools and university instructors must also be involved in this process of civic education, because it is assumed that many first-time-voters are students.

-In the cause of democracy and social justice, the pen shall never run dry

The Servant Paradox: The benefits the People’s Doctor, the People's Teacher, and the People's Representatives

2011-01-14T02:40:00.000-08:00

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XVIII

Africa has always been a poor and unstable region with reputations of dangerous political games. The reason is if you enter politics in Africa, you must enter with your whole life, because it is a ‘do or die’ contest. In political science, when reading game theory, you will come across the zero-sum game. In the zero-sum game the winner takes all, and the loser takes none. This is the style of politics in Africa. The fortune of winning an electoral office in an African country, like Liberia, exposes you to many benefits even out of your scope of duties. First you have a constitutional cover that protects you even if you flout public rule. Second, the country’s resources are at your disposal. With only the politicians having unfettered access to their country’s natural resources and the financial returns from those resources, the stakes for political seats will always be very too high. This is why we can see a real rush and plethora of candidates vying for electoral seats in Liberia as we go to the next general and presidential elections.

This edition of the series looks at the benefits the people’s teachers have while in the classroom making future leaders and servants, and the doctors while in the hospitals saving lives as compared to the benefits of those who represents the people in the Legislature makes. Do they do the same work? The man who teaches, the man who saves lives, and the man who makes the law - who lives the better life? These are the questions we seek to answer here, and ultimately we can determine while everybody is petitioning some people to petition him/her for a legislative seat.

The paradox here is that the people who are always in hurry and very busy making society to function are paid less and less cared-for by the governing authority, while the people who make laws for society, make a budget and determine their own salary, work just for two days a week in six months, and take a six months leisure break, live an extravagant and opulent life paid for by the people. The people’s representatives will call this leisure break an agricultural break, but it is mostly spent in cities and hotels in other countries like the United States. Imagine an Ambassador telling the people’s representatives to stop going for visas and spend their break in their constituencies. The people’s doctors work throughout the year, and practically have no break, likewise the people’s teachers.

According to the Constitution of Liberia, the people’s representative cannot be arrested for any crime while going to the Legislature, except for felonious crimes, but the people’s doctor and people’s teacher can be arrested for any crime including traffic violations, even if going to save lives or going to the classroom.
The people’s representatives practically live on the state, while the people’s teacher and the people’s doctor are left by themselves and survive on handouts from the state. Every year in Liberia, the people’s doctors stage strikes and walk out of health centers either because of low pay or no pay. The people’s teachers are the most deserted, and there is no successful school year in the country that does not experience a teachers’ walkout due to low pay or no pay.

The people’s representatives will never stage a strike for their ‘sixteen hours’ work per week benefits and salaries. Any attempt to delay, reduce or deny the people’s representatives of getting their pay, the official responsible must be ready to respond to contempt charges in a tribunal where the representatives are the prosecutors, the jurors and judges. Today in Liberia, the cash value of the monthly salary and benefits of a representative of the people is more than 100% higher than the total value of what the people’s doctor and their teacher take home in total.
This is how the socio-economic disparity, as defined by the body-polity is wide in our country; and this is a country that does not have running water, electricity, and better sanitation for up to 10 percent of its population. Any system of such terribly undermines the effective functioning of a society and cast doubts on the seriousness of modern capitalism in improving citizens’ welfare. Do we advocate here for a non-capitalist order? NO! We call for a social democratic revolution that will address our national income disparities in a way that everyone will not necessarily be paid equally, but that everyone’s income can be considerable enough to justify his/her level of contributions to the welfare of the citizens, and the state.

How then do we rationalize this servant paradox? It takes a real people’s revolution to mobilize the workers against such conspicuous disparity. The people must now begin to call for constitutional reforms and make decisions on these issues. By the law, the constitution must lay down the floor and ceiling for the pay and benefits of the people’s servants – doctors, nurses, teachers, representatives and other officials. And if every servant is left to decide his own pay and benefits, like the representatives have, there will obviously be no control, but effective exploitation and legitimate pillage of the state’s resources. With only the people’s representatives deciding their own pay (a very fabulous and huge one), all of the citizens will seek to be representatives, and the society risks losing teachers, and doctors, for everyman loves good and free life, uncheck and in abundance as we can see our fellow citizens on Capitol Hills.

-In the cause of democracy and social justice, the pen shall never run dry

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XVII

2011-01-06T08:48:00.000-08:00

The Politicization of Civic Voter Education Campaign

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Elections in Liberia are just 10 months way, and the stakes are getting too high, ultimately, there will be huge desperations in contenders for the presidency and legislative seats. Electoral processes with high stakes and uncontrolled desperations are usually characterized by enmity amongst contenders, violence and distrusts. With the dawn of 2011 commencing with a voter registration exercise, one can see that the politicians or interested contenders are not waiting for full certification and declaration of campaign period. The strategy of subterranean campaign activities can now be seen in the ongoing civic education process aimed at increasing mass turnout during the voter registration exercise.

This edition of this series has one major argument: That voter and civic education initiatives during electoral processes are functions of the legitimate electoral management institution, and independent civil society organizations. Unfortunately, the current trend of voter education is being overshadowed by politicians in the name of promoting mass turn out. What is more ironical in this process is that people who are publicly known to have direct vested interest in contesting the elections or are members of political parties are the ones fronting as civic educators and claiming neutrality. Interestingly, the National Elections Commission and the civil society are accepting this, and in some cases, endorsing them.

Some political parties have begun to publicly announce to offer free transportation facilities to voters wanting to travel distances to register. Ministers in government are launching their own voter education campaigns. Incumbent legislative candidates have begun the same. These legislative and cabinet officials claiming neutrality have several advantages over other candidates; this must be seen as the beginning of what is called unfair elections. First, they invite the citizens in the name of their official capacities, and second use the forums to create awareness about their interests in the elections. It is no argument that any citizen has the right to call an assembly of citizen or to canvass for support. But the assumption of the functions of the National Elections Commission and that of the civil society movement by political parties and interested candidates can influence the electoral process in many ways and cast doubts on the credibility of the election.
Contrary to the popular belief that electoral frauds can only be done during voting and counting of ballots, is the fact that frauds begin from the beginning and planning processes of elections. To ensure credibility in democratic elections like the forthcoming one in Liberia, the process must be thoroughly guided from the process of nominating members of the electoral management body – developments have shown that we have an independent and credible NEC in Liberia. Other sources of fraud long before the voting exercise can be the process of registering political parties and candidates; the process of civic voter education, and the process of voter registration, and so forth.

With voter registration being the issue at hand, what political parties and candidates should do is to train their supporters to observe the process and take recorded notes of registered voters, outline successes and challenges. Developments from this exercise will give each party a roadmap to strategizing an effective campaign and will also help to give early warnings to the NEC where challenges are discovered. The announcement of transportations facilities for voter education and distribution of food and water at registration sights are the beginning campaigning with material inducements or vote buying. The NEC must therefore call on the parties and the interested candidates to stay clear of the civic voter education campaign, and the voter registration. Each citizen is entitled to be at the center only on the day he is registering, except electoral workers and observers.

The Liberian civil society movement has a huge challenge. And bulk of the work of civic voter education should be channeled through the CSOs that are in the counties, and this should be done in effective collaboration with the NEC. With the civic voter education being overshadowed by politician using covert-campaign slogans, concerned activists will continue to wonder as to what the civil society is doing in all of these, and what role will the civil society play in the future, and will the parties leave the continue their proclaim ‘civic education campaign’ when political campaign is declared open?

-In the cause of democracy and social justice, the pen shall never run dry

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XVI

2010-10-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

AN EXPERIENCE WITH LOCAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

For the past few months, I have been engaged with official matters going around the country working on a major national reform process: the Liberia Decentralization and Local Development program. This engagement and other scholarly vocations have kept me not necessarily silent, but in action for what I have been campaigning for - the empowerment of local people to advance themselves through democratic self-governance. For those who have been reading this series for the past two years, I invoke your forgiveness for keeping you waiting so long, but truly I have been working to ensure that our collective visions and thoughts are translated into actions. Our work around the country has been about engaging local leaders and citizens in each county on the National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance. This has basically involved sensitization and soliciting inputs on how decentralization can be implemented in Liberia.

My experiences around the country were mixed. And I intend to share these experiences in this edition and the ones that will follow. First, may I say that it was a grand opportunity, and a significant education for me to travel to all of the counties in Liberia. I spent not less than 72 hours in each of the county capitals. My curiosity led me to discovering lot of things I have not learned in a classroom, neither had I seen on paper. Through conversations with local residents, I discovered a resilient characteristic to survive in the absence of a fully functional state authority. I travelled so many miles and passed so many towns and villages without seeing state institutions. I saw how resourceful Liberia is in terms of forest and habitable resources when I travelled through the southeast, and I discovered a huge potential for tourism and fishery investment in some counties, like Grand Cape Mount, Rivercess, and Grand Kru Counties. Gambia is today boasting of tourism as a major source of revenue. Kenya and Ghana are also making significant gains in the tourism industry. Liberia needs to dig into this area to have an additional source of state revenue. This will also empower local communities.

The people of Rivercess for example, have two major occupations: Fishery and Forestry. Empowering the people in that part of the country to advance in these areas will take them from subsistence to commercial activities. This will promote local employment and sustainable development. Our failure to efficiently tap into what nature has endowed us with is what continues to hold us back.

It is not strange that despite Monrovia being a very least developed city, all of the capitals in the counties are far least developed, and that effective modern institutions for human development are absent. My experience at a magisterial court hearing in the Cestos City Hall (Rivercess County) in April 2010 further convinced me that the state is not fully functional at the level of the counties, and the local people are left to survive their own way. Yet, they look up to that system. I witnessed major cases concerning mineral agents and illegal miners, rapes, and civil matters decided by undertrained magistrates and city solicitors.

In all of the counties, you see revenue collection offices, but you will hardly see effective service delivery institutions. This piece is just intended to practically state how challenging it is for an under-resourced central government to effectively deliver services to the local people. The need for decentralization in Liberia is long overdue, but will never be late in as much as the centralized state system continues to dismally fail those that are not in the urban and peri-urban areas of Monrovia. I mean not to say either that it has greater efficiency in the urban and peri-urban areas, but I admit that it has huge visibility in those areas.
In some of the counties, the imperial presidency in Monrovia is vested in the president’s agents - Superintendents and Commissioners - who do not see themselves as leaders of the people, whose power and authority is in the hands of the people. As agent of the President in Monrovia, they act on their own and wait for command from Capitol Hill to decide the fate of thousands of people in big communities and towns. Some of them see themselves as lords, and they are imposing arbitrary rules on the local people. In Bomi County for example, a County Attorney is using his title to intimidate people for a contested farmland in which he has vested interest.
Beyond Monrovia, there is no major socio-economic development, and the rise in rural-urban migration is heavily affecting agricultural activities in those areas; and with limited employment opportunities in Monrovia, the potential for crime in idled young people cannot be overemphasized. Monrovia is getting populated by the day even in the absence of socio-economic facilities. The solution to our development problems can be directly traced to our inadequacies in governance and public administration. In order to avert these and ensure an equitable distribution of our collective power and wealth, we must accelerate the process of transferring power to our local people. Through this, they will be empowered to determine who leads them, and what development priorities they want. Government decentralization is also a means to peace and democracy. The ‘power inherent in the people’ as provided for in Article One of our Constitution, cannot be adequately accentuated if our people do not fully participate in their own governance and development processes. Holding periodic elections does not translate into functional participatory democracy. Participatory democracy extends to the right of the people to continuously decide what they want, get regular accounts of the actions of their leaders, alter government at their will, and so forth. And this process is not an end, but its goal is to advance the lives of the people at all levels, and to create the enabling environment through which every individual has equal opportunities to excel. By this, greed is curtailed, and the possibilities for individual, ethnic or sectarian grievances become limited. Thus peace and development will prevail. Therefore, the most sustainable solution to our development challenges lies in a process of decentralization or a system shared-authority between national government and semi-autonomous local governments.

-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, the Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

POST-WAR SECURITY SECTOR REFORM IN LIBERIA: DEVELOPMENT AND CHALLENGES

2010-07-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

IBRAHIM AL-BAKRI NYEI

NOTE: This article was first published in the April 2010 Issue 1 of Conflict Trends by the African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) in South Africa. Any reference to this article should mention that issue because it is the sole property of ACCORD.

The end of the civil war in Liberia in 2003, and the
subsequent free and fair democratic elections of 2005,
signalled the emergence of peace, stability and sustainable
development to the country. Reaping benefits from
the cessation of hostilities and the ensuing democratic
environment, Liberians needed to make necessary
adjustments to accommodate decisions stemming
from the 2003 Peace Accord. The National Transitional
Government of Liberia (NTGL) and the United Nations
Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) worked together to ensure that
the Peace Accord was decisively pursued and scrupulously
implemented. Subsequently, the first post-war democratic
regime assumed power in 2006, and continued the
collaboration with the UN Mission to ensure that the
country’s reform peace agenda was implemented.

Paramount among the reform recommendations
was Security Sector Reform (SSR). This issue sparked
major debate amongst the country’s actors. Warring
factions wanted to feature their generals in the reformed
(new) army, while civil society activists and political
parties argued against the recruitment of “rebels” into
the military. The outcome was an agreement that the
new army would accommodate members of all warring
factions in its ranks, including the moribund Armed Forces
of Liberia (AFL) and forces loyal to the government of
Charles Taylor1 at the time of the signing of the peace
agreement. The reform programme was ongoing until
31 December 2009, when the United States turned over
the Armed Forces of Liberia’s SSR programme to the
democratic government of Liberia.

This article is an assessment of the SSR programme
in Liberia since the end of the civil war. It also looks
into the challenges faced by the stakeholders in ensuring
that Liberia gets trained security institutions that are
responsive to the people and are not agents of abuse and
blind state loyalists, as was seen in the past.

The Context of Post-war Security Sector Reform

SSR is a concept that was introduced in international
development discourses in 1998, in a speech delivered
by the ministerial head of the British Department for
International Development (DfID), Clare short. Issues
concerning the building of democratic security institutions
and the need for a viable and comprehensive security
sector had featured earlier in development discourses,
but it was short’s speech and the policies promulgated by
the DfID that made the concept of SSR a relevant concept
in international peace, security and development2. Since
then, it has been applied to countries emerging from
wars, and nations that are either failing or weak and
fragile. Specifically, development donors have argued
that assistance must flow into secured environments and,
as such, the necessary security architecture must be in
place to ensure successful and peaceful implementation
of such development aid. Security reform has mainly been
applied to help countries that are transitioning to peace
and rebuilding state institutions.

The concept of SSR is now widely accepted and
popularly used, even though there were proposals of
different phrases to represent the concept when it was
introduced to the development debate. These proposals
included that of the Bureau of Crisis Prevention and
recovery (BCPR) of the united Nations Development
Program which, in 2003, began to promote similar ideas
but with different terms, like “justice and security sector
reform” (JSSR)3.

SSR is now understood to refer to a programme of
reform of a country’s security system, which involves the
transformation and restructuring of the military and police
forces, and any paramilitary organisations controlled by
the state. This process has to do with the restructuring
and empowering of security-related institutions for
effectiveness, discipline and capacity-building for
community development initiatives. In some instances,
judicial or judiciary reform initiatives are considered under
SSR programmes.

When a country goes to war or becomes embroiled in
internal civil strife, and its legitimate security institutions
(the military and police) divide into factions with belligerent
motives, peacekeeping activities become difficult, civilians
are abused, more warring parties emerge, and the entire
nation degenerates into disorder. In such a scenario, when
the violence subsides and peacebuilding programmes
are being implemented, reform of the security sector is
essential to restore the state’s credibility and to reassure
the citizenry of their security.

Liberia’s security sector has been no exception to the
above. During the country’s 14-year-long civil war, all of
the security forces and institutions joined warring factions,
and the institutions became factionalised. As a result, the
citizenry lost faith in these security institutions. reforming
the sector in the post-war era was thus critical to ensure
the security of the people of Liberia, and not merely the
protection of short-term regimes.

Political and Legal Background of Security Sector
Reform in Liberia

Even before the plunder and devastation of the civil
war (1989–2003), Liberia’s security institutions were
heavily politicised by officials of government, and
survived on patronage. Its personnel were poorly trained
and had no special civic education programmes. Security
personnel saw themselves and their political patrons as
masters of the people rather than protectors and servants
of the people. They became unpopular for their lack
of professionalism, corruption, frequent human rights
violations and their exploitation by their political patrons
to intimidate – and, at times, terrorise – the people. In
1980, the military seized power in Liberia and, in 1985,
transformed itself into a civilian government. From 1980
onwards, Liberia’s security forces were part of the political
process and thereby lost their neutrality and relevance
as enforcers of the law and protectors of the people.
The ruthlessness of these forces was seen during the civil
war, when most of them joined factions and led campaigns
of terror against the civilians. After the civil war – and with
virtually no reliable security institutions left in the country
– it became politically necessary to reorganise, train and
rebuild an effective and well-trained pro-people security
regime for the country, as part of the post-war governance
reform process.

Liberia’s SSR programme was conceived to address
the above historical faults, and “to create a secure and
peaceful environment, both domestically and in the
sub-region, that is conducive to sustainable, inclusive,
and equitable growth and development”4. In the Poverty
Reduction Strategy of Liberia (PRS) of 2008-2011, the
government articulated issues of peace and security
as a first priority, without which there could be no real
development in the country. The first pillar of the PRS was
therefore “consolidating peace and security”.
Liberia’s SSR programme is legally empowered by
three enabling, but complicated, instruments. These are
the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2003, the Constitution
of Liberia, and the united Nations security Council
resolution 1509 of 2003.

The Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA)
The CPA was signed in 2003 in Accra, and set the
platform for the end of the war. It provided for several
institutional reforms – including those in the security
sector – to guide the peace process and lead the transition
to a new democratic dispensation. It was operational for
two years, and was the foremost legal instrument for the
NTGL of 2003-05, since certain provisions of the 1986
Constitution of Liberia were suspended to accommodate
the compromises and reforms needed for the country’s
stability and recovery. Part four of the CPA – security
sector reform – first called for the disbandment of all
irregular forces in the republic of Liberia, to set the stage
for total reform in the security sector. The real process of
reform is outlined in Articles VII and VIII of part four of
the CPA.

In Article VII, the CPA called for the disbandment of
all irregular forces, and the reforming and restructuring of
the Armed Forces of Liberia. It also requested substantial
support in material, capacity-building and other technical
support from the united Nations (UN), the economic
Community of West African states (ECOWAS), the African
Union (Au), and the International Contact Group on Liberia
(ICGL), with a call to the United States (US) to play a lead
role in reforming the Armed Forces of Liberia. To that end,
the US contracted the services of private companies –
including DynCorp and Pacific Architects & Engineers, or
PAE – to take charge of the training process.

Article VII also set out the criteria by which personnel
should be recruited into the new armed forces, and it laid
emphasis on education, medical fitness, professionalism
and one’s human rights record. Article VII (c) clearly
outlined the mission of the new Armed Forces of Liberia
as “to defend the national sovereignty and in extremis,
respond to natural disasters”5.

In Article VIII, the CPA called for the restructuring of the
Liberia National Police and all other security forces in the
country, including the Special Security Services, as well as
the “ruthless” Anti-Terrorist Unit and the Special Operation
Division of the Liberia National Police – both of which were
created by the regime of Charles Taylor and had developed
fearsome reputations for human rights violations. The two
were disbanded in 2003 and their members demobilised.
In restructuring the police and other security services, the
CPA laid special emphasis on democratic controls and
values, and the respect of human rights by these forces,
stating:
There shall be an immediate restructuring of the
National Police Force, the Immigration Force, Special
Security Service (SSS), custom security guards and
such other statutory security units. These restructured
security forces shall adopt a professional orientation
that emphasizes democratic values and respect for
human rights, a non-partisan approach to duty and the
avoidance of corrupt practices6.

The Constitution of Liberia (1986)
The Constitution of Liberia gave the executive and the
legislative branches of government a broad mandate on
security issues in the country. under the Constitution, the
president as commander-in-chief “appoints members of
the military from the rank of lieutenant or its equivalence
and above; and field marshals, deputy field marshals,
and sheriff”7. In addition, issues of defence and security
management are implemented by agencies in the executive
branch, headed by the president.

The Constitution empowered the legislature to “provide
for the security of the republic, defend, declare war and to
order the executive to declare peace, and to make rules for
the governance of the Armed Forces of Liberia”8. At the
inception of the SSR programme, all the provisions of the
Constitution concerning the powers of the executive and
the legislature were suspended, and the only legal national
instrument was the CPA of 2003.

Upon the election and subsequent inauguration of
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in 2006, all suspended
provisions of the 1986 Constitution were reinstated, and
the Constitution regained its position as the supreme law
of Liberia. This Constitution has been very relevant to the
post-war security reform process over the last years.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1509
UN Security Council resolution 1509 of September
2003 provided a legal framework for the SSR programme
in Liberia. It mandated UNMIL to assist the transitional
government in monitoring and restructuring the police
and military forces, with an emphasis on democratic
values. The security Council also mandated UNMIL to
monitor and facilitate reforms in other areas, including
the security sector, where it required that UNMIL “…assist
the transitional government of Liberia in monitoring and
restructuring the police force of Liberia, consistent with
democratic policing, to develop a civilian police training
program, and to otherwise assist in the training of civilian
police, in cooperation with ECOWAS, international
organizations, and interested states”.

For the AFL, it mandated UNMIL “to assist the
transitional government in the formation of a new and
restructured Liberian military in cooperation with ECOWAS,
international organizations and interested states”9.

What Progress?

Since 2004, stakeholders in the Liberian peace process
have been engaged in a public campaign to recruit young
Liberians into the police and military forces, as well as
such paramilitary groups as immigration and correctional
services. Restructuring of the Liberian National Police
(LNP) began in 2004, with the help of the UNMIL. This
reform has gone beyond a mere recruitment of officers
to a process of institutional capacity-building, with
reforms in the rank and file of the police service. Monthly
salaries for the lowest rankings in the police have been
increased over 100% during the last four years. In the
areas of infrastructure and institutional reform, the LNP
has undergone considerable restructuring. The position
of police director has now been changed to inspector
general, and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is
now called the Crime Service Department. These changes
in names are intended to reflect the modified missions
and purposes of the positions and departments within the
police. For example, a Women and Children Protection
Section has been created within the LNP as a first line of
response regarding women’s and children’s issues.

Other institutional rebuilding initiatives that have
taken place include the development of a LNP duty manual
and the establishment of a Police Promotion Board, and
new police stations (depots) are being built around the
country. Currently, the police have trained and deployed
over 3 500 personnel. In the area of emergency response
to armed robberies and riots, the LNP has established an
Emergency Response Unit (ERU). This unit is intended to
be a specialised, armed anti-crime unit in the police, and
it now has 287 personnel toward a target of 500. There is
also a Police support unit, which has trained 148 officers
toward a target of 60010.

With regard to the military, the AFL is currently the
main spotlight of the country’s SSR programme. Liberians
fear the military, due to its brutal roles in the civil war
and its general violence, indiscipline and human rights
abuses. Reforming the AFL is popular with the people of
Liberia, and the process has involved individual citizens
and civil society organisations – citizens have the right
to challenge and vet new applicants to the army. During
the recruitment process, photographs of applicants are
displayed in community centres for citizens to review and
to object, should candidates have a record of indiscipline,
crime and human rights abuses. Besides this process,
background investigations are conducted on individual
applicants in their communities and schools. The
target for the reformed AFL in the PRS is 2, 000 soldiers.
Successfully, through the support of the US government
and other development partners of Liberia, the AFL has
trained over 2 000 personnel, who have been deployed to
various barracks.

The AFL is also undergoing institutional and human
capacity-building. The reform process is serious about
having a literate army. This new AFL is now comprised of
personnel with at least a junior high school education, and
it also has in it many high school and college graduates.
The “new AFL”, as it is called, has over time been involved
in community services, including the construction of
roads and bridges, medical assistance to hospitals, and
community clean-up efforts.
The US and other partners have aided the government
of Liberia in rebuilding barracks and providing logistical
support to the new army, and four barracks have been
refurbished and made fully operational11. The Liberian
Coast Guard unit of the AFL has also trained about
40 officers, and this unit has a mandate of improving
coastline management, controlling smuggling and illegal
fishing. There is also a new bureau for the welfare of
retired AFL servicemen, called the Bureau of Veteran
Affairs.

Other security institutions have also been reformed
and reactivated, including the Bureau of Immigration,
Bureau of Correction and the National Fire Service. A
general review process of all of the security institutions
has taken place, and the government has adopted a
National Security Strategy as the working tool for peace
and security in the country.

Factors Impeding the SSR Programme

Liberia’s security reform programme, like most post-conflict
governance reform initiatives, is faced with the
perennial challenges of inadequate resources and limited
human resource capacity to improve and sustain the
integrity of the programme and the effectiveness of the
security institutions. All of these are faced with logistical
challenges in the discharge of their duties, and these are
further exacerbated by the level of underdevelopment in
the country.

The ineffectiveness of the LNP to respond to
emergencies in the country has been attributed to a lack
of equipment – including radios, vehicles, handcuffs and
raincoats (for the rainy season). These shortages are also
common to the Bureaux of Immigration and Correction,
and the National Fire service. The integrity of the police
system is highly criticised in the country, resulting in
some citizens describing the police force as “a new wine
in an old bottle”. The police have been seen engaging in
violations, including brutality against civilians and bribery.
These attitudes of indiscipline, while publicly condemned,
discourage a populace already weary of insecurity
and corruption.

The country is also still struggling to deal with the
ex-servicemen of the AFL, who have staged numerous
strikes for benefits and re-enlistment into the new military.
Some of the demobilised soldiers still allege that they
are in the army, claiming that the CPA called for the
restructuring of the AFL, and not its disbandment. The
new army has retained some staff from the old army
and re-enlisted them into the force. The government has
tried to respond to the concerns of the disbanded soldiers
by paying arrears of US$4.1 million – including US$228
000 to AFL widows – and has promised that any further
assistance to the disbanded soldiers will be directed at
jobs and training opportunities as a means of ensuring
sustainability in benefits12.

Conclusion

Liberia’s current security system is a considerable
improvement over the pre-war untrained and highly
politicised security institutions that were used to
intimidate citizens and maximise the power of the security
forces. Significant gains have been made through the
training and/or retraining of officers for the AFL, LNP,
Immigration, Correction and other security institutions. As
the training of security institution personnel – particularly
in the armed forces and the police – grows in terms of
numbers, donors are gradually leaving the process to the
Liberian government.

As for the AFL, the us government has already turned
it over to the Liberian government. It is now time for
the country to protect its citizens by maintaining trained
and equipped security institutions. The need to train
and deploy more police officers around the country is
critical to sustaining the integrity of the SSR programme
and promoting internal security. The need to open
educational and training opportunities for personnel of
the security institutions to advance themselves cannot
be overemphasised, since there is a yearning for a literate
security regime with civic and democratic values. Equally
important to the process is the need to improve the
salaries and benefits of servicemen and women in security
institutions, and to maintain the standards of training
introduced by the development partners at the inception
of the SSR programme.

Endnotes

1 Forces loyal to the government of Charles Taylor included the
Anti-terrorist unit, special Operation Division, the militia, and
other paramilitary forces.

2 Brzoska, Michael (2003) Development Donors and the Concept
of Security Sector Reform. Geneva Centre for the Democratic
Control of Armed Force (DCAF), Occasional Paper No. 4, p. 3.

3 Malan, Mark (2008) Security Sector Reform in Liberia: Mixed
Results from humble Beginnings., strategic studies Institute,
US Army War College. Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

4 Republic of Liberia (2008) Consolidating Peace and security,
Chapter 6: Poverty Reduction STrategy

5 Comprehensive Peace Accord of Liberia, Part Four,
Article VII (c).

6 Comprehensive Peace Accord of Liberia, Part Four, Article VIII,
Section 1.

7 Constitution of the republic of Liberia, Article 54, January
1986.

8 Constitution of the republic of Liberia, Article 34 (b) and (c),
January 1986.

9 United Nations Security Council resolution 1509, September
2003.

10 Annual Message to the 5th session of the National Legislature
by Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 25 January 2010.

11 Griffith, Cecil (2010) Initial report on Liberia’s SSR Program.
Civil society SSR Working Group.

12 Annual Message to the 5th session of the National Legislature
by Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 25 January 2010.

Commemorating Africa’s Liberation on May 25… But is Africa Really Free?

2010-05-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

In the 1960s the struggle to wipe out white imperial rule on the continent of Africa gained steam with several nations gaining political independence – to govern themselves without the interference of western imperialists. During that time revolutionary movements on the continent became strong and the battle for independence became fierce. Some western powers yielded to compromises, some were defeated and forced out.

In the first three years of the 1960s independent African states formed what was the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) with the aim of decolonizing the rest of Africa. Through the OAU several efforts were made to help territories under colonial rule become independent. Before the OAU, there were some other pro-independent African organizations like the Pan-African Movement, the Conference of Independent African States, and the All-African People’s Conference (made up of territories under colonial rule) all vociferously advocating the total independence of Africa.

Then before them and even during their existence, there were so many wars during which thousands of Africans died at the hands of imperialists just to gain access and control over their own lands. This article also recognizes the role of the mosquito in inflicting malaria on the imperialists, something that also feared them away.

But the question now is after all of these efforts and years of independence… is Africa free? The answer here is a big NO – and open for extended arguments. The first burden on the continent was slavery through which Europeans captured or bought the living and healthy bodies of African men and women, took them away as their properties. They were made to work on plantations and in homes, and tied in chains with their freedom restrained in all aspects. Above all, they were dehumanized as they were made to believe that they were sub-humans. Since then, Africans have lived with the mentality that whatsoever is Western, and whosoever is not a black by race, is a superior. Here individual worth does not matter, but race and country of origin. This is one burden on the mentality of Africans.

During exploration, either through geographical adventures or the search for resources, the westerners discovered that Africa was a rich continent, and to claim ownership of that wealth was to establish political authorities on the continent. Then came colonization and imperialism. They came and took over territories and established governments amenable only to themselves. They looted, pillaged, plunder the continents resources. They desecrated African cultures, religions, and traditional values. They colonized and corrupted the mentality of the young Africans and made them to believe that anything African is uncivilized, even though civilization began in Africa (Egypt). Then it came time when there was a scramble over African territories, so they met and partitioned the continent like a piece of pie.

The new bondage on the continent is huge debts. While the West is keeping Africa in bondage through huge debts, they are also keeping the continents development in check through international institutions that enforces rules of governance and for development assistance only applicable to Africa. International laws are also enforced in Africa then any part of the world.

Those are the external factors that have over the years affected the states in Africa. And by extension the people. In the midst of the threats from imperialists in the 19th and 20th centuries and neo-imperialists of today, African leaders pose a second and more frustrating threat to the total liberation of their people. Yet, they are politically free to run sovereign nations. But their people are impoverished to the ebb. African leaders in many countries have not done much to liberate their people from poverty and make them feel proud of the abundance of resources and potentials endowed to the continent. Africa tops in all of the vices: Highest HIV/AIDS rate, highest malaria rate, highest rate in teenage pregnancy, and harbors the world’s poorest people; even though those poor people own lands and resources that are making the world’s richest people to be who they are. As a result there are mass exoduses of Africans everyday to western nations in such of greener pastures. There, they work as casual laborers to process raw materials from their homes, and the end-products sent back to them to purchase.

Corruption and autocratic leadership have been the most internal obstacles to the freedom of African people. I accept that we are running sovereign states, but I argue that we the people are not free. And that remains the basis of my argument. In Zimbabwe the man once revered to be the freedom fighter and the ‘people’s popular leader’ has clinched unto power, terrorizing and crushing opposition dissents, and at the same time westerners have imposed sanctions on him in vengeance to his stance against neo-imperialism. That is a dilemma for the people of Zimbabwe. Their economy has sunk into an abyss, and socio-economic conditions have become too harsh. In the central region of the continent, most of the states have failed, collapsed or are weak. Congo has failed, Sudan has collapsed and secession is eminent by next year, Chad and the Central African Republic are weak. West Africa is dominated by weak and failing states. Corruption is uncontrollable in this region. This is where society frowns on accountable leaders and cherishes murderers and corrupt officials. In Liberia, few groups of people, about 75 persons have held the country for over forty years and it is among them leadership circulates. The rest of the population still lives in poverty and hopelessness. Corruption is at its peak in the present government, and it is not just casting doubts on the credibility of the present regime, but also eroding public confidence in the state as a whole. Warlords and former corrupt government officials are the most ‘honorable’ citizens.

Guinea, Niger, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, and Madagascar are failing as a result of coups and civil uprisings. Madagascar is a rear case and deserves extended political research. This is where civilians launched a coup and the coup was endorsed by the military.

Again I continue to argue that with poor leadership on the continent, bad governance, mass poverty, poor health care, mass illiteracy, huge debt burden, and the external threat of neo-imperialism through international organizations, AFRICA IS NOT FREE!

The vices are enormous and pathetic to name. Africa’s solutions to total liberation must begin now! And that must be a priority of every African, mainly the continent’s leaders. True independence in Africa will come when the leaders of the continent are accountable and transparent in public service; when the people of Africa participates freely and openly in a system of democratic governance; when the people are free to choose among options that will advance their socio-economic needs; when the nation-states in Africa will be strategic partners in international development and cooperation not mere receivers of aid, or not ‘gatekeeper states’; when civil uprisings and violent conflicts end; and when the first priority of every African government will be to advance the human security of its citizens. LONG LIVE AFRICA, AND LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF AFRICA!!!!

A MESSAGE FOR PEACE AT FLY’s ASSEMBLY 2010

2010-01-15T01:44:00.000-08:00

Fellow young people, delegates to the Sixth general Assembly of FLY, I bring you greetings in the name of unity, peace, solidarity and nationalism.

We have left our counties, our homes, our families and schools to assemble here today and deliberate on issue pertinent to the socio-economic empowerment of ourselves and our country. We are here to discuss issues that will affect us and the generation behind us. It is therefore incumbent upon us to be tolerant and peaceful as we embark on this process intended to open a new chapter for the Federation and the young people of Liberia.

Let us remember that a house divided against itself cannot stand at all. We must therefore be united and mutually tolerant to speak as one, because we have the same problems that affect us as young people. What affect the youths of Maryland County, affects the youths of Grand Cape Mount County, and the same affects youths all over the country. We share the same problems; we must therefore derive collective solutions. If one person succeeds, we have all succeeded. This assembly must be a turning point for us all.

We have had perennial problems of marginalization in national development issues, and our progress have been retarded by the level of poverty and underdevelopment that resulted from the fourteen years of decadent conflicts our country went through. Today is a new day, we are experiencing peace and normal activities have resumed in our country. This is therefore a moment of opportunity we must seize to address the problems associated with our advancement. We cannot hold anyone responsible if we fail to work together for ourselves today, and for the generation behind us.

For the past few years we have been stereotyped as violent-oriented youths. Our critics build their assumptions on what we have done in the last two years. In 2007 we made the world to think negatively about us when we failed to organize ourselves in Gbarnga (April) and in Kakata (September). A replica of the same situations took place when we met in Gbarnga in 2009 (July) to elect a new leadership for LINSU. We are challenged to prove our critics wrong. We are challenged to tell the world that we are prepare for peace and we that are prepare to contribute to the peace and development of our country.

This assembly is an opportunity for us. We must strive as best as possible to ensure that we have peaceful deliberations and a peaceful electoral process that will facilitate a smooth transition in our leadership. We must relinquish our personal interests for the collective good. We are here today as individuals, but what we do will represent our counties, our homes, and the schools we come from.

Some months back, I got several calls by friends from all over the country asking me to contest for the position of First Vice President of FLY. I accepted those petitions as a call to duty. Today I am in the race as a candidate certified by the Independent Election Commission of FLY. I look up to you all to support me in this election, and also after the election that we all may work together and make FLY the organization we want it to be. While we look up to government for our empowerment, we must also begin to put in place those mechanisms that will prove to the world that we are serious; and we must begin to work towards our own empowerment by organizing ourselves peacefully, by working in our communities as volunteers for development, and by ensuring that we get the necessary education, discipline and training for national leadership. Long Live FLY!!!!! LONG, LONG LIVE LIBERIA!!!!!!!!!

Make Peace Prevail
Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

What Does The Legatum Prosperity Index Mean For Liberia?

2009-12-09T07:50:00.000-08:00

A fortnight ago one of the world’s leading development and research institutes published what is called the Prosperity Index, a rating of nations on the basis of development and the livelihood of individuals.

The Legatum Institute surveyed 104 nations for the 2009 Prosperity Index. More African nations, as usual ranked among the lowest with Zimbabwe taking the 104th place. Interestingly, Africa’s peacekeeping hero and one of the continent’s power center, Nigeria, was ranked 98th. Above all, a critical look at the index tells that African countries have a lot to do to improve the satisfaction of their people in terms of physical and economic securities, fundamental freedom and rights, and basic social services to support standard and happy life.

Liberia was not part of the 104 nations surveyed. But the indicators used by the Legatum Institute, if applied to Liberia will rank the West African nation no farther from the lowest ten if not amongst the lowest countries on the index. The problem is that the impacts of reform and development policies have not reached the lives of the ordinary citizens.

The institute used nine specific areas identified as ‘building blocks of prosperity’. They include economic fundamentals, entrepreneurship and innovation, education, democratic institutions, governance, health, personal freedom, security, and social capital.

Does Liberia have high scores in these areas considering the livelihood of its ordinary citizens from rural to urban setting? How effective and efficient are the responses of government institutions to socio-economic and political issues in the country?

Recent reports on the country are encouraging on economic issues. Two reports this year predict higher economic growth. Before the Prosperity Index was launched the World Bank ranked Liberia as one of the best 10 countries for doing business in the world. Just after the Prosperity Index was published the IMF Director for Africa announced report of a study that predicts higher economic growth for Liberia in the tone of 7.53%.

However, there is a problem with local entrepreneurship as many Liberians doing business lack the capital and the capacity to engage in bigger businesses, and free their economy from foreign merchants. Liberian businesses are commonly described by the phrase ‘from –hand-to-mouth’ indicating that what is earned can only provide daily meal therefore no capital for saving or growth. The issue of innovation among local Liberians is discouraging because motivations are very low and gains are negligible.

Illiteracy and human resource deficit are major problems for Liberia. The country has less than 20% literacy rate, and currently there are no encouraging signs of growth in literacy because of the lack of educational institutions in most parts of the country. Observers comment that Liberia’s older generation is educated than its younger generation.
Good Governance and economic prosperity are threatened by corruption. There is currently no effective mechanism of deterrence for corruption in the country. All of the institutions of reform put in place to combat corruption are being defeated by the lack of political support, official shielding or cover-ups and massive defrauding.

What the Legatum Institute index will mean for Liberia is innumerable. While countries like Zimbabwe, Botswana, Nigeria, and Kenya know their status in terms of prosperity, Liberians need to know their status too, to set the stage for evaluation, reform and were necessary make adjustment for the better.

The reforms that are sweeping across postwar African countries are also visible in Liberia. Aid comes every year and from numerous sources since the return of the country to democratic civilian rule in 2006. It is important for the people of Liberia to know at what level their individual lives have gone considering the high level of aid coming to the country.

Personal freedom and security of the people come under threat daily. The judiciary is plagued with problems of corruption and lack of capacity. The services of the police do not reach most parts of the country, particularly the rural settings. Crimes such as rape and armed robbery are surging. There is also the issue of land dispute that threatens the general peace of the country.

Effective social services in education, health, electricity, water and public transportation are lacking in almost every part of the country. The national census conducted in 2008 put the poverty rate of the country at 68%. The government’s major policy response to poverty and the restoration of democratic governance and human rights to the country is articulated in its poverty reduction strategy called “Lift Liberia’, intended to be implemented in three years. Unfortunately, the first year was a failure as announced by the Government of Liberia.

Happiness and Prosperity are every individual’s goals in life. All of the Building Blocks of Prosperity as outlined by the Legatum Institute, if pursued decisively and sincerely, can solve Liberia’s political and socio-economic problems. The primary focus is placed on the individual citizen – his economic situation, his right to associate, participate in governance and to choose for himself, his security in the pursuit of his goals, and the opportunities at his disposal to advance himself like any other person in the world.

It is only government that can provide the necessary ambience for the attainment of the aforementioned by an individual. The programs articulated in Liberia’s PRS can be linked with all of the Legatum indicators, and if the PRS can be accepted as a collective national development agenda instead of a regime-based platform, then the prospects for national prosperity are higher and far beyond the intent of the regime that carved it. The Building Blocks of Prosperity must therefore be adopted locally as indicators for measuring the progress of our PRS with dual focus on advances made by individual citizens and the government.

Open Letter to the Chairman of the Mano River Union

2009-10-07T03:35:00.000-07:00

H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Chairman of the Mano River Union
President of the Republic of Liberia
Executive Mansion
Republic of Liberia

Ref: Policy Advice on the Crisis in Neighboring Guinea

Greetings of Peace!

This is my second time writing to you since you took over the leadership of our war-ravaged country. Over the years, I have made attempts to call your attention and the attentions of other decision makers, the citizenry, and the international community to major issues relevant to the socio-economic conditions of our people, the sustenance of the peace, the nurturing of our nascent democracy, and the overall development of our country. I have been speaking through my series entitled ‘Critical Issues of National Concern’ which is widely published by the Analyst Newspaper, the Public Agenda Newspaper, the Daily Observer and several online news outlets. In recent times, I have been opportune to secure a permanent column in the Nation Times Newspaper called ‘Cocorioko’ with the same aims, objectives, and mission of the series ‘Critical Issues of National Concern’.

As we hope to continue to live in peace and that those who wish to advocate for us and fight for freedom will continue to do so constructively, and this time through the democratic process and in the towns, rather than going to the bushes with the bullet, we have seen significant strides in the growth of democracy under your regime occasioned by the level of free speech, an ambience for free media operation, and the submission of the regime to criticisms from all ends. This progress is however, largely accredited to all of the democratic forces that rallied and agitated for change in this country.

In my last communication to you (see the July 30, 2007 of both the Daily Observer and Public Agenda newspapers) I addressed several policy issues regarding corruption and the need to go beyond policy writing to practical implementations in order to address local needs. That discussion was centered mostly on local issues.

Today, I am taking you off the shores to present a foreign case but with much local implications bordering on both the physical and economic securities of the people of Liberia and the entire Mano River Basin.

It is with great acknowledgment of your authority as a leader in the basin that I select you amongst four leaders to direct this note for immediate policy considerations and actions which if pursued decisively will avert what seems to be a threatening danger hanging over the innocent and impoverished people of Guinea, and the people of the Mano River Basin at large.

Guinea has been a shadow state for several years, largely due to the level of instability and violent military operations in its neighbors. Today Guinea is on the brink of completely falling into the vortex of violent conflict. As you may be aware, violent conflict in one country has the proclivity to spew out negative consequences on neighboring countries, and the international political system as a whole.

Liberia’s descent into a violent and internecine feud in the late 1980s was exploited by economic and political strongmen in the sub-region as a means of counterbalancing and getting through with parochial interests successfully. This was what led to the participation of multilateral actors in the Liberian civil war. As you may recall Madam Chairman, interests became complicated and the strategies of the warlords were to either support oppositions against regimes that checkmate their interests or to establish and unleash their own dissidents as a means of getting through with their objectives. Consequently, Sierra Leone’s weak state became a conflict-state, Guinea a shadow and fragile state, and Ivory Coast, the route of Liberia’s dissidents, lastly succumb.

This was ho w the Mano River Basin became polarized by instability, crimes, wars, economic decadence, and consequently, became an unnecessary burden on the international community. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast tasted full skill military wars; while Guinea remained unstable and fragile thereby making the then regime suspicious and overly autocratic.

The same ghost of violent crisis is haunting Guinea, and the lessons learnt from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast must be applied quickly to save the people of Guinea. You have the ball in your court as Chairman of the MRU to act, even though the Union has been a ‘sleeping watchman’ and ‘a toothless bulldog’ over the years, but you need to exert yourself beyond all to save the people of Guinea from dying.
My concern now is not whether the junta leaders participate in the ensuing elections or not. My concern is about calling for a concrete and forceful international action in favor of the innocent, unarmed and impoverished people whose freedom, right to happiness, and liberty are being suppressed by a politically unsophisticated and popularly rejected military junta.

Madam Chairman, may I now call your attention to several mistakes by the international community which they direct at regimes, but in no way threaten the livelihood of the elites and leaderships targeted. On numerous occasions, the international community as a means of punishing regimes imposes economic sanctions and travel bans on leaders. These leaders on the extreme use local resources for to consolidate their authority and manipulate systems at the expense of the people. They and their families live happily, and the purpose and intent of the sanctions become irrelevant. Adversely, the same people the international community intends to save suffer the worst.

The years of sanctions and bans on Zimbabwe did not affect the personal lives of politicians in the ruling class, but economically and socially relegated ordinary families, with girls as tender as 12 and 13 turning to prostitutes. The coup leaders in both Madagascar and Honduras who seized powers have local resources at their disposals which they manipulate for the survival of their families and to consolidate their local themselves against the intents of international sanctions against them.

In the same way sanctions will not directly affect the juntas in Guinea. The juntas must be persuaded to a deal with the oppositions and the civil society to restore calm immediately.

People are dying, and there are fears around the borders of war and terror. It is our people whose survival is being endangered by the situation in Guinea.
Liberia stands to suffer from all fronts if the appropriate actions are not taking to restore calm and reduce the chances of war in that country.

Madam Chairman of the MRU, you and I may recall that in the heat of the crises in Liberia, all of the nations in the basin became diplomatically hostile to each other. There were claims and counterclaims of support to insurgent groups in the basin to the extent that diplomats were expelled and leaders refusing to attend summits protesting the participation of other leaders.

In July of this year (2009), while preparing for an MRU heads of state summit in Guinea, similar thing occurred when the juntas claimed that dissidents were training in Foya, Lofa County (Liberia) to destabilized Guinea. This opened up a feud between the two countries and led to the cancellation of the planned MRU summit in Guinea due to your abrupt decision to boycott the meeting as Chairman. This decision came just after some members of your entourage had arrived in Guinea awaiting your departure.

The issue of how a conflict in one MRU country affects another or the entire sub-region needs not be overemphasized. Guinea now is a major exporter of local products to Liberia, and the security of traders between the two countries must be highly considered at this critical time.

Your positions on the situation since the self-catapulting of the purported National Council for Democracy and Development (NCDD) to power in Guinea have been highly laudable. Your call for an immediate international action must be supported by sufficient political will which you must rally with your colleagues in the basin and in ECOWAS to ensure the safety of the people.

May I now give several recommendations that you may need as Chairman of the MRU in the resolution of the political instability in Guinea.

It has been taught by history that emotional and power-drunk military leaders transform themselves easily into civilian leaders by stage-managing elections. We have an example in our records like many other African countries. You must therefore impress upon your colleagues that the NCDD must be encouraged to dialogue with the opposition as a means of establishing a government of National Unity closely monitored by the international community to pave the way for democratic rule. To believe that the NCDD will relinquish power and bar its members from contesting elections is inconceivable at this time considering Africa’s political history with the military. To further harass the NCDD as a means of encouraging civilian up-rising will give rise to mass civilian casualties or war as we have seen over the last few days. The most appropriate international action needed now is the facilitation of talks for a power-sharing government with a longer life span and the deferment of elections. Guinea needs an overall reform in its system of governance. There have been no effective constitutional authority and democratic system primarily due to the iron-fist style of the last regime that was very autocratic.

You must put, above everything, the safety and survival of the masses in Guinea. The CNDD must be warned against further civilian casualties, and must be given an immediate notice that it will one day account for its terror against our people.

Second, I also recommend that you build the most necessary security fortresses around the sub-region and warn your colleagues against harboring dissidents in their various countries. As Chairman of the Union, I admonish you to please consider the need for an MRU Peace and Security Council as a sub-regional body to preside over security issues and to promote peace initiatives in the basin.

Finally, as we all pray for and anticipate an immediate end to the crisis, it is prudent that we begin to liberalize immigration and cross-border trade policies so as to promote the spirit of integration in the basin as envisaged by the founders of the MRU.

May God Bless you and save Liberia and the Mano River Union.

Respectfully yours,

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
Citizen of Liberia
+231 6265366
pericle925@yahoo.com

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XV

2009-10-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

YOUTHS AND THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY IN LIBERIA
Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

A wave of transformation is blowing across the world. It is blowing from all hemispheres, and even those who stand to detest it in support of traditional leadership systems, ironically accept some of its tenets. This wave is gradually sweeping across Africa, and Liberia is rising up to the moment to benefit from the goods that come with it. It is breaking down the wings of tyranny; disestablishing oligarchies shaking the foundations of imperial and autocratic rules. It is implanting the popular will of the people as the most appropriate means of governance. It is installing justice, and awakening common people to the light of government. The wave is building strong public service institutions and leading to the eradication of poverty. That wave is the wave of democracy.

The pace with which governance is changing across the world to fundamentally address the interest of the masses who are the true custodians of power and authority is highly attributed to the growth of democracy in the 21st century. Democracy, in simple terms, is a system of government in which the people rule either directly or indirectly through their elected representatives.

Liberia is a growing democracy with a representative form of government. The country went through decades of conflicts that resulted into a full-scale military and violent conflict that lasted for fourteen years.

Today the country is recovering and rising to the demands of good governance by instituting the rule of law and building effective institutions for adequate service delivery. The above are all aimed at consolidating democracy and avoiding the recurrence to violent conflicts. The country has a constitution that gives power to the people, guarantees free speech and association and the right to worship in any form. Notwithstanding, the constitution has several lapses that pose major challenges to the growth of democracy and the rising political and economy order of the century – globalization.

It is however clear from the constitution that the country theoretically supports democracy, but the problem lies in practicing it as a culture of life and governance. If these were done, it would be impossible for one to have imagined that the country would go to war.

Since the end of the civil war, with the election of the first postwar government, the country is gradually rebuilding its institutions and putting in place appropriate mechanism to ensure that the government is answerable to the people, and representative of their interests at all levels.

Some of the greatest opportunities available to the people of Liberia today, particularly activists, are the growth of a free media community and the open environment to register and operate pro-democracy or civil society movements. The country currently has over eighteen local newspapers and more than thirty radio stations nationwide. The amount of civil society organizations operating in the country is about four hundred.

The only alternative to the problems of governance and economic development in Africa is democracy. It is the only system that can hold our leaders accountable for their numerous excesses in the management of our resources. In Liberia, precepts of transparency and accountability are very strange concepts that we find difficulties in dealing with.

But there is much to be gained if we truly understand and comply with those principles. The first thing we need to do is to open up the process of choosing our leaders freely. If the people openly and freely elect their leaders, the leaders feel accountable to the people. On the contrary, when leaders are imposed on the people, they have the tendencies of imposing their wills against the general interest of the masses they claim to lead.

The second is the issue of transparency and accountability. These are two inseparable concepts of democracy that demand openness in transactions, and taking responsibility for actions. The applicability of the two is a means by which corruption, which has for centuries impeded growth and development in Liberia, will be minimized.

This time, I will name decentralization of power as the third important precept which the new dispensation demands for accelerating growth in poor and underdeveloped countries. The overly centralization of power in Africa which is historically rooted in the legacies of colonialism has proven to be a failed system. The need for the decentralization of power and the equitable distribution of resources cannot be overemphasized at this time.

Under a decentralized governing system where power is in the hands of the people, and authority closer to them, democracy will flourish. This system will also take development closer to the people and reduce poverty in so many ways. When local leaders are elected and made to control their own resources under a transparent and accountable system, the issue of service delivery becomes effective and efficient, thus economic and social development.

As stated earlier, Liberia is a growing democracy, with glaring prospects. For the first time, young Liberians have the opportunities to participate in all aspects of governance. Through international and locally made programs, youth employment and empowerment is growing in Liberia.

It is through these processes that the consciousness of the youth is awakening to government and public debates. The country currently has about 376 youth organizations with a majority of them having programs of human rights and democracy advocacy, a few are in the area community development while some focus on other areas such as health (HIV/AIDS), environmental affairs, education, etc, according to a Federation of Liberian Youth report.

The National Youth Policy drafted by the Federation of Liberian Youth with support from donors is a real means to achieving the real end of increasing and legally positioning the youths in public activities. The policy is yet to be passed into law by the legislature due to some clauses that conflict with the Constitution of Liberia.

At present, there are numerous opportunities available to youths in the country particularly when it comes to the issue of governance and civil society activism. Notwithstanding there are daunting challenges as well since the youth face problems of limited resources and the lack of technical and professional know-how in planning and implementing programs.

All of the political parties in the country have youth wing structures that are very powerful and critical in decision making due to their population, exuberance and ability to move around. The latest census conducted in Liberia (2008) puts the youth at 60 percent of the total population.

In 2005, the openness of the first postwar elections in Liberia saw democracy at work in Liberia. The support of the youth was highly craved by political parties. There were also several young persons under the age of 35 who contested for various seats in the legislature. There were about eight young persons elected to the legislature that year.

That was a defining moment for Liberia’s emergence from conflict to peace and from anarchy to democracy. The youths were very much significant to that process. Several youth organizations participated as monitors and observers while individual youths were employed by the National Election Commission as election workers.
That was not the end. Since the inauguration of the first post-war government youth participation in public affairs and government is increasing steadily. Several mainstream civil society organizations are headed by young people, and they presently represent the most independent structures for public advocacy and civic activism in the country.

Youths are no longer chastised as agents of violence as they were. Much is being done in the areas of community peace education and dialogue to promote non-violence approaches in resolving conflicts.

Some youth organizations are mostly engaged with organizing public debates on national issues and promoting initiatives of dialogues amongst young people. These activities are helping to strengthen the peace and nurturing our nascent democracy.
It is no doubt that the role of the youths in the current democratization of Liberia is highly remarkable and unprecedented. This needs to be supported and sustained. What the youths needs are empowerment in education and employment to be self-sufficient and independent in their campaigns. This call is not just for young people who are activists, but for the entire youthful population. If the young people are kept busy with productive activities, it is unlikely that they will be involved with lawlessness or negative activities in society.

It has been established that the young people were used as proxy warriors to represent the interests of warlords on battle fields during the country’s civil war. Today most of those young people have been abandoned, and their participation in the civil war has been widely attributed to poverty and ignorance and idleness. This future of this new generation must therefore be protected by every means necessary. Again, the most appropriate securities needed are education and economic empowerment.

The productive energy of every society is in the youthful population. The talents of the youths need to be tapped for society to utilize that productive energy in them. Currently, many agencies of government are employing young people to work in communities either as volunteer teachers or health workers as a means of helping local people to reducing poverty in their communities. These are all some of the good products of the emerging democratic order we have in the country.

Over two thousand students were recruited to work in public and private offices in the country between July and August of 2009 while some were assigned in various communities as community volunteers to help local citizens in the areas of civic education and local community development services.

Haven worked as activists for many years, mobilizing youths and animating communities, we are still contributing, this time our services have gone at the level of national government. For years, we work with regional organizations like the Mano River Union Youth Parliament through which we were used to carry peace messages on a caravan in the Mano River countries – Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. We have also been working with other local civic organizations helping to promote civic education in our country and promoting good governance principles.
At present I and four other university students are working with the Governance Commission on the Liberia Decentralization and Local Development Program. Through this program, we have been able to travel around the country, meet local leaders, and organize workshops and dialogues with local people. It is through this program that local leaders and citizens alike have appreciated the need for government to be decentralized so that local fiscal, administrative and political decisions can be taken by local leaders. This they believe will give them the opportunity to elect their own local leaders, take ownership of their own budget and development programs.
Our roles at the Governance Commission, like other youth volunteering on other programs have been very important to the successful promulgation and public awareness campaign of major government’s policies to people all over the country.

There is also a free media community in the country which one youth leader once described as a product of the democratic forces that agitated for change in the country. This has been a point of public debate as to whether the present ambience of free speech and expression are gains of the present government. But majority, mainly activists believe that it is a collective gain attributed to the entire population that went against tyranny and oppression. Today, youth groups, civil society actors, as well as opposition leaders use the press freely to speak out against social and political ills. The government on the other hand exercises much restrain and tolerance in upholding press freedom and freedom of speech and expression as a means of consolidating the peace and democracy we have today. It is of much interest to note that instead of using security agents to clamp down free speech and media institutions as it was done in the past, the government today uses the courts to try violators.

This is the level at which the wave of democratization is blowing on our shows with young people playing significant roles. Indeed, democracy is blowing a wind of change in Liberia and the youth are at the center of that change.

In The Cause of Democracy And Social Justice, The Pen Will Never Run Dry!

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XIV

2009-08-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

WHEN THE VICES GO AROUND AND AROUND: WHO TAKES THE BLAME?

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

What is emerging as a blow to development efforts initiated by this current leadership under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and also against the general aspirations of the people to move the country forward on a trajectory acceptable to advance human civilization and international standards is not only found in the widely public outcry against corruption in government. Every other government has suffered this in the history of our country. It is in a cycle of mistrust, distrust, lack of patriotism from within government, civil society, and the general citizenry.
Corruption at all levels of society, and the lack of patriotism and national consciousness in the citizenry are part of the forces militating against the collective desire for peace and economic growth in the country. And specifically, those are direct offenses against the current administration.

The driving force behind the development of any given society is the people who benefit from the outcomes of policies and projects. The same people must therefore be the ones to participate in policy formulation and at the same time initiating self-empowerment and local development programs that will ameliorate their collective wellbeing.

Like the political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita argues, governments and political leaders only seek the welfare of their subjects because they want more opportunities to enjoy their stay in power, and to avoid being ousted; not because they are particularly interested in seeing their subjects live happily. Mesquita’s argument is a source of support to validate my premise that the people are the driving force behind their own development.

On July 1, 2009, US President Barack Obama spoke in Accra, Ghana and stated that the ‘future of Africa is up to Africans. That was a part of numerous popular calls to make us know that no one can solve our problems, not donors, and not governments operating through agents, for they do because they target an ultimate goal which is the unhindered access to and, the perpetuation of power.

It is therefore left with the ordinary people to catalyze their own development and growth. In Liberia today, the syndrome of dependency grows increasingly, despite the numerous civic education and community awareness programs, and local empowerment initiatives conducted by CSOs and NGOs in the country.

While resources are being galvanized and efforts exerted towards local empowerment it is saddened to witness the level of distrusts and complete carelessness of the local masses towards the plight of each others. In most instances, particularly in the control and regulation of prices, the government’s regulatory and control mechanisms initiated toward stabilizing prices are challenged by the citizens who are the targeted beneficiaries. The questions now are – what functions do we as citizens recognize in the government we elect; in whose interest does government intervene; and when do we recognize the role, power and authority of our government; it is only when we feel subdued by someone else then we begin to trust the government by referring to law enforcement officers? If so, then we are in a vicious circle of delusions and deceits.

For example, while the government arranged and announced transportation fares for various destinations in the city of Monrovia, commercial drivers went on a spree of defiance and extortion. This act was also supported by impatient passengers.
When the government announced new regulations and prices for petroleum products, petrol dealers went the other way in defiance. The same continues to happen on both the cement and rice markets where the criminal acts of sabotage through hoarding and re-bagging are very common.

The most recent and troubling event that blew a wave of shock among the citizenry and at the government is the ongoing tuition and extra-curricular fees crisis in private schools. Both the Poverty Reduction Strategy of the Government of Liberia and the 2008 National Census reported mass illiteracy rate in the country.
The government has however seen as a challenge, the reduction of illiteracy through building schools in local communities, monitoring private schools effectively, promoting enrollment, and encouraging more essentially- the enrollment of women. At the same time, there is a free and compulsory primary education program which has been on-going for a number of years. But this is limited to government primary schools. Some missionary schools have kindly joined the scheme.

In the wake of these developments, with the ensuing financial crisis, private schools, including some missionary schools, have launched a completely high level of profiteering scheme through exploitation and extortion by increasing tuition fees exorbitantly, imposing unnecessary extra charges, opening markets on campus for the sale of uniforms and books. Interestingly, this exploitative scheme is very bare and absurd for the mere fact that schools authorities will with no regard and understanding of measurement considering body size, weight and height, are charging the same for a set of uniform for every student. This is the most recent debate in the country since the month of August 2009.

There are many instances of such in the country, and no one seems to care from amongst us the citizens. Yet, we blame the government for most of these misfortunes.
Does the government pursue her self-made regulatory policies and framework to ensure compliance through monitoring and sanctioning when violators are caught red-handed? This is the question, and the answer is a capitalized, italicized and bolded ‘NO’.
The responses of government have usually been through the establishment of ‘Investigatory Commissions’ whose reports are sometimes treated in secret, discarded or trashed. There is the case of the Ad-Hoc Price Commission set to investigate the causes of the hike in prices of basic commodities. It is over one year the report of this commission or the status of the commission itself remains an issue of oral history; the case of the commission set to investigate a riot at the Free Port of Monrovia involving officials of the Liberia National Police on one hand and the Seaport police on the other hand; the case of the commission set to investigate the death of SSS of popularly known as ‘Silver J’ during a fight among top security heads. Then there is the case of the commission set to investigate the controversial email scandal that linked the presidency to alleged influence peddling and corruption.

Now the president has mandated an investigation into the tuition crisis in Liberian schools. But this investigation is taking place after the exploiters have succeeded, and the victims have already wiped their tears. Whatever the investigation produces will be for the future, which we hope will serve the popular interest of our poor and vulnerable people.

The President’s intervention is very late because the damage has been done. And it is an affront to her policies and development programs. What is needed now is to act decisively, but not to wait and suffer damages before acting. There is an urgent need to enforce policies and regulations and demand full compliance from all and sundry.

It is only the government that can curtail corruption in the private sector by enforcing regulations and setting up safety nests for the economy against the barbarity of economic vampires. But the problematic of fighting corruption in the private sector by the government is that the government pays lot of rents (rent is a favor or reward political leader give their supporter in return for their loyalty and support) to supporters and elitist cronies. Besides, there is a serious case of conflict-of-interest in the Liberian political and economic class setting. Those in Government are major entrepreneurs and investors. They are partners and shareholders in foreign investments that come to the country. They are most likely to soften and bend the rules in favor of their partners, and their supporters. At the end, the circle of corruption becomes wider, and the government takes all of the blames. This is why all eyes against corruption points at the government. And there is much reason to accept all. Then the government will cry that the people are not complying, and there are not enough resources to enforce laws and regulations. And the cycle goes around and round. Who then takes the blame?

Finally, it is no doubt that there are corruptible practices outside government on a general scale like it is in government itself. But the one in government must be publicly condemned because what is abused and corrupted represents popular ownership. The Government must therefore must therefore muster the courage and exercise the necessary will and authority to cleanse itself of corruption, the success of which may cut across.

Again, as government builds security to protect the weak citizens against the stronger ones, it must also protect the poor from being exploited by businesspeople whose urge of profiteering is as restive as the egregious and invading armies of Hitler. The people, too, must see themselves first at the ultimate beneficiaries of the actions of government, and begin to build trust for each other while reposing the soundest confidence in the sovereign authority. Then the vicious cycle of deceit and hypocrisy will compress. This is how credible and progressive societies are built.

I end this edition of the series with a call for local people empowerment in a system of power and administrative decentralization. There has been a very high level of dependency on central government. This in some way can be traced to the historical growth of the country, and the culture of politicking characterized by high degree of zero-sum politicking in which the winner takes all and the loser takes none. All of these are further complicated by the high centralization of power at the presidency and the cabinet.

When power and authority are left with a few who sent agents to represent them to the people, they (agents) become only answerable and accountable to those who sent them not those they are sent to serve. Thus development becomes very slow and sometimes completely absent. Conversely, when power and administrative decisions are in the hands of the people at all levels, they become more proactive in managing their own affairs locally. Thus transparency, accountability and the rule of law and development becomes effective and more productive.

-In The Cause of Democracy And Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XIII

2009-08-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

WHAT DO WE HOPE TO GET FROM CLINTON’S VISIT?

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

America’s most senior diplomat and apparently the most powerful voice in the international political system is expected to visit Liberia this week, specifically on Thursday August 13, 2009. The position of Secretary of State in the U.S Government automatically gives an individual the above description. Madam Hilary Rodham Clinton, with her experiences in U.S politics, gaining highlights first as First Lady of the United States, later as Senator, then lastly a contender for the presidency, is best suited for this post. Clinton came to the post under a liberal regime headed by the first Afro-American president of the United States of America whose lineage can be directly traced to an African village in Kenya, unlike millions of others who cannot find any trace of their ancestries on the Dark Continent.

Obama’s ascendancy to the U.S presidency increased the hopes of African leaders and their people for more aids in development, partnership, and foreign trade with the United States. But this is yet to be actualized since Obama is committed to supporting only pro-people and democratically functional governments something that is only sung in words in Africa, but not felt in practice.

In July Obama himself came to Africa for the second time, the first being in Northern Africa. This second visit which was widely publicized as Obama’s first visit to the least developed part of the continent – Sub-Saharan Africa – gave Ghana, an emerging democracy, sufficient applause among fifty-three other countries for its outstanding democratic and good governance credentials. In Ghana President Obama called for a partnership which he suggests “…must be grounded in mutual responsibility and mutual respect”.

Like Marcus Garvey, who preached philosophy of ‘Africa for the Africans’, so Africans must take full responsibilities of their own development, Obama said, “…Africa’s future is up to Africans”. This is indeed a challenge to African leaders and their peoples who are endowed with abundant resources in nature and human capital.

For Clinton, she is particularly in Africa to affirm a commitment by the Obama administration to tackle trouble spots from Somalia and Zimbabwe to the DR Congo and Liberia according to the State Department.

Naming Liberia as a ‘trouble spot’ with nations like Somalia, DR Congo, and Zimbabwe is a terrible label which undermines the strides made so far.

However, as she comes to Liberia, there must be something to collect and put in our basket as we struggle with a balance of about 1.9bn debt, mass poverty, and deplorable infrastructure. The controversial report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is also one of those things that have called the international community’s attention to our country again which the Clinton delegation may not ignore. Besides, we need to display something to prove to the Obama Administration that Liberia is not a trouble spot any longer.

As she roams the continent, four African leaders, including our own Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf have called for more partnership instead of increasing patronage. Clinton however does not have the will and power to seize the patronage style of relations. Again, it is how Africans govern themselves will determine whether they will live on patronage or be considered as potential partners in development.

In Kenya, where she began her tour of Africa she called on African’s to open borders to each others in trade. This is a demand that has been made for decades in Africa. Opening trade borders is now overdue, particularly in a continent that is highly dependent on foreign handouts. Opening borders to fellow Africans to promote trade and education as well as free movements of people is very necessary as we strive to integrate our economies and peoples. So Clinton’s call to Africans is highly laudable and Liberia as the oldest sovereign state on the continent must take the lead in liberalizing trade policies and limiting restrictions on goods and peoples of African origin.

Several other development issues were discussed in South Africa and the DR Congo. Emphases were placed on health issues mainly on HIV/AIDS in South Africa and in the DR Congo, the issue of women’s rights and violence against women was highly condemned, and the Kabila government was urged to find an end to the violence in the eastern region of the mineral rich country. In Angola the talks were highly centered on trade between the two countries in oil where she promised that US oil firms would give greater helps to other sectors of the Angolan economy.

It is our turn. We must take something. Since this administration took seat, several world leaders and business moguls have paid official visits here. What these visits signals are not in material gains, but the trooping of foreign leaders to our country radiates bright light on our peace and stability and also indicate that the future is brighter. In all, we hope that the gains from our visitors will translate properly to improving the lives of every citizen.

As for President Bush, he promised books and chairs. We don’t know what Obama may promise through Clinton. But like our president jointly said with her counterparts, we need more partnerships, and if the US still believes that we are what many call ‘America’s Stepchild’ then there must be a direct plan to rebuild Liberia like it was done to rebuild Europe through the Marshall Plan after World War Two.

In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, the Pen Shall Never Run Dry

PRESS STATEMENT

2009-07-15T06:15:00.000-07:00

Statement issued in Monrovia by Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei ahead of the LINSU National Congress

For immediate release July 15, 2009

As we go through these experiences of reconciliation and transition to restore total peace and tranquility to our country, we have been shocked by a major situation which puts us at a crossroad to determine the next direction of our country. The findings and report released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have met serious challenges and have sparked controversial debates in the country. It is important that the students of Liberia and the academic community provide true direction and intellectual leadership on this issue.

The report released by the TRC has interestingly been interpreted with sentimental and parochial interests thereby making it difficult for the illiterate Liberians to determine what destiny the country is headed for. I therefore call on the youth and student community to thoroughly read and research all related documents of the TRC void of prejudices, interests and biases. This will help the ordinary Liberians who have always been the victims of misinformation, disinformation, and political crises in understanding the state of reconciliation and peace in our national patrimony.
Interestingly, this has come at a time when the students of Liberia under the banner of the Liberia National Student Union are heading for a national convention to elect new code of officers and carve plans and strategies for the student community. I also call on the Congress Preparatory Committee of the Liberia National Student Union to include the report of the TRC as an agenda item during the plenary of the National Congress so that the student community can deliberate the report and take a decisive position in the interest of national peace and unity.

For the first time over decades we as students of Liberia will be assembling in the provincial city of Gbarnga to attend the National Congress of the Liberian National Student Union. As we move towards this Congress, I recommend the following:
• That we assemble peacefully and ensure that all activities of the Congress be guided by the constitution of the Union and all of the Memorandum of Understandings that were signed to ensure the hosting of this Congress; and that we work to ensure that the Congress observe the tenets of democracy for a peaceful deliberation in the interest of the student community, yea the nation

• That the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Education and the National Elections Commission fully participate in this process, and monitor it to the end to ensure that all of the MOUs signed are implemented to the fullest. In the absence of that, there are great fears that the LINSU Congress may end like the Federation of Liberian Youth general assemblies that were disrupted in Gbarnga and Kakata in 2007

Finally, I want to reaffirm my support and full endorsement of the candidacy of M. Boakai Jaleiba, Jr. for the Presidency of the Liberian National Student Union. Mr. Jaleiba has for the past years been a consistent and result-focus student activist and leader whose astute advocacy and leadership has accrued immeasurable gains to the youth and student community.

LINSU needs a vibrant and progressive leadership that will advocate for the advancement of the students of Liberia and provide the necessary leadership for their future. We believe that Mr. Jaleiba is up to the task of providing such leadership. I therefore call on all progressive student activists and leaders to support and rally around Mr. Jaleiba and his team for the revitalization of LINSU, and a vibrant and decisive leadership for the student community.

Signed: Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
Student
Department of Political Science
A.M.E. University
Camp Johnson Road
05694498

A CRITIQUE OF THE INNUENDOS OF THE IMBECILES AT THE CBL RESEARCH DEPARTMENT

2009-07-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

BY: IBRAHIM AL-BAKRI NYEI

It has been almost a year now since the series Critical Issues of National Concern under my authorship appeared in the public domain as a contribution to the national recovery, reconciliation and reconstruction process. This is an attempt to spark debate and sharpen contradictions on issues affecting the country. Interestingly, the series have remained vocal, constructive, and unequivocal in its advocacy for social and economic justice, and fundamental changes necessary to remake a nation espousing democratic credentials. Towards that end, I have always attempted to call public attention and awaken mass consciousness on malpractices in society. Unlike those who chose to fight for their freedom of speech in the bush, most of us today, aware of the human toll and tragedy that attended such violence and uprisings in our country, have resolved to counter every form of injustice, or official misconduct that has the proclivity to undermine the democratic aspirations of our people. This is why the theme of the series has been ‘In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Dry’. And to rekindle this, I can affirm again, that no amount of intimidation or heat can dry out the ink.

While preparing series XIII of Critical Issues of National Concern, I stopped to collect papers from which I collect basic information and news in the country. In the Friday, June 12, 2009 edition of the Inquirer Newspaper, I came across a farrago of misinformation, loosed arguments, and a laughable diatribe prepared by the Research Department of the Central Bank of Liberia. This was, in the limited wisdom of their apparently vacant seat of thought, a reaction to the 12th edition of ‘Critical Issues of National Concern’. In that diatribe, the research department pretended to respond to the major debate, but in a rather confrontational style, with rudimentary and disjointed arguments far removed from the real debate. Whether this was an attempt to evade the issues and shy from the main debate or to have me distracted and placed in a trench of self defense, is left with the consciousness of the intelligentsia. But what is clear is that the duffers and greenhorn researchers at the Central Bank of Liberia could not provide any relevant information to disprove the arguments of edition 12, but chose to run after eavesdroppers around town seeking to know who the author is, and how can he be tracked down. And the result was a publication of frivolous and malodorous bravados on my person. The failure of the CBL Research Department to respond to the issues instead of my person validates the popular maxim that says ‘great minds discuss ideas, little minds discuss individuals…’

In their futile adventure to discredit the content of my argument and to lure the public to believing that there is no stealing going on at the CBL, three things were simultaneously happening: A consistent campaigner against corruption was on a hunger strike displaying placards before the CBL with the slogan ‘fifteen shares 1.1 million, while 2 million people sleep hungry’; public opinion was against the CBL, and on nearly all radio talk-shows, the victims of their gluttonous predatory behavior were calling for an immediate and unconditional change in management; the Deputy Governor of the Bank, apparently on the basis of personal principles red-carded herself. Where were the researchers, and what defense can they build on these issues. There is no reason to wonder why the CBL is a vulnerable institution in our financial and monetary system. The utter shortsightedness of its research department, displayed by its inability to regularly inform management and keep the public abreast with major issues reference to the economy, banking, and foreign exchange keeps the bank and the Liberian people in a complete shadowy cloud. Let it be emphasized that the research department of the CBL currently suffers chronic intellectual poverty. And it has now resolved to adopt propaganda and PR activities to secure a reputation.

In their rambunctious fallacy, they opined that the 12th edition of Critical Issues of National Concern was a sponsored article, and as if they are in possession of receipts, the intellectually-malnourished ‘researchers’ put the price of the publications at 300 USD, and with a baseless inquiry to know: ‘How could a student afford US$300 purchase of a center page in the Analyst newspaper which carried the publication for three successive days, June 8th -10th?’ I intend not to delve into the shallowness of a logic lacking epistemological foundations, but for the record let it be made clear that as a campaigner for social justice, I have been involved with the media for many years. Many newspapers have expressed interest in publishing my articles, and this has gone for about four years without paying a cent. In fact, my commentaries are regularly published by four papers: The Analyst, The Public Agenda, The Renaissance and The Daily Observer. Most editions of the series are sometimes repeated on the basis of the relevance and national frequency of the issues discussed. The 11th edition that discussed the issue of poverty in Liberia was carried in the Analyst for a week. And during the peak of the debate of the President’s appearance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, my commentary on that issue was published continuously in three papers with the Analyst carrying it for about four times.

In the wake of the resignation of the Deputy Governor of the CBL, it is saddened to note that one of the miscreants at the Research Department of the CBL dubbed as ‘Advisor’ has launched a serious public relations campaign in a bid to have himself sold as a possible replacement. This individual with no experience with a financial institution in the world, even a local ‘susu club’ was brought back to Liberia as a campaigner for the Liberty Party. He would later fall-out with the party and its leaders as a means of getting closer to those controlling the ‘gravy’. It is laughable and completely delusive that he would dream of becoming deputy governor. His only recorded and official job experience is that of a motorcycle rider for the DHL in the United States responsible to transport packages from door to door. He has been at the center of controversies and is only known for his role in undermining credible people through mediocrity and well organized hypocritical flatteries wherever he works. I will however not waste public space to say things that everyone knows him for.

This is also the man who held the pen to demean what have had much pubic applause. In their collective reaction, the ‘advisor’ to the research department pointlessly stated that I am yet to reach where they are. On the basis of sincerity and consistent principles, let it be made clear that no one wishes to reach a peak in society where he will use his position to rob his country and keep the suffering masses in agony of dispossession and intentional deprivation. Again, no one wishes to reach a peak of riding motorcycle for DHL in the United States where he will be dismissed for stealing customers’ packages.

Central to currency and foreign exchange regulation, the issue of national reserve is very important. This information is a chorus to high school students reading fundamentals of Economics. But what save an economy from running out of reserves are effective management and a transparent and accountable system that can properly control the banking system. In a situation where our national treasury suffers serious leakages at the Central Bank of Liberia, the issue of reserve remains a farce. This is because what should be calculated and declared as reserves continuously leaks in private pockets through ‘professional robbery’.

Finally, as we all strive to consolidate gains of peace made in our country, we look forward to more contextual debates in all aspect of our political and socio-economic existence. Let the Research Department of the CBL now begin to do ground-breaking research in the country to help address the monetary concerns of our war-torn economy, and should refrain from callous propaganda meant to defend acts of fraud and economic gangsterisms in their own ranks and files. This is very critical to our economy and the current Poverty Reduction Strategy. The next publication will take an in-depth analysis of the CBL Research Department with much emphasis on the credentials of each of the chaps perambulating as researchers.

WHY THE CENTRAL BANK CASE SHOULD GO BETOND PROBE

2009-07-15T06:06:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

The persistent reports of financial improprieties at the nation’s regulatory bank (CENTRAL BANK) must claim the attention of President Sirleaf’s Administration.
This has become necessary given the negative consequences that may follow should the authorities fail to act decisively and promptly.

A year has gone in the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy which is tied among other things to economic revitalization backed by a prudent fiscal management system in order to restore domestic as well as international credibility. It is only the irrational people or put it bluntly “mad” people that would invest their monies in a spoilt system.

The recent actions by the management of the Central Bank led by Mills Jones have caused lots of embarrassment to this Government and steps must be taken to save our country from such unacceptable negligence in our banking system. The fundamental question that was not addressed in a hastily arranged press conference by the Bank management was ‘why did the management ignore the Executive Order #3’ which specifies the procedures involve inter-banks transactions. The assertion by the Bank Governor that he personally detected the fraud in the transfer of over 1million Dollars from the Central Bank to ECOBANK is yet, another charade meant to save a badly managed situation.

This should not be the end of the story but rather a clue to a saga that continues to erode the credibility of Central Bank and if not nib bed in the bud could spread across our entire banking system. It is clear that what we have witnessed at the Central Bank in recent times is antithetical to what is being preached by the current Administration. Right from the onset, President Sirleaf declared war on corruption and numerous attempts by the President to discourage people from engaging in corrupt practices and to sanitize the system. Yet, it would appear that in the absence of stringent measures including instant dismissal, this menace would continue to pull us back into the ugly past that brought us to this point.

Indeed, the public is anxiously watching to see what steps would be taken against those whose actions or inaction have caused such humiliating situations for our principal financial institutions namely the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance. In any case, the decision to charge the board with the responsibility to opine on the fate of the Deputy Governor is unnecessary since the case involved is criminal in nature, the matter be referred to the relevant security apparatus for proper investigation and then forward those that would be found culpable to court for trial and possible prosecution.

It may be necessary here to point out that any attempts to down play this criminally and deliberately executed plan, would send out a wrong signal that this Administration is paying a lip service to fighting corruption a charge that has been persistently denied by this Government. Would President Sirleaf act and now?

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XII

2009-06-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

ON THE IMPROPRIETIES AND INEFFICIENCIES OF THE CENTRAL BANK OF LIBERIA

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

There is nothing more relevant and imperative to ensuring transparency and accountability in any given economy than a strong and credible financial system under the supervisions of a policy driven institution. The current post-crisis economy of Liberia, ruined and poorly managed cannot progressively compete in the global economy in the absence of efficient financial institutions properly controlled by a central bank. In 1999, the National Bank of Liberia became the Central Bank of Liberia with broad functions and new managerial system with its purpose of directing the monetary policies of the Government of Liberia and playing supervisory role over financial institutions in the country.

As our country gradually recovers, the need for a strong economic system need not be overemphasized, and the driving forces behind a strong national economic system are the financial institutions in the private sector and the financial agencies and bureaus in the public sector including the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Commerce. The public sector agencies need to be strengthened and efficient in order to be able to control the system. Unfortunately, it seems that the bureaucracies of the agencies of government in both the fiscal and monetary sectors are still weak despite the impressions of experts from abroad.
Amongst all of these institutions, the Central Bank seems to be the most vulnerable and ineffective agency in the public financial domain. The ineffectiveness of the Central Bank of Liberia to respond to burning fiscal and monetary issues and its inability to control and regulate the financial system is deepening the wounds of our fragile economy: the uncontrolled price system spurred by a fluctuating foreign exchange market and a dual currency situation that has made the local currency to depreciate in value; extensively, these conditions are gravely affecting the livelihoods of low income earners and widening the poverty pool in the country, amongst a plethora of problems the Central Bank faces.

Beside its inability to initiate and implement vibrant fiscal and monetary policies that will build hope in customers for commercial banks, the trend the Central Bank has taken and its weak system makes it difficult if not impossible for one to trust the local system for major financial transactions. Corruption cases are routinely reported from the Central Bank. One wonders as to whether the Central Bank top officials including its Governor and his deputy do care to follow the laid down procedures governing the nation’s cardinal banking institution.

The poor services at the regulatory bank coupled with the lack of internal control have exposed the entire country to criminal operatives who regularly infiltrate the system and rob the country of millions of dollars. The situation is so serious that it has the potential to undo whatever measures is being put in place to guard against corruption and by extension defeat the very purpose of President Sirleaf’s anti-corruption crusade.

It is interesting to note that the Central Bank is still performing functions of commercial bank by serving individuals through bank tellers. Civil Servant salaries and other local transactions should be left with commercial banks. It is widely believed that the numerous scandals at the Central Bank sometimes spring from its preoccupation with lot of local transactions which it seems incapable to control. When a civil servant attempts to take thirty minutes of his or her working time to encash a single salary cheque at the Central Bank, he or she is likely to spend not less than two hours in queues, or if unfortunate, spend the whole day without a result.

These and many more are sufficient to tell that the bank needs massive reforms in all of its operations. The recent transfer of over USD 1,000, 000 from the CBL to a local commercial bank, ECOBANK appears to be the tip of the iceberg or signs of maby more things to come, and this scandal based on the mystery associated with it, need to be handled thoroughly if we are to get to the bottom of the crime, the criminals and their networks. Our investigation so far has raised more questions than answers. All reports and analyses suggest that the transfer of that amount from the national treasury to a private account was well organized, calculated, and effectuated with ease, and also suggests that a single criminal with all the wisdoms of an evil-genius cannot singularly succeed in such a high level deal. This must be a big deal with big hands, and the forger of the president’s signature must have just been used as a crime-carrier. However it may be, it remains a mystery and a complicated case. It does not stop remaining a mystery, it shows or exposes the reckless abandon at the CBL management in handling our postwar banking system in a terrain with growing crime rates. It stretches to a length of telling how deep-seated is corruption in the present regime, and the way it will end will tell how effective or serious this regime is in mitigating corruption. The said amount which is over one million US dollars was just about to be distributed among four to five persons, while thousands of people died of hunger, preventable diseases, and at the same time while thousands of children remain out of school.

Three cardinal issues are central to the success of every post-conflict nation, namely, security, respect for human rights and a sound economic management system. Of all the three items mentioned, economic management is of paramount importance since the other two cannot become a reality in the absence of a credible banking control system which does not only ensure the allocation and the use of the state resources, but the one that would ensure that a proper mechanism is put into place to regulate the circulation and transfer of the state fund/resources for whatever purposes. Perhaps the presence of GEMAP and the other control measures put in place by this Administration attest to this.

Regrettably, however, the news emanating from the two principal financial and banking institutions, the CBL and the Ministry of Finance is less than satisfactory. Employees of the two institutions apparently take undue advantages of the recklessness of administrators and go ahead with duplicating and recycling checques, something that cost the country millions of dollars. There must be an established chain in these issues because cheques missing at the Ministry of Finance can be encashed at the Central Bank of Liberia, and checques encashed at the CBL usually come from the MOF. This syndicate has to be uncovered to save the public resources from landing in unauthorized private pockets. In the one million dollars case, had it not been for divine intervention and for professionals at the commercial bank in exposing crime of this magnitude, the issue of that huge sum of money would be left as history to be discussed at public lectures and the criminals left to parade the streets as witnessed here in the past, a situation the current regime claims to be against.

There are more than one hundred more questions to answer around this one million dollar transfer, but we will not delve into listing them. The mystery surrounding it goes beyond the understanding of financial and banking experts, but what is clear and irrefutable is that mass corruption exists at the top level of the CBL and the MOF. All transactions in credible institutions are well documented with all necessary details, and requests are never made without stated purposes. Sadly, the purported letter that ordered the transfer of the money from the CBL did not state the purpose for which the money was requested. What a travesty of banking management procedures. Moreover the failure of the CBL to institute a signature verification system to validate signatures in transactions is unfortunate and speaks of professional limitations and inadequacies at the level of management. The most glaring of all the inadequacies is to ignore the presidential directives which set the financial regulatory framework for the bank in Executive Order Number Three (NO. 3). Whether it was a clever attempt to rob the process by intentionally ignoring this framework is another spider story whose explanations can only be found in traditional African tales.

-In The Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

THE POLITICIZATION OF THE MANDINGO COMMUNITY: INTERNAL IDENTIY CRISIS; ELITISM VS GRASSROOTISM; WHO YIELDS THE DIVIDENDS?

2009-05-13T05:43:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Ethnicity is a critical point of rally in political situations, particularly in Africa where ethnic politics has dominated at the expense of nationalism. Liberian politics is a good tool for experimentation of the test of ethnicity in African politics to be used in any political laboratory. The first ethnic group to dominate the politics and socio-economy of Liberia was the minority group of settlers referred to as the Americo-Liberians. In the 1980s emerged a group of indigenous African tribes who succeeded in violently overthrowing the Americo-Liberian hegemony that ruled for over a century.

The new class consisting of indegionous tribes could not unite on a front of pursuing a real political and economic agenda or ideology that could direct political and economic actions for the country, but soon sank into feuds stirred by ethnic alignments. Finally, the leader of the juntas and his tribe succeeded in the fight and his ethnic group succeeded in taking control of the state. What came after were raids, and attempted genocides on rival tribes. The attempt by the NPFL to physically eliminate certain tribes in the early 1990S by a declared genocide tells the rest of the story.

Varying dimensions of ethnic politics are all over Africa: Rwanda saw the Hutu-Tutsi horror. South Africa remains governed by black African tribes with no prospects for white minorities. Sudan is nearly divided into two states of Arab North and Black African South. Liberia presents a different typology because Americo-Liberians since 1980 are becoming assimilated into African tribes that neighbor their settlements. Additionally, no tribe in Liberia is so dominant to secure an electoral victory independently.
Electoral processes in Liberia, like the last one conducted in 2005, can further give sufficient evidence of the ethnicization of Liberian politics. In 2005, every tribe that had a popular candidate foresaw a chance to win the presidency. Like the Bassa saw a president in Brumskine, The Kru did in Weah, the Vai in Sherman, the Gola in Johnson-Sirleaf. The Mandingo was a visible monkey-range resulting from inner conflicts and the declaration of a lifetime loyalty by one of its organizations for candidate Johnson-Sirleaf. But the Western Mandingo went the other way and supported their son, G.V. Kromah as was demonstrated by the overwhelming success of his party in Lofa County.

These tribal dimensions of politics in Africa lay the basis for which politicians hide behind ethnic groups in pursuing their hidden agendas like the Krahns and Mandingoes saw their liberators in the 1990s. Since the civil war ended, lessons from the politicization of tribes as thought by the war has been well learnt by other tribes. The only ethnic organization that committed its members to a political party, and in the name of all its kinsmen, was the National Mandingo Caucus. This declaration of lifetime loyalty by the Caucus to the candidate of the Unity Party, according to observers, portrayed a loathsome betrayal to those who led liberation struggles when the tribe was nearly wiped out by attempted genocide. This is not however the issue. This premise has been set to give a brief look at the essence of tribes in African politics vis-à-vis the adverse political consequences (mostly persecution) that follow when a tribe falls on the wrong side of the coin.

With what Liberian Mandingoes went through before reaching this far, their professed role in the 2005 elections that was widely criticized and seeing as an internally divided tribe, and the way forward as some local organizations like the elite-based Mandingo Caucus ( NMC) and the so-called grassroots-based Concerned Mandingo Society are working toward are central to this article.
It is with no doubt that this writer declares that the Liberian Mandingoes are most often criticized and reduced to non-citizen status by other Liberians. This has been experienced all over the country, and in many cases they are referred to as foreigners - Guineans or Malians. The driving force behind this resentment has not been established, but several factors may be assumed to be stirring such unfounded hatred against the Mandingo tribe in Liberia.
First, there is plausibility in concluding that Mandingoes in Liberia are despised for their uncompromising religious belief in Islam. The Mandingo tribe has demonstrated a strong belief and commitment to Islam, and with all the challenges of the society, it has been difficult for them to be converted to other faiths. Therefore, as Islam is resented by non-Muslims, the Mandingoes are as well resented. To some extent, some people in Liberia have come to make Islam synonymous with Mandingo, and that whosoever is a Muslim, is a Mandingo.

Second, another reason behind the public resentment of the Mandingo tribe could be on the basis of sheer jealousy as a result of the economic and commercial strides made by Mandingoes in the country. Currently there is a reported dominance of certain local trade industries by the Mandingoes – transportation, motor garage, petroleum industry, etc.
The above are just cited as sources of external hatred for the Mandingo community which are baseless and unfounded. This needs not to bother the community. What the community needs is to push forward in unison with purpose and objective.
The most important thing is the internal dispute and sometimes negative classifications that occur within the Mandingo community, and this is where the outsiders see as leakages in their attempts to demeaning the Mandingoes in Liberia: there is a complete disunity amongst Liberian Mandingoes, and the Mandingo ethnic group is the only ethnic group so far seeing in Liberia with a well established elite organization riding and collecting political olive branches using the name of the entire tribe.

The most controversial and what by chance made the National Mandingo Caucus popular in Liberia was its declaration of the vote of the Mandingoes for candidate Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in the 2005 presidential elections. So many reactions have been written to that effect, and debates have opened and closed on that matter. But the mere fact that such declaration of support by a club of less than twenty men in the name of thousands of innocent people nursing souls of persecutions simply because of the same tribe was a social disservice and complete misrepresentation tantamount to an act of quisling. No one has a moral ground to question a club of less than twenty for their personal political opinions, but to be brave and use the name of an ethnic group in a country where political persecutions are targeted at tribes on the bases of their proximity to presidents or politicians was a mournful and dreadful political error.

Most of the arguments against the caucus at the time can now have sufficient evidence to prove that the few guys used the tribe as canon fodder to obtain positions and business contracts in the government of the candidate they supported. The following are true and indubitable: Most of them are holding positions in the current government; some of them have government contracts; the Caucus has not been heard since 2005; it has made no representation for the Mandingo community anywhere since they attained their objective of entering government and winning contracts; it cannot boast of a roster with fifty registered members.

If this had happened and the community remains loosely connected or its source of unification for purpose remains undefined, then there is a need to revitalize, reform, remake, or design some institutional mechanism that will give leadership direction to the entire Mandingo nation in the Liberian state. The Mandingo nation in Liberia stretches across the territorial landscape of the country. It is one of the few tribes that adapt and settle nearly in all parts of the country. This ubiquity of the tribe in the country which is primarily due to the meaningful trade and commercial activities of its members should be seen as a solid point of rally and strength, not as a point of division as it is unfortunately happening. It is regrettable to observe that people most often refer to others as Lofa Mandingo, Bong County Mandingo, Nimba Mandingo, Monrovia Mandingo, and sometimes Gbonyiaka or Konyianka.

On the other hand, there is a considerable number of people of Mandingo origin who are currently identified with other tribes like the Vai, the Gbandi, The Gio, Manos, Kpelle, etc. Some of these resulted from intermarriages. And some people who are by nature and origin Mandingo are currently identified with tribes in settlements where their grandparents settled during commercial or Islamic missionary activities. These people are most often seen differently by other Mandingoes and sometimes face serious identity crisis as a result of resentments in their settlements and even the tribe (Mandingo) of their origin. The Vais, for example, would refer to people in their settlements-The Kannehs, Nyeis, Kromahs, etc- as Mandingoes, and the Mandingoes would refer to them as Vai. The Massaley’s and Dukuly’s, like the ones from Gbarpolu and Bomi County would be called Mandingoes by the Kpelle, and the Mandingoes would call them Kpelles. There are many other cases of identity crisis for people who are originally of the Mandingo tribe.

These references are made in attempts to question the true identity of people. But what happens in the final analysis is that it further divides the community and opens spaces of distrusts amongst members of the Mandingo tribe.
The tribe is numerically large and economically potent to make significant impacts in the country that no one can question or detest. But making positive impacts can only be achievable with a untied community fronting a common cause. Descriptions in the forms of the regional or dialectical differences in the community are only tantamount to weakening the strength of the community.

I n the midst of these challenges, the current social and political discrepancies that exist in the community with two organizations claiming supremacy or control, further frustrate the prospects of uniting the Mandingo nation in Liberia despite its unique culture, religious commonality and economic viability of its members. These two organizations, the National Mandingo Caucus of Liberia (the elites) and the Concerned Mandingo Society of Liberia or COMASL (the so-called grassrooters) are struggling daily to terminate the existence of each other. The COMASL which has membership in various Mandingo dominated communities pays political loyalty to the perceived liberators of the Mandingoes, but it did so in 2005 by actions left with the discretion of its members, while the Caucus openly declared its loyalty to the candidate of the Unity Party (perceived to be a supporter of the movement that attempted a genocide against the Mandingoes). The dividends from politically auctioning the Mandingo community in 2005 is currently being enjoyed by the Caucus, and it is on the basis of its political propinquity to the status quo and the financial muscles of its members that the caucus is claiming absolute supremacy and it is now inviting all Mandingoes to a national convention with attempts to also merge the COMASL into the structure and objectives of its organization either overtly or covertly. COMASL on the other hand claims supremacy on the basis of its nearness to the people and ability to spontaneously mobilize the people at any given time.
The struggle between the two groups is creating more distrusts in the community as Caucus members and COMASL members are usually engaged in destructive criticisms, but none can actually boast of a meaningful social benefit to the people for the past two years. Does the community actually need them, or does the community really need an umbrella organization? The essence of their existence shall only be determined by the Mandingo community if indeed they are engaged into meaningful programs that yield benefits to the community, or if they actually provide true leadership to the people.
As the Caucus convention nears, it is prudent to find common grounds and allow for the emergence of more Mandingo organizations in the country that must compute with development activities, but not to compute for supremacy only to impress upon others that it has full control which lends it the authority to determine which political movement the Mandingo community should support when national elections nears.
We expect to see from all Mandingo organizations in the country efficient systems of governance, social service programs, cultural activities to unite the people, and empowerment programs that will help the community to continue making meaningful contributions to the development of the country.

The Gbarnga convention, as called by the National Mandingo Caucus, must not be left with the tradition of the caucus, but must see as a priority the need to serve the community with a sense and commitment void of cynicism and cronyism. This convention must be able to carve out ways of intervening and addressing some of the problems face by the Mandingo people in Liberia, including the looming land disputes, and if possible the mandate and function of the caucus must be clearly defined, so as to make public its function and essence of existence. In this way, one would easily know which organization is specialized in social services, development activities, cultural affairs, or political activism and mobilization in the community.

Finally we expect to sharpen lot of contradictions in Gbarnga, and to perforate some of the balloons of impression-making and impersonation. But above all, we hope that the Gbarnga convention will be successful and will provide for a new beginning.

See you in Gbarnga.

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN XI

2009-05-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

ADDRESSING POVERTY IN LIBERIA

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

In attempts to discuss chronic poverty and living standards in a country with abundant resources and favorable climate for agricultural activities – considerable amount of rainfall and sunshine - this edition of the series will assess the meaning of poverty in the Liberian context and its impacts in the rural and urban settings. Intermittently, the writer will attempt to provide recommendations through the analysis.

Finding suitable meaning to poverty in Liberia and its implications in both rural and urban communities will put us in better positions to determine why poverty exists in Liberia, who is poor, and why; and who is rich and how. At present, Liberia is one of the world’s poorest countries, and its people are positioned on a line of disadvantaged in measuring human and social developments – poor maternal health, high level of illiteracy, high level of teenage pregnancy, and prevalence of diseases (TB, Malaria, diarrhea, etc). The country also lags behind in the achievement of the UN Millennium Development goals. These developments, regularly blamed on the 14 year civil wars, are prevailing in a nation rich in rubber, timber, iron ore, gold and diamond, and a vast virgin forest, and a virgin tourism industry. This article does not dismiss the current progress and prospects that lie ahead; its focus is to discuss poverty as it is in Liberia. It is however optimistic that the nation will rise and surmount the problems posed by chronic poverty, but believes that this can only be achieved with a people –centered and visionary leadership.

According to Ted K. Bradshaw, poverty in its most general sense is the lack of necessities. On the basis of shared values of humanity, basic food, shelter, medical care, security and freedom are necessary for the growth and sustainability of an ideal life. When a family, like most Liberian families cannot send their children to school; cannot afford better meals, and lacks economic security and protection from threats and harms, that family is considered poor. Socially, families in such conditions stand the risks of being torn apart badly, and real family life with values become relatively absent. In most instances the children lose confidence in their parents thereby breeding terrible attitudes of indiscipline which soon become burdens on society at large. This is how crimes, illiteracy, prostitution, teenage pregnancy and many social ills are borne in Liberia. In 2005 Save The Children – UK reported that 90 percent of high school girls from a survey conducted in Monrovia survived on prostitution. Recent reports from Gbarpolu and Lofa counties indicate that teenage pregnancy is on the increase. The two counties are in rural Liberia that hosts 73 percent of the country’s poorest (Liberia PRS). If one is to interpret the facial expressions of school-going children in Liberia, it is psychosocially possible to discover that besides thinking of his/her lesson, a child may be worrying about getting a meal to have lunch, tuition and fees, after school meal, and other necessities parents fall short of providing.

Poverty in another term means the absence of development, and the absence of favorable alternatives to an individual in the pursuit of maintaining his human dignity through better living standards. I coined this definition after a tour of several poor communities in Monrovia and its suburbs where I saw the extent to which poverty had consumed the human dignity of people that up to present they use bushes, swamps and beaches for toilets, eat anywhere, and no one can distinguish children from elders because they are all competing for basic life needs at the same time. These people, I again realized were only victims of failed governance systems and poor management of resource that have made the abundant natural resources inaccessible to a small population that have not crossed 3.5 million for over 20 years.

Those communities, most of which are slums, need long term programs in microfinance assistance or grants to help individuals and families get involved with productive activities. And affirmative action through development programs are needed as well to provide for them sources of safe drinking water, good environment and accessible medical care. Sound and efficient local leadership systems that will give communities ownership and managerial control over their own resources will also take us steps forward in reducing poverty across the country.

Development reports continue to present the case of poverty as prevalent in rural Liberia, while this series does not intend to challenge that, its author believes that urban-based poverty is also prevalent and it is the worst because it is a major cause of crimes and prostitutions, and also political uprisings. Reports of poverty in Liberia must therefore present fair cases base on threat potential and security analyses.
Urban communities are sensitive to lot of things, including political situations, prices in commodities, and new technologies. While the rate of poverty relative to the affected communities threats people in varying ways, the tendency of urban-based poverty to get terrible reactions that destabilizes nations is very high. It is believed that most people migrate to urban areas due to the lack of viable economic activities, and efficient social services in the rural settlements.
Most of those that sometimes migrate to urban areas are young people in search of greener pastures or in pursuit of educational goals. With their resettlements in the urban areas without available jobs also lead to mass urban youth unemployment. The Government of Liberia and development institutions must therefore be sensitive to these facts. To avoid mass urban migration that is sometimes a cause of mass urban unemployment, Liberia needs to focus on a more pragmatic system of decentralizing economic and educational activities. The rural communities must be given better incentives to promote agricultural activities and employment. Better education and health services must also be extended to communities in rural Liberia.

Above all, government must ensure a transparent and equitable distribution of the natural resources across the landscape. Concentrating resources in one place with few people threatens peace and security everywhere in the country. Finally, it is prudent to reemphasize that addressing poverty in Liberia needs to be done with a pragmatic approach that must ensure the opening of rural communities. This can be done through affirmative action mainly for counties or communities that are mostly affected by poverty.
-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY, PROFESSIONALISM VS. INDIVIDUAL GRUDGE: THE CASE OF FRONT PAGE AFRICA AND LAWRENCE BROPLEH

2009-04-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Ethics in every profession requires nothing more than rules of integrity and procedures that ensure rights of clients and the responsibility of the practioners to the clients. Professionalism on duty can be simply described as the practical demonstration of ethics.
Media ethics stress among other things, confidentiality and the protection of source(s). It also emphasizes the rights of newsmakers in any case, and spurns privacy invasion. This is a rudimentary premise set for the common reader to understand the issues that sometimes appear to be complicated to a bedazzled state where editors and writers found canopying shields to vent out individual frustrations or rancor against other people, particularly when caught in self-made disputes.
It is so obvious that the current dispensation has allowed for much press freedom. This is a great victory for all activists of press freedom and democracy. What remains a major challenge in consolidating true democracy is to build in the press traits of ethical responsibilities and professionalisms that will ensure the rights of the readers and the rights of the newsmakers as well from the hordes of privacy invasions in today’s media that are mostly blown out of extreme emotions, senile ambitions, incompetence, and individual bitterness.
The current media landscape in Liberia can boast of at least 15 local dailies on the newsstand every working day. This unhindered presence of papers on the newsstand tells of the level of freedom media houses and practitioners enjoy in the country currently. This is however not the issue, because it was advocated for and it has been achieved.
The issue here now is how to have the free press sustained. Can it be done through arrogant reportage or ridiculous flippancies that bring no real news, but mere stories associated with news makers? Of course not. The element of prominence in news writing does not mean whatsoever a prominent person does is news. The issue must be newsworthy before the aspect of prominence is counted.
The above analysis of professionalism and ethics in news writing is attempted to make a decisive intervention in what seems to appear as a rancorous outburst against Information Minister Lawrence Bropleh by the Front Page Africa Website.
In several articles, the FPA had been overwhelmed with personal grief and emotions at the expense of the journalistic profession which among all of its requirements emphasizes objectivity and neutrality of a news writer. Over the years, the FPA has become a popular site for its groundbreaking news on corruption, e.g. The Email Scam. Whether the FPA has been right in entering or hacking into personal emails, a real example of cyber crime is a question. But that does not in any way radiate any commitment to the anti-corruption fight launched in this country, and it is also no indicator of good journalism, because a public relations media outlet for an overzealous “Accountant” harboring future political ambitions does not signal objectivity to the intelligentsia.
The FPA has been finally brought to the fore, and all skeletal bones of its operations as a propaganda machine of the politician wearing mask and garment of an “Accountant” is now made public as everyone sees its articles and the sides of the pendulum it swings particularly when the “Accountant’s” interests is known.
In its 2008 purported Cabinet grade sheet, the FPA in flagrant ignominy and audacious show of odium against Lawrence Bropleh, graded the venerated Information Minister an ‘F’ indicating, according to Liberian local schooling system, that the Information Minister and his Ministry ‘performed dismally’, and ‘did not achieve anything for the year’. This grading was however laughable because lot of professional Liberians working in the Cabinet who have made significant strides in reforming and accelerating our development process were also stab by the spineless saw of the FPA. What a sheer fallacy and frivolous show of ethical misconduct and professional crime? Was the Front Page on the Back Page when the MICAT was making significant gains in 2008 including programs of empowering and trainings for local journalists, or was its lenses covered with dusts when the MICAT in partnership with CSOs finalized and presented three draft media laws for enactment into law? Generally, can the FPA tell under whose administrative direction has the MICAT ever organized an uninterrupted weekly press briefing in this country, or under whose leadership has the MICAT ever been vibrant in all functions-information, culture and the newly explored virgin tourism industry? Though all empirical evidence can speak of the visionary leadership of Lawrence Bropleh that has transformed the MICAT, the FPA is yet to appreciate that. But Bropleh’s achievements or that of any other Liberian cannot be left to be measured by a mercenary media outlet, but by the Liberian people whose confidence Bropleh and his likes of level-headed and concerned citizens continue to feast with pride as a result of their invaluable service to the nation.
The most recent and controversial version of FPA’s smear campaigns against outstanding public servants is its futile attempt to distract Lawrence Bropleh from the speed at which he is moving with progress in the Information Ministry, and his information revolution that has now made Government widely open and visible like a public theatre. This move by the FPA, as can be described by the British media expert, James Shell, is nothing other than abusing the rights of press freedom ‘to fulfill illegal mercenary duties’.
In an article entitled “Did Bropleh Mislead ‘Investor’? Minister Denies Peddling, Misusing Sirleaf’s Name”, the FPA neglected all professional responsibilities in an attempt to destroy Lawrence Bropleh. With all clarities from the Minister, the FPA concluded by listing the Minister among those in the habit of influence peddling by using the President’s name. The article also refused to appreciate all the nationalistic steps taken by Bropleh to salvage the natural resources form the ‘profiteering-philanthropist’, but the FPA rather kept on frivolity expecting to be on the side of the truth by rallying unfounded grounds that would at all cost implicate the Minister. Any objective analysis of the interaction between the Minister and the Belgian trader under the guise of a ‘philanthropist’ cannot indict Bropleh for influence peddling as the FPA would want people to believe. It takes a dedicated public servant to take the position Bropleh took during his interactions with the Belgian trader.
In this propaganda piece, the FPA committed sixty-five grammatical errors ranging from poor sentence construction to unparallel flow of ideas and from careless mechanics to serious conflicts between the subjects and the verbs. Seven illogical arguments and numerous breaches of professional ethics from the article were also discovered. The FPA however does not care as to whether the intelligentsia will form an opinion against this article considering its bold-faced absurdities, poor construction, ill-fated logic and disjointed arguments. What the FPA cares for is to tarnish, and discredit people of distinguishable records who fail to succumb to their overtures. What a futile adventure? This cannot in any way discourage or minimize the enthusiasm of Lawrence Bropleh nor can it have him distracted from his services to this country.
The next part of this article will expose the source of FPA’s support or the station that is fueling it propaganda machine against hardworking Liberians.

ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY, PROFESSIONALISM VS INDIVIDUAL GRUDGE: THE CASE OF FRONT PAGE AFRICA AND LAWRENCE BROPLEH

2009-04-22T06:39:00.001-07:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Ethics in every profession requires nothing more than rules of integrity and procedures that ensure rights of clients and the responsibility of the practioners to the clients. Professionalism on duty can be simply described as the practical demonstration of ethics.

Media ethics stress among other things, confidentiality and the protection of source(s). It also emphasizes the rights of newsmakers in any case, and spurns privacy invasion. This is a rudimentary premise set for the common reader to understand the issues that sometimes appear to be complicated to a bedazzled state where editors and writers found canopying shields to vent out individual frustrations or rancor against other people, particularly when caught in self-made disputes.

It is so obvious that the current dispensation has allowed for much press freedom. This is a great victory for all activists of press freedom and democracy. What remains a major challenge in consolidating true democracy is to build in the press traits of ethical responsibilities and professionalisms that will ensure the rights of the readers and the rights of the newsmakers as well from the hordes of privacy invasions in today’s media that are mostly blown out of extreme emotions, senile ambitions, incompetence, and individual bitterness.

The current media landscape in Liberia can boast of at least 15 local dailies on the newsstand every working day. This unhindered presence of papers on the newsstand tells of the level of freedom media houses and practitioners enjoy in the country currently. This is however not the issue, because it was advocated for and it has been achieved.

The issue here now is how to have the free press sustained. Can it be done through arrogant reportage or ridiculous flippancies that bring no real news, but mere stories associated with news makers? Of course not. The element of prominence in news writing does not mean whatsoever a prominent person does is news. The issue must be newsworthy before the aspect of prominence is counted.

The above analysis of professionalism and ethics in news writing is attempted to make a decisive intervention in what seems to appear as a rancorous outburst against Information Minister Lawrence Bropleh by the Front Page Africa Website.

In several articles, the FPA had been overwhelmed with personal grief and emotions at the expense of the journalistic profession which among all of its requirements emphasizes objectivity and neutrality of a news writer. Over the years, the FPA has become a popular site for its groundbreaking news on corruption, e.g. The Email Scam. Whether the FPA has been right in entering or hacking into personal emails, a real example of cyber crime is a question. But that does not in any way radiate any commitment to the anti-corruption fight launched in this country, and it is also no indicator of good journalism, because a public relations media outlet for an overzealous “Accountant” harboring future political ambitions does not signal objectivity to the intelligentsia.

The FPA has been finally brought to the fore, and all skeletal bones of its operations as a propaganda machine of the politician wearing mask and garment of an “Accountant” is now made public as everyone sees its articles and the sides of the pendulum it swings particularly when the “Accountant’s” interests is known.

In its 2008 purported Cabinet grade sheet, the FPA in flagrant ignominy and audacious show of odium against Lawrence Bropleh, graded the venerated Information Minister an ‘F’ indicating, according to Liberian local schooling system, that the Information Minister and his Ministry ‘performed dismally’, and ‘did not achieve anything for the year’. This grading was however laughable because lot of professional Liberians working in the Cabinet who have made significant strides in reforming and accelerating our development process were also stab by the spineless saw of the FPA. What a sheer fallacy and frivolous show of ethical misconduct and professional crime? Was the Front Page on the Back Page when the MICAT was making significant gains in 2008 including programs of empowering and trainings for local journalists, or was its lenses covered with dusts when the MICAT in partnership with CSOs finalized and presented three draft media laws for enactment into law? Generally, can the FPA tell under whose administrative direction has the MICAT ever organized an uninterrupted weekly press briefing in this country, or under whose leadership has the MICAT ever been vibrant in all functions-information, culture and the newly explored virgin tourism industry? Though all empirical evidence can speak of the visionary leadership of Lawrence Bropleh that has transformed the MICAT, the FPA is yet to appreciate that. But Bropleh’s achievements or that of any other Liberian cannot be left to be measured by a mercenary media outlet, but by the Liberian people whose confidence Bropleh and his likes of level-headed and concerned citizens continue to feast with pride as a result of their invaluable service to the nation.

The most recent and controversial version of FPA’s smear campaigns against outstanding public servants is its futile attempt to distract Lawrence Bropleh from the speed at which he is moving with progress in the Information Ministry, and his information revolution that has now made Government widely open and visible like a public theatre. This move by the FPA, as can be described by the British media expert, James Shell, is nothing other than abusing the rights of press freedom ‘to fulfill illegal mercenary duties’.

In an article entitled “Did Bropleh Mislead ‘Investor’? Minister Denies Peddling, Misusing Sirleaf’s Name”, the FPA neglected all professional responsibilities in an attempt to destroy Lawrence Bropleh. With all clarities from the Minister, the FPA concluded by listing the Minister among those in the habit of influence peddling by using the President’s name. The article also refused to appreciate all the nationalistic steps taken by Bropleh to salvage the natural resources form the ‘profiteering-philanthropist’, but the FPA rather kept on frivolity expecting to be on the side of the truth by rallying unfounded grounds that would at all cost implicate the Minister. Any objective analysis of the interaction between the Minister and the Belgian trader under the guise of a ‘philanthropist’ cannot indict Bropleh for influence peddling as the FPA would want people to believe. It takes a dedicated public servant to take the position Bropleh took during his interactions with the Belgian trader.

In this propaganda piece, the FPA committed sixty-five grammatical errors ranging from poor sentence construction to unparallel flow of ideas and from careless mechanics to serious conflicts between the subjects and the verbs. Seven illogical arguments and numerous breaches of professional ethics from the article were also discovered. The FPA however does not care as to whether the intelligentsia will form an opinion against this article considering its bold-faced absurdities, poor construction, ill-fated logic and disjointed arguments. What the FPA cares for is to tarnish, and discredit people of distinguishable records who fail to succumb to their overtures. What a futile adventure? This cannot in any way discourage or minimize the enthusiasm of Lawrence Bropleh nor can it have him distracted from his services to this country.

The next part of this article will expose the source of FPA’s support or the station that is fueling it propaganda machine against hardworking Liberians.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DEMOCRACY AND YOUTH DEVELOPMENT IN POST-CONFLICT LIBERIA

2009-04-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

STATEMENT DELIVERED BY IBRAHIM AL-BAKRI NYEI AT A ONE-DAY SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZZED BY THE YOUTH UNITED FOR CHANGE IN THE TOWNSHIP OF NEW GEORGIAON MARCH 28, 2009

I was pleased and honored to have received a note of invitation from the Youth United for Change to present a paper on a very important and challenging topic that has a resounding relevance in contemporary political discourses and the reconstruction o9f our war-torn nation.

Upon receipt of the invitation, several thoughts began to pierce my mind. First, I was flattered by the invitation considering my limitations and the abundance of knowledgeable and resourceful men and women in Liberia including many prominent youth activities.

Second, I began to wonder as to why a specific topic considering democracy and youth must be a subject of the discourse, and particularly assigned to me.
Having undergone several thoughts and reflections in which my memories recalled the participation of young people in governance, and the terrible consequences that can be visited upon the young people when the society breaks into anarchy and the machineries of government cease to functionally impact their lives, I was quick to realize the essence of the blending. That was what I think liberated me from what I earlier saw as a mental incarceration.

However, it is of significant interest and a resounding prospect for progressive developments in Liberia to see young people in the midst of socio-economic challenges, mobilizing themselves into civil society groups to find alternative solutions to the complex political and socio-economic problems facing the country. Indeed this is a laudable venture which must be encouraged and promoted across the country.

When I received the invitation calling me to present on the topic “The importance of Democracy and youth Development”, I saw it as a broad topic that stretches beyond the horizon with academic and scholarship potentials to demand a global understanding. Again considering our immediate history and national demands as a post-conflict state in still in transition, I thought it necessary to narrow the topic to a particular setting using a case study.

I therefore seek your indulgence my distinguish audience and organizers to permit me to modify the topic as “The Importance of Democracy and Youth Development in Post-conflict Liberia”.

According to experts of international relations, from 1989-2003, the Liberian state ceased to exist as a functional sovereign authority with monopoly over the use of violence. The state deeply sank into terror when rebel forces or illegal citizen organizations under the guise of Liberation groups competed with the state on the use of violence. Liberia therefore became qualified to be listed in the category of ‘failed-states’.

It is important to briefly retrospect on the undemocratic nature of governance in Liberia that opened the precipice of grief, mass frustration and distrust, and finally the violence and the civil war.

The history of governance in Liberia is replete with a tradition of undemocratic practices and imperial leadership. For over 100 years an ethic minority of Americo –Liberian built an absolute and hegemonic control over all facets of the Liberian society, from the politics to the economy and to the social institutions
This kept the country polarized with fears because the vast majority of indigenous African ethnic groups were kept marginalized, disenfranchised, economically dispossessed, and were reduced to subservient levels.

The challenge to the autocracy was built by young Liberians who organized various pressure groups to demand change, reforms and equitable distributions of the nation’s wealth.

Finally, the Americo-Liberian hegemony was deposed by another group of young Liberians enlisted in the armed forces through a bloody coup. It was a sad day in history, because coup d’état in all its forms, is illegal, unconstitutional, barbaric, and a recipe for war and instability.

The history of activism, agitation, and the 1980 coup d’état tells that the youths have been actively involved with the nation’s body-politics, and have been the main engine of change in the country.

After years of governance failure, civil war and mass social dislocation, Liberia is today called a “shadow state”. A shadow state is a state that is fragile with high potential of descending into chaos. For Liberia to move to an ideal state status, with a dependent economy, venerated status in the international community, the need for democratic governance and empowerment of young people must be considered san quo non in our national development agenda.

Democracy must be the art and not and just word of the government and people. But what is democracy. Democracy is a concept that most African leaders have not understood. It is a concept still misunderstood and misused in a time when dictatorships and autocratic regimes have attempted to claim popular support by pinning democratic labels upon themselves. In their self-delusions of running democratic governments, we see massive under developments of the continent, pillage and plunder of resources, extreme poverty, and rigging of elections.

In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people”, but in a scholarly and theoretical definition, “democracy is a government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system”. Democracy goes beyond the periodic holding of elections. A viable democracy entails the unrestricted participation of the people in governance under a constitutional authority, equitable distribution of resources, and systems of transparency and accountability in governance. Liberia needs nothing less than the above to build its democratic credentials.

Democracy is therefore important in post conflict Liberia. It is only in a system of viable democracy that citizens freely work to reduce poverty and protect sustainable national development.

The young people that account for over sixty percent of the population of Liberia must be seen as the central focus in post conflict development initiative. The youths have participated in the country’s politics mainly during the years of war not as lead campaigners with conscious objectives but as agents or stooges fronting for the aggrandizement and interests of adults who had hidden economic and political agenda.

Empowering the young people must not in any way be reduced to a campaign of mobilizing political support this time around. It must be done with the clear objectives of meeting the national priorities of reconstruction and poverty reduction.

Youth development must entail the initiation of sustainable programs that will support both educational and economic empowerments. If the youths actively participate in the economy, it is most likely to have accelerated economic development, and a dramatic decline in crime, violence and instability in the country.

Youth development in post conflict Liberia is of relative importance to the building of a strong human security system. Security now no more depends on the formation of large armies with sophisticated weaponry, but the protection of individuals from violent comes, economic exploitations and social injustices. This is a new concept called Human security. This includes protecting people from hunger, disease, and natural disasters.

If the young people who are the reservoir of the productive energy of our society are economically and educationally empowered, those vice that threaten our human security will be drastically reduced.

Finally, my distinguished audience, I challenge you all to build a consciousness of national service and take on self initiative in the communities. See the nation as your own, the government as your making, work to promote the nation by respecting and supporting the government, demand your rights peacefully and be able to exercise your supreme power legally. Through this we can together build durable democracy, and provide development alternatives that will give the young people multiple options to better living standards.

In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Run Dry

Another Perspective on Liberia

2009-04-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

By Heidi Baumgartner
Hunter College High School, New York

Leaving Roberts International Airport after a long flight from frigid New York City to Liberia, faint shadows of the landscape were all I could see of the new continent I had just landed on. It was a late hour of a humid February night when I arrived in West Africa with my teacher and one of his former students. For the next ten days I would be aiding them with humanitarian work, and exploring a place that was like nothing I had seen before. It was my first time in a third-world country and had no idea of what to expect in an area that only a few short years prior was a war zone.
An unexpected lack of running water and a broken generator awaited us at the house in Congo Town where we stayed that night. These conditions are commonplace to the majority of Liberians, but I admittedly was in a bit of a shock at having to grope my way through the darkness to the bed that the three of us had to share. Never having been deprived of running water, electricity and privacy, which as an American I had always considered essential resources that one could not live without, I was awakened to the fact that what I had always taken for granted could be considered a set of luxuries to others.

The closest previous contact I had with hardship was through my mother’s stories of growing up in impoverished Communist Poland after World War II. Her descriptions of the abject conditions she had to endure as a child were vivid in my mind as I thought about what I would find life to be like in this part of the world that was new to me, which was also still emerging from terrible civil conflict. But how similar could modern Liberia be to an Eastern European country fifty years ago?
My mother recollects much about the lasting effects of the war that ravaged the country. As has happened in Liberia, many buildings and roads in Poland were destroyed; centralized electricity and running water disappeared in many parts of the country. Water had to be carried from the bottom of the hill that my mother’s family lived on, up to the second floor of the building. The first floor was used as a schoolhouse, where seven large classes were fit into four rooms. Her father—my grandfather—was among the first group of college graduates in the country to receive a master’s degree after the war. He subsequently became a schoolteacher in an effort to contribute to the rebuilding of Poland. However, it was difficult. Several million Polish people had died in the war, the economy was destroyed, and the capital city was leveled to the ground in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising. There was no foreign aid and no U.N. assistance, leaving the ineffectual and corrupt Communist system imposed by the Soviet Union to cause far more harm than help. Soviet Communist propaganda was heard on the radio, newspapers were censored by the government, and political opponents were thrown into jail.

Under the Communist system, almost nothing was available in stores and there were few opportunities for employment, so my mother and her sister had to help their parents by picking mushrooms and berries and selling them in the market. Army trenches still scarred the land in Poland, and my mother remembers having to walk through them when she went to the forest. Fragments of grenades and land mines scattered the ground; reports about accidents caused by explosions of old undetonated mines were common. In the schoolhouse, one day a boy brought a grenade that he had found. To everyone’s horror, the teacher saw it was undetonated and called the police.

In Liberia I also saw remnants from the war, and problems obviating a system in need of improvement. The façades of government buildings were still visibly scorched, and sadly the people on the streets of Monrovia seemed far too accustomed to the many burning heaps of trash to do anything about them. Over the next week I experienced firsthand the necessity to bribe every police or customs officer to proceed without trouble. I drove on the potholed dirt highway from Monrovia to Ganta, breathing in the nauseating fumes from overfilled trucks that were sold to Liberia because they no longer passed emission requirements in other countries. I saw the omnipresent markets, with children desperately selling the few small items they had in front of them rather than going to school. Yet in the same way that Poland was able to recover from its problems, Liberia will be able to repair itself too.

Perhaps some lessons from Poland’s recovery can be applied to Liberia. I ask my mother what she thinks was the main factor that contributed to the recovery of Poland. The hard work of every single person, she says. Polish people took it unto themselves to make life better, not being able to rely on the government. Thus each and every person rebuilt his own house and planted a garden to grow food and save for the winter. Education was made a priority, as it was known that schooling was the key to advancement. The spectacular rebuilding of Warsaw became a source of national pride, with songs about progress becoming popular (such as the well-known song Budujemy nowy dom, or “We’re building a new house”) and schoolchildren learning about the hard work and strong values of the Polish people. And it was precisely these qualities of determination and self-help that allowed individuals better their lives, rebuild their homes and reestablish infrastructure. With time, Polish people regained independence from the oppressive Soviet rule and returned to a free market system.

And with time, Liberia will rise again. The aspirations, hard work, and strong morals of each individual can assure this success. What has been achieved since the war has been very significant, and the momentum of the progress will be sustained. Reconstruction will continue, and I hope that soon the streets of Monrovia will be cleaned. Maybe more people will take advantage of the relatively fertile soil of the region to grow their own gardens and lessen the burden of food costs on the family. I saw that Liberian students are motivated and well-disciplined, but those children who do not go to school need to be pushed into the classroom. Undaunted by the hindrances of ineffectual leadership, indifferent to the empty promises of foreign aid, and embracing the diversity of culture in Liberia to foster a sense of nationalism and unity, the Liberian people will sustain a lasting peace and prosperity.

About the Author
Heidi Baumgartner from Hunter College High School traveled to Liberia in February 2009 with her teacher Asumana Jabateh Randolph and his former student David Bauer, who is now studying at City University of New York. The group conducted workshops for science teachers about inexpensive laboratory technology that can be incorporated into the classroom. More information about their I-HELP Liberia Project can be found at http://www.ihelpliberia.com. The trip was also sponsored by LIMANY, the Liberian Mandingo Association of New York.

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN X

2009-03-10T03:15:00.000-07:00

THE LTA NEEDS INTERNAL ORDER

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei
pericle925@yahoo.com / www.ibrahimnyei.blogspot.com

The Liberia Telecommunication Authority was created by an Act of the Legislature to regulate telecommunications and frequency bands in the country. The LTA is part of the general public sector reform process aimed at ensuring efficiency in the delivery of services nation wide. Like many public commissions, members are appointed with a Chair to preside over its meetings and break ice when there are tied votes. Little did many know that the frequency zone is a major source of revenue in this country, but its effective regulation to maximize gains for the country was realized with the formation of the LTA, and the migration of moguls in the communication business into the country. In less than two years of its operations, its first chairman was hooked in a dubious deal with the West African Telecommunications which exposed its revenue generation capacity to many ordinary Liberians. The major problem observed was the balloon-infliction of the position of chairmanship which the first Chairman used in his attempt to dub his colleagues and the Liberian people. Little did he know that even a rubber balloon when improperly or over filled with air can explode and become irrelevant, particularly when the pressure exceeds its capacity. But this confusion and its resultant effect with the chairmanship issue of the LTA has not taught much lessons to those who are there now, as another inferno has begun to sink the regulating Authority into a crisis born out of an apparent lack of internal regulatory framework.

In all cases, there is no chairman of a public commission that is clothed with an authoritarian garment to unilaterally and sub-terraineously function without regular consultations with other members of the commission. But the case with the LTA has proven counterconsistent with conventional practices in the few months of its operations. The media's attention had been drawn to its activities and it seems that the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Albert Bropleh had been caught hanging in a web of trilemas- failure to consult fellow members of the commission, failure to comply with auditors, and the self-crowning with an imperial leadership helmet. Bropleh on the other side of the divide had resurged with counterclaims. This and previous controversies at the LTA had magnetized the attention of pundits, and in the interest of furthering the national debate, and remaining constructive in engaging issues with the pen, this edition of the series had been preoccupied by the developments at the LTA and is therefore calling for immediate ceasefire, calm and order.

If our telecommunication systems will improve with consumers getting the maximum satisfactions from service providers and the service providers being regulated in a way that the chain is truly balanced - suppliers and consumers satisfied-this outcome will be based on a robust regulatory system. Regulating communication frequencies, bands, and all other telecommunication activities is much more like a saint presiding over a religious shrine whose deportment influences and direct the lives of his followers. The LTA therefore needs to be transparent and consistent with rules and regulations in order to be taken seriously and revered by its clients.

The internal rivalry at the LTA if not curtailed is capable of robbing it of its reverence in regulating our telecommunication systems, and we the consumers stand at a dangerous peril when the regulating agency is in internal feud. With prominent Liberians like Lamini Waritay, a long time public servant and redoubtable journalist this country can boast of, Commissioner Jappah-Samuka, Commissioner York, and others, the LTA can make a professional team to rely on. We expect the differences to be settled with majority votes as it is the case with public commissions that have commissioners with a ceremonious chairman whose power is only felt during elections. Differences in policies and ideological issues are never crashed over in the form and manner exhibited at the LTA. The problem identified now is that the nomenclature of 'Chairman' is being misconstrued thereby making Commissioner Bropleh to believe that he is an overhead boss, presiding over policy issues, meetings, and at the same time running the administration of the Liberia Telecommunication Authority.

Considering this complication of nomenclature and function which to some extent is building an imperial leadership that has met the conscious resistance of other Commissioners at the LTA, it is however prudent to recommend that the LTA hire the services of full time staffs under the supervision of a full time Executive Director, Executive Secretary, or Administrator, who shall be responsible for the financial, administrative and managerial operations of the LTA. With this at hand, the commissioners will mostly focus on regulatory policies and governance issues and the fear of dominance on the commission shall be extensively obliterated. As we can see with prominent commissions like the Governance Commission, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the newly created Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, commissioners are preoccupied with policies and governance while the central administration is run by full time employees.

The feud at the LTA had also led to the leakage of several important financial documents detailing several transactions. On matters of such, only a well commissioned forensic audit can authenticate claims of misappropriation and theft of state resources. The LTA must therefore open its books to the General Auditing Commission for audit and should stop postponing or delaying scheduled audit if there is nothing under the sleeves to quarantine from public notice. We therefore rely on the viability and objectivity of the GAC to transform our rumors into facts or establish their current mixtures as truisms that need not be debated any further.

Finally, there is nothing more relevant in rescuing the LTA from drowning in a pool of corruption that will render it incompetent and incapable of regulating of frequency zones and generating revenues for our country than a system of genuine internal governance, cooperation and regular consultations among commissioners, an effective central administration and a transparent and accountable managerial framework. We believe that these will be important than to allow such relevant institution drown with the tarnishing of the good reputations of other commissioners who have outstanding records of services to this country and its people.

-In The Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF FREE SPEECH AND EXPRESSION IN THE CONSOLIDATION OF DEMOCRACY IN LIBERIA: THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA AND THE CIVIL SOCIETY

2009-02-06T08:36:00.001-08:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Introduction
Liberia is a transitioning state struggling to heal wounds of a protracted civil conflict that resulted from a culture of marginalization, (attempts to alienate inalienable rights) suppression of inalienable rights, and opaque system in government transactions - underpinned by a system of bad governance. The people’s views were suppressed and crushed, thereby keeping them a distance from the administration of their country. This promoted imperial leadership, undermined democracy, and all values of transparency and accountability. The gross suppression of the views of the people, their rights to associate and express themselves freely, left them with no definitive role in the nation-building process, but to sit as passive observers. Unfortunately, while the people went through such political-dehumanization, the state was theoretically claiming to be run under a democratic system. But the overwhelming demands of the people have been popular participation and equality before the law. This surely can not take place in the absence of a propitious and enabling environment that will guarantee their rights to free expression and free speech.

In this post-conflict era democracy has been welcomed and its tenets promulgated in all corners of the country mainly by local and international civil society groups. Freedom of Expression and freedom of Speech are the pillows on which a durable democratic state stands. Practically, in the absence of a system that guarantees and promotes these rights, the people become separated from their state, vis-à-vis, their own destiny with fears and act of intimidations. Constructive and challenging competitions for leadership become non-existent, and policy decisions are made for a selected few.

The institutions of society and the state that guide and watch the activities of the state and the people to promote the tenets of democracy, the rule of law, and the inalienable rights of the citizens are the media and the civil society groups. These groups have pivotal roles in all aspects of the socio-economic and political developments of the state.

This paper will examine the essence of upholding the values of free speech and free expression in post-war Liberia not only as fundamental rights, but as sine quo non to fostering democracy and making it a culture and system of governance. It argues that if democracy is to be a system of governance in Liberia, the people must be free to speak and express themselves, they must have unlimited access to the media (both private and public media), participate in constructive dialogues and debates; and the people must also be conscientiously aware of the dangers associated with the abuse of those fundamentals rights.

The paper also asserts that the civil society and the media are the most appropriate vehicles through which the citizens express themselves, reach their government. Considering the critical aspects of the role of the civil society and the media in terms of values and objectivity, the paper concludes with a call to civil society and media groups to remain critical and independent in the performance of their roles as watchdogs.

The Rights to Free Speech and Expression

The rights to free speech and free expressions are inalienable rights given to mankind by his creator. The two are absolutely inextricable. Governments and civil society are created to protect those rights because it is those rights that set the foundations upon which democratic governments are legitimized and popularly supported. Attempts to have them suppressed or abrogated are potential causes for mass civil unrest, dishonesty, underdevelopment, and ultimately war. Several wars and unwanted revolutions have provided the absence of free speech, democracy and injustice as justifications. The Liberian Civil War, the fight Against Apartheid in South Africa, and the ongoing crisis in Zimbabwe are examples.

The building of democracy in Liberia will not just be dependent upon the holding of periodic elections for public officials. A genuine and functional democratic society is constructed by the participation of the people in a system of unhindered freedom to determine their own destinies singularly or in association with others through processes of dialogue and opportunities to provide alternatives for the operations of government and where necessary. In the 1986 Constitution of Liberia, Article 15 (a) declared the state’s commitment to its citizens in protecting their rights to free expression by providing that: ‘Every person shall have the right to freedom of expression, being fully responsible for the abuse thereof. This right shall not be curtailed, restricted or enjoined by government…’

The above provision of the 1986 Constitution draws a balance sheet which needs to be promulgated and properly interpreted for the people at all levels. That balance sheet is the point where the people’s rights as to be guaranteed by their government and their (people) responsibilities to those rights meet. A responsible government protects and strengthens the inalienable rights of the people, protects them from fears, relies on their views to make informed policy decisions, and maintains power by their general consent. On the other hand, a responsible citizenry gives loyalty to the state and supports its programs, and live under its laws. In a society where both sides honestly and transparently perform their shares of the responsibilities, democracy is strengthened and solidly consolidated, and the potentials for fears, corruption and injustices are considerably minimized.

In addition to the rights of free speech as part of free expression, the rights to freedom of religion and conscience, freedom of association and assembly, and the right to equal protection before the law are all complimentary in building and sustaining democracy in any civilized society. The suppression or attempt to abrogate any undermines the existence of all. These rights therefore, must in no way be limited to demands of constitutional provisions or statutes, but as natural gifts to mankind that are indispensable to the pursuit of happiness and liberty in society. Governments also must in no way legislate or decree in any form that will place restrictions on citizens from practicing those rights.

The state of democracy in Liberia today remains a function of extensive dialogues through symposia and conferences that ended the civil war, and called for elections which was freely held to inaugurate the present government. The democratic credentials of the present government, as have been declared by study groups, are ‘Good’ (World Bank, 2007). Liberia is a party to numerous international conventions and protocols that assert the basic fundamental rights discussed above. But the threat the country currently face in its transition to democracy is the looming illiteracy problem. As it is widely stated that democracy is for a conscious society, so is the requirement that consciousness goes with information through average literacy. The state must now work in programs to promote mass literacy which will not only build consciousness and awareness on fundamental rights, but will indeed promote growth and save succeeding generations from the scourge of bad governance and misrule that are extremely counterproductive to democracy.

The Media and Democracy

The role of the media is indisputable in generating and building a culture of democracy that extends beyond the political systems and becomes a way of life of the people as their consciousness increases. The media, as the name presents it, stands as a bridge that links the people to each other and their government. It is through the media that the government gets the thinking of the people and vis-à-vis the people get informed about the government and its activities, and also information from amongst them. The media as a channel of information also synthesizes and objectively presents to both the people and their government balanced reports to ensure that decisions are taken in the public interest.

By definitions, the media is the channel through which messages and information flows, and democracy is a system of government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.

As stated above, freedom of speech and expressions are basic pillars of democracy. The common fact that the people can only express themselves or freely speak out their views through the media, makes it (media) an indispensable element of a democratic society. In the affirmative, no democracy exists without a vibrant media.

As the media’s role has been declared sacrosanct in the consolidation of democracy, its viability is essential in maintaining independence. The Liberian media community, like a typical African community, has struggled with tyrannical and oppressive regimes, and it still struggles to gain full independence from the ruling political establishment. Adding to the challenges posed by political influence-peddling in the media that undermines objectivity and credibility are the economic constraints and professional and technical inadequacies of practitioners and institutions in Liberia. Durable democracy in Liberia depends on an independent and vibrant media that will continuously provide credible reports, solicit views, and do critical analyses on principles of objectivity. The existence of such media community in a democratic state can transcend the role of message and information carrier in the eyes of the people to building trust and confidence among them and for their government. Those are the threads that hold the fibers of democracy together.

A state craving for democracy must not only have media institutions to use as channels for mere message carrying, but must ensure a propitious environment for the development and emergence of more institutions that will promote the tenets of democracy independent of government and political manipulations. The Liberian state must therefore ensure structural and functional viability and stability of media houses by enforcing laws of the media, promoting free speech and free expression, and legislating statutes where necessary to further strengthen the role of the media in the consolidation of democracy. It will be a resounding step forward if the current government can effectuate the passage of the three media laws drafted by the Liberia Media Law and Policy Reform Working Group: The Freedom of Information Act, the Act to Establish an Independent Broadcast Regulator for Liberia, and the Act to Transform the LBS into a Public Service Broadcast System.

Article 15 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia supports the above requirements. In section (B) it outlines several rights to the citizens including ‘the right to hold opinions without interference and the right to knowledge’, the ‘right to free speech, academic freedom to receive and impart knowledge and information’, the right to libraries to make such knowledge available’, the ‘privacy of usage of the mail, telephone and the telegraph’ and the ‘right of citizens to remain silent’.

To have the above proclaimed rights fully exercised by the people, Section C states that ‘…there shall be no limitation on the public right to be informed about the government and its functionaries’.

The Role of the Civil Society

The civil society is the largest portion of the society representing all forces out of the government. Governments are functions of the civil society because it is from the civil society that all free governments are formed and operated. The civil society therefore has a pivotal role in ensuring that democracy is consolidated in Liberia. According to the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs there are over four hundred civil society organizations operating in the country. The goals and objectives of most of these groups are nearly the same, and sometimes they form coalitions to implement programs.

The history of effective contemporary civil society organizations in Liberia can be traced to the 1970s when pressure groups from around the country bounced on the national scene and began advocacies and agitations for multi-party democracy. These groups, the Movement for Justice in Africa, Progressive Alliance of Liberia represented people mainly from the destitute masses that were marginalized in political activities. The advocacy then could be done in no robust way in the absence of a democratic system that values and protects the rights of the people to express themselves by associating or socializing, and the right to speak out without intimidations.

Much of the works of mass public sensitization and awareness on governance and rule of law issues are done by the civil society. The media is more or less left as a one man army to inform and educate the people at the same time fearing reprisals for reports unfavorable to the political establishment. The civil society is now leading the campaign of mass awareness and civic education all directed at consolidating democracy as a way of life from the grassroots level. It is the civil society that leads the campaign against human rights violation, and the freedom of the press, and the freedom of the people to freely express themselves.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) must therefore build a firm reputation and stand vigilantly as the frontline agent in the advocacy for free speech and free expression. The need for effective internal governance and transparency in the operations of CSOs activities must be the moral ground on which CSOs should stand as campaigners against social malfeasances in society. In the absence of that the civil society by itself will drown into irrelevance, thereby fertilizing the ground for the sprouting of a modern dictatorship or totalitarian regime.

Civil society organizations in our context of free speech and expression must ensure that media institutions remain protected, and must continuously present the case that freedom of expression and access to official information are keys to sustainable human and economic development, democracy development, and the prevention of corruption, which in turn support conditions necessary for economic growth and good governance.

The Media and Civil Society as Partners

The partnership between the media and civil society organizations should be by practice, an ordained marriage of the proverbial ‘Roman Catholic’ style. In this partnership each compliments the work of the other and stands for the sake of the other in all instances. There is absolutely no room for divorce. The campaigns of civil society organizations can not go public in the absence of media coverage and at the same time the media can not afford to work in an environment that has no civil society independent of the government.

In contemporary societies, like Liberia, the media is an integral part of the civil society. And its role as a part of the whole civil society community is being seen through the works of independent media houses that have taken lines of ebullient advocacies for social justice and democracy in reportages that are people-sensitive. Since the return of normalcy in the country, several independent media institutions have emerged and hundreds of civil society organizations have also been formed by conscious-minded citizens. At the same time, some media practitioners have established civil society groups intended for the promotion of free speech, freedom of the press, and the empowerment of local journalists through training.

The results of the collaborations of the media and other civil society groups have been of significant impacts on both sides. The Press Union of Liberia and the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) are in a partnership in which the JPC provides free legal services for journalists who during the expeditious execution of their duties are arrested or taken to court. At the same time, the three draft Laws of the Liberian Media that are now before the Legislature for enactments were drafted by a collaboration of government line agencies, several civil society groups, and the mass media, including the Press Union of Liberia, the Center for Media Studies and Peace Building, the Liberia Media Center, and the National Coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Liberia. The Liberia Coalition of Free Expression, another collaborating group comprising of media advocacy groups, other civil society groups and the PUL, is leading a campaign to ensure the speedy passage of the draft Laws.

Many civil society groups in the country are in specific agreements with media institutions for promotional and awareness programs aimed at civic education and the promotion of good governance and democracy. The Actions for Genuine Democratic Alternative (AGENDA) has a special program area intended to strengthen media institutions and civil society groups.

Conclusion

Building a culture of democracy in Liberia and establishing a system of democratic governance must be done simultaneously with the building and consolidating of a culture of press freedom and civil liberty. Democracy can not survive in an unfriendly media environment and an environment where the people’s fundamental rights are abused.

Consolidating democracy in Liberia with the media and civil society as active participants requires technical and professional capacity building of both the media and civil society actors. A weak civil society and biased media can pose challenge to the survivability of democracy. The media and the civil society must therefore be strong, unwavering and dedicated in the discharge of their duties as watchdogs and promoters of good governance. The people, too, the ultimate beneficiaries of a democratic system, must be empowered to participate through mass awareness and education. Article 6 of the Constitution of Liberia recognizes the people’s right to be educated as a requirement for national development:

The Republic shall, because of the vital role assigned to the individual citizen under this Constitution for the social, economic and political well-being of Liberia, provide equal access to educational opportunities and facilities for all citizens to the extent of available resources. Emphasis shall be placed on the mass education of the Liberian people and the elimination of illiteracy.

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN IX

2009-01-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

ON THE PRESIDENT'S APPEARANCE AT THE TRC

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

It was in the interest of national reconciliation and the promotion of an environment of genuine coexistence that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established as part of resolutions at the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Accra in 2003. Since the commencement of its activities in the country, we have witnessed the appearance of victims, perpetrators as well as witnesses or individuals who have experiences or involvement with certain events during the conflict. In that direction, we have heard the testimonies of key actors, including the leaders of the NPFL, INPFL, ULIMO-K, ULIMO-J, MODEL, LURD, LPC, and other smaller groups that were duped as ‘defend forces’ for tribal or geographical settings. Individuals associated with the People’s redemption Council and the mass citizen-driven revolutionary groups of PAL and MOJA have also appeared and vivid accounts of their experiences during the internecine political decadence our country went though were delivered publicly. It is also of interest to state that children, civil society actors, women advocates, and media practitioners and historians delivered presentation on their own experiences. This indicates the relevance of the reconciliation process, and the resolved commitment of the people of Liberia to reconcile history and set a stage through structural and institutional change to avoid recurrence of conflict. Even those that were directly affected (those whose families were broken apart, homes and properties destroyed, loved ones killed) have embraced the process and are mustering the courage in true spirit of nationalism appearing before the Commission.
At this critical and terminal point of public hearings in the work of the Commission, the attention of this series has been drawn to a very simple issue – the appearance of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - that have turned to be controversial due to misinterpretation, misinformation, sycophancy, and the traditional Liberian style of favor-buying from the power-that- be. This edition of the series intends not to further deepen the controversies of the debate, but to emphasize the need for the President to appear, and not ignoring her right to an alternative appearance as provided by the TRC ACT.
Since the debate concerning the public appearance of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf surfaced in the intellectual gymnasium, many commentators have argued that the President should not appear in public, some have campaigned for her public appearance like main perpetrators have done, but others, like the Attorney General of Liberia, have argued against any form of appearance by the President. The legal premise of those who are against public appearance and non-appearance have been based on Article 61 of the 1986 Constitution: “The President shall be immune from any suits, actions or proceedings, judicial or otherwise, and from arrest, detention or other actions on the account of any act done by him while President of Liberia pursuant to any provision of this Constitution or any other laws of the Republic. The President shall not however, be immune from prosecution upon removal from office for the commission of any criminal act done while President”.
At the same time, this argument has been buttressed by what they call ‘protecting the reverence of the office of the presidency’. As for the Attorney General, he had warned that the President should not appear on the basis of his assumption that some commissioners ‘could seek to also use the opportunity to embarrass or humiliate the presidency and this most noble office’. But this is a sheer sycophancy and a direct attempt to undermine the credibility of the Commissioners and their efforts in reconciling this country. The office of the presidency has no ounce of reverence to lose by appearing before the TRC to willingly make presentation on experiences, and answering questions from Commissioners which may primarily be drawn from testimonies of previous witnesses concerning the role of President Sirleaf in the civil crisis. Giving the office of the Presidency the noblest reverence, it remains prudent that as a person her position should not bereft her of her humanity and personality. That is, her position as a president should not restrict her from doing what she has openly expressed willingness to do in the national interest (not violating the constitution), and should also not deny her the opportunity to clear doubts of her involvement in the civil crisis as there are numerous claims on this subject.
The misinterpretation of Article 61 by those pseudo-constitutionalists is the belief or assumption that the TRC is a court, or proceedings at the TRC are forms of prosecution. An invitation to appear before a truth commission to give accounts of experiences is in no way an indictment, a suit nor an arrest. And statements at a truth commission, like the Liberian TRC, cannot be used in any court of law against the person making them (TRC ACT-Article VII, Section 30). The Commission’s sole mandate, according to its Act of 2005, is to promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation. It is pursuant to that mandate that hearings are held to document the historical occurrences and the experiences of key players of the civil crisis, victims, witnesses, experts and individuals of interest to the process.
Another erratic and blatant bias on the part of the pseudo-constitutionalist is their deliberate refusal to interpret Article 97 of the 1986 Constitution which protects members of the People’s Redemption Council from answering questions at any proceedings regarding their roles in the change of government in 1980, and all other actions taken by the Council thereafter. Interestingly members of the PRC have appeared and their appearances in the eyes of those pseudo-constitutionalists have not contradicted any constitutional provision since they have kept silence on it. If history were to accidentally make President Sirleaf a member of the PRC, the basis of their argument would have been on Article 97 (but glory be to God she survived that historical accident).
President Sirleaf had promised to lead by example, and initiatives in her regime are manifestations of the fulfillment of that promise. She has taken bold steps to kickoff many national projects intentionally to encourage her fellow Liberians to follow. This was demonstrated when she took the HIV/AIDS and other Tests. Her mini agriculture project in her back yard and many other initiatives are resounding examples of leadership by example. In like manner, had President Sirleaf being the first to testify before the TRC, considering results yielded from initiatives she had launched, could make one to believe that the TRC would have had more witnesses than it currently have. And those threatening to boycott the process, particularly ministers in government, would have thought twice.
Her appearance before the Commission, no matter what is never late as she will be treated like any other witness as a prominent Liberian during the war years and not as the President of Liberia. Some witnesses have alleged that she directly participated in the. One witness claimed that he saw her in military outfits in rebel control areas; another witnessed linked her to the 1985 abortive coup. The veracities of those claims are yet to be established. There is also a statement attributed to her concerning the dismantling of the Executive Mansion during the heat of the war. The TRC public hearing is a ‘one-stop shop’ opportunity for every Liberian including President Sirleaf to perforate the rumor-balloon of their involvement with the civil crisis.
There are alternatives to appearing before the TRC. A witness could chose to appear in Camera by an application for proceedings to be held in camera by victims, perpetrators or witnesses and such application shall be considered and passed upon as the commission deems fit (TRC ACT – Art. VII Sec. 26, ii). President Sirleaf like any other Liberian has rights to all available alternatives.
But considering Liberia as a rumor- based society, where rumors, rather than facts spread quickly, we see it prudent and expedient that President Sirleaf muster the courage to appear before the TRC in public. This will not only promote her leadership by example campaign, but will help to clarify the doubts that many Liberians have concerning her involvement with war in this country. At the same time her failure to appear publicly will indirectly gown the claims of the previous witnesses as fact. Finally, this is a call to President Sirleaf, that for the sake of the national good, for the interest of those that admire her and willing to know about her involvement with the crisis, and for the clarifications of public doubts, and for the defense of her humanity she must disregard all ill-advices and make a public appearance at the TRC. If possible this must be broadcast live on all radio and television stations for many Liberians to have the opportunity to obtain first hand information.
It is a Liberian parable that says ‘the kojologbo (bitter medicine) is too bitter, but you must close your eyes to drink it with courage, and you will be healed”.

-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, the Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN (VIII)

2008-12-31T11:12:00.001-08:00

Year End Message to My Fellow Countrymen, Comrades, Well-Wishers and Audience

My Dear Countrymen and great comrades in the fight for social justice and democracy, I salute you all at this great time from the hilltop of progressivism where we have all over the years been posted critically thinking and utilizing the might of the pen to repel the forces of injustice, corruption, imperial leadership and the menace of poverty.

The year 2008 has gone and shall never return to meet us where it met us when we, mostly in our youths celebrated with lullabies and sent up praises to our Creator asking for longevity. At this time, our concern must not focus on request for longevity in life. What we must pray for considering the political climate and situation, which conventionally is at a disadvantage, is good governance, the product of which shall provide opportunities for longevity.

The year 2008 was a great challenge to lead campaigners for democracy and social justice in Africa. In our country, we saw the locust of corruption, due to the lack of security for public integrity, consuming the fabrics of good governance thereby depriving the masses of our people from better social services and ideal living standards. The scourges of rape and armed robbery went uncontrollably and still remain threats to the survivability of our people.

Mass killings and kidnappings, and abuse of little children through human trafficking were reported around the country. Natural disasters and unfortunate ones caused by men also left some of our people in homelessness and mournful agony. About nineteen of our countrymen died at the hands of others over a farmland dispute in Margibi County, which led to the arrest of a Senator and some others accused as partners-in-crime. Sadly, about ten of our compatriot also died during a football match between our dear Lone Star and visiting Gambia. Hundreds of our people were left as victims of flood around Monrovia, Nimba County, Grand Cape Mount County, and other parts of the country.

There were also several steps taken by our government to address some of those things threatening the existence of our people. Our government launched a road rehabilitation project which saw the paving of major streets in the country. Several construction works were undertaken in local communities to give our people roads to access markets with farm produce, schools to educate children, and health centers were opened in some communities. A strategy to reduce poverty, called LIFT LIBERIA, the common name for the Poverty Reduction Strategy, was launched as a means of reducing poverty in the lives of our people. An Emergency Response Unit of the Liberia National Police was inaugurated to fight robbery and other crimes in the country effectively.

An anti-graft unit called the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission was launched to enforce the campaign against corruption in the country. But the make-up of the commission is still a controversial issue with the civil society community describing it as a ‘bogus process, which fell short of consultations’.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission commenced its public hearings early in the year. Witnesses around the country, including individuals suspected of being perpetrators appeared and gave testimonies of their roles and experiences during the civil war. The testimonies left many of our countrymen in uncertainties and extreme frustrations due to the controversial accounts and deliberate distortions of the facts by those actors. At the same time the advocacy for the establishment of a war crime court continues with vigilance in the country.

During the year, several personalities visited our country which signaled to the world the return of genuine peace in Liberia. The President of the United States, George W. Bush, The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon, including several other world larders and investors came and left. And a landmark event worth mentioning here was the election of Barack Obama as the First Afro-American to become President of the United States of America.

On the continent of Africa, several unfortunate situations left us with great challenges as we strive to democratize the continent. Electoral violence and protests left several of our people dead in Kenya and caused the East African state to lose nearly one billion dollar. Several properties were destroyed as the state nearly loses its authority. A new government was formed against the Constitution of the Country.

As the year ends, Zimbabwe remains a threat to us all where the political crisis has been transformed into a deadly humanitarian crisis that is killing our people. Hunger and pandemics have spread among the rural people while the political leaders have been stifled in a deadlock thereby leaving our people in conditions suffused with hopelessness. The state of Zimbabwe has completely loss its authority and has proven to be unable to protect our people from violence and at the same time can not provide for the people basic social services in health, nutrition, education, and security.

Our people in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being terrified and are dying of the scourge of war for which decades ago the United Nations was founded to prevent. In neighboring Guinea, the long time military cum civilian ruler, Lansana Conteh died, and a bloodless coup took place. The army has seized power and has unfortunately suspended the constitution, trade union activities, and political activities. This action by the army indicates that the rights of our people there will be suppressed and bad governance and dictatorship will continue there. That is a serious threat to us all and the entire subregion that is still recuperating from the internecine crises and political decadence that went around from Liberia to Sierra Leone and then to Ivory Coast.

At this critical point my dear compatriots, it is no imagination that I can tell you that the struggle for democracy and social justice in Africa will one day succeed. For us in Liberia, as we have committed ourselves to the fight against injustices, tyranny and bad governance using the pen and the intellectual mind, we must endure the fight. As we enter into a new year, let us all be hopeful and set a goal for every country. Our concentration in Liberia should be the Elimination of Corruption. Eliminating corruption should not be limited to government. We must enter our schools and oppose bribery; we must obey the laws of our country. For those of us who are in the markets, we must stop skyrocketing prices and sell according to standard prices. Extortion for services out of normal systems must be spoken against in our hospitals, banks, and public services and even the larger private sector.

Continentally, we must all join hands to campaign for the liberation of the great people of Zimbabwe, who by accident of history are the unfortunate victims of a failed state rambling in what the Legendary Nelson Mandela referred to as ‘a tragic failure of leadership’.

This is why we must utilize all available energies and option to counter every act in our country that may have the propensity of creating an imperial leadership. While we must be loyal citizens to our country, and we must all be defenders of its sovereignty, let us with consciousness avoid sycophancy and challenge dictatorship from all angles. Our common focus, if we are to reduce poverty, stop corruption and injustices must be the institutionalization of a system of good governance, because men in all spheres of the globe according to the Athenian Philosopher Socrates, desire nothing more in common than the wish for ‘good governance’.

Let the campaign continue with vigor and endurance in the New Year (2009). We must remain carriers of messages of peace, democracy and social justice every where we go. Peace in a neighboring country is peace in Liberia, and a threat to peace anywhere around the world, is threat to peace in Liberia. There must be no time in our lives when violence should become an option. Leaving the pen for violence is an indication that the intellectual reservoir has run dried, and unfortunately a violence campaign never succeed till the end, all in such struggle are mere cowards and losers. For our people to live in harmony and improved living conditions, the struggle for change, democracy, and social justice must remain bloodless.

I salute you, and wish you all the Blessing of our Creator in the Coming Year.

-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, the Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN (VII)

2008-12-23T04:12:00.000-08:00

Emphasizing the Reality of Bropleh’s Alternative to Rapists

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

One would wonder why this controversial issue has claimed the attention of the pen, and has become a subject of discussion under this series. As it was stated in the maiden edition of this series, that our discovery of the fact that what we are writing are influencing national policy decisions, so everything that has to do with a contentious national issue will have to be a matter of dialoguing here for possible solutions. That has, and will always be our intent. That is also why the slogan of the series goes like this: In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice the Pen Shall Never Run Dry.

There are three major reasons why we will have to attempt to emphasize the reality of Dr. Bropleh’s clear and audacious alternative to the spineless and vicious men in our society who are inhumanely assaulting teenagers as low as six years and nine years to ease their sexual emotions. We have to divorce this issue from all hypocrisies and sycophancies. As a social thinker I believe strongly that what threatened society and the survivability of a particular generation must be countered and eliminated with all available options. Whether Bropleh thinks the same way, so be it. The three reasons we will discussed to emphasize the reality of the alternative are: The issue of rape, the issue of prostitution, and the controversies surrounding the personality of Bropleh.

The first reason here is the prevalence of rape in our country today. It is indeed appalling that rape and armed robbery are the two crimes that usually top police charge sheet. Sadly, little girls in their teens and under ten years are the unfortunate victims of this scourge. There are several cases that when we reminisced of for the sake of humanity we weep in empathy. That an innocent kid will loss her life or her future just in few minutes to the pleasure of a man who has no esteem for himself is a question that we all must ponder over. Two years ago nine-year old Janjay died of rape. Earlier this year, a little girl identified as Tenezee was raped to death in New Kru Town. Several of these cases are occurring uncontrollably. Children are either dying or being damaged completely. Imagine that a six-year old had her womb removed after being raped.

With all attempts made, including the Act that makes rape unbaillabe, with all the harsh punishments against convicts, the crime continues unabatedly. These are occurring in a country where there are prostitutes available for anything one can afford. Therefore, it is prudent and realistic enough for anyone to call the attention of rapists to the services of prostitutes as a means of saving little children from their (rapists) wrath. For anyone to think the other way and condemn this as an option is to be hypocritical and to give a blind-folded eye to the reality of prostitution, and at the same time not doing anything about it.

Prostitution is now an open business in Liberia, and this is not an issue to brag on any longer. In 2005 Save The Children-UK released a report indicating that 90 percent of a sample of school going girls in Monrovia were surviving on prostitution. Regrettably the Gender Ministry and the NTGL did not do any counter investigation to help reduce this immorality in Liberia, but later condemned the report. This is a wrong way of addressing our social problems in this country. We need to face the facts about those problems and find solutions or alternatives to them.

Finally, I must bring out an important issue here to conclude this conversation. Bropleh’s personality and assertions have most often sprouted controversies in this country. This is not strange to me. Every revolutionary who attempts to bring momentary changes to the prevailing order will have to face the condemnations of those benefiting from the wastage of that order. It is evident that many things we accept and do in this country do not reflect the reality of the day and also can not be accommodated in the new realm of globalization. But it will only take a virtuous and courageous man to denounce those things. And as such, he must be prepared to suffer attacks from conformists. In recognition of the fact that Liberia is a pluralistic society, Bropleh, a Methodist prelate, called for the recognition of Islamic Holidays or the elimination of Christian holidays from our national activities. He was misunderstood not because he was not clear, but because people wanted to use the situation against him to score relevance, and for many other reasons. And unfortunately, he received all the condemnations available to the wisdom of his critics. He had come across similar situations in his attempt to attitudinally revolutionize this society that is morally decrepit. Today, he has seen a situation that is very troubling - involving the future of little and innocent Liberian girls against the quenching of the sexual thirst of individuals who have no esteem for their manhood - destroying little and innocent kids. For him he believes that since all attempts are not yielding the required result of curbing rape - he had proposed to rapist to make use of prostitutes that are available. But as usual this is the society that he is struggling with, he is the subject of all humiliations and personality mortification by people including women groups that can not curb rape and prostitution by themselves. Anyway, this where he has launched his revolution, so help us God.

I give him my support and I care not who misunderstand the reality of these revolutions that are coming event by event. Where the fact is practical and visible, we shall not deter to throw in our energy.

It was the American civil rights writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson that said, ‘….To be great is to be misunderstood’. … ‘Jesus was misunderstood, Socrates was misunderstood, Pythagoras was misunderstood, and so many who came to change were misunderstood.’
And I am not surprised if Bropleh is misunderstood.

-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, the Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN (VI)

2008-12-15T11:47:00.000-08:00

Who wins the Corruption War?

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in her inaugural address declared corruption as publc enemy number one, indicating that a fierce battle would be launched against corruption. But President Sirleaf did not indicate where the battle front or the buffer zone will be. Moreover the word corruption has become a political cliché to either destroy opponents or to score political victory. Both are evidence in the ongoing war.
Since then the government had continuously decried the presence and prevalence of corruption in the country, portraying a forceful resurgence of the public enemy. But when one thinks about who or what really represent the public enemy on the front, it creates a pseudomystic thinking to either assume or dismiss that those who are decrying the public enemy are the ones representing the forces of the enemy. Thus the enemy becomes invisible, and practically invincible.
And now it seems that the public enemy number one has worn bullet proof to survive, there seems to be serious inadequacy on the part of the battle front commander who declared the war open. The inadequacies are not the absence of logistics, equipments, and resources. The inadequacies are manifested in the deep-seated cronyism style of leadership and the lack of political and administrative will in the Frontline Commander to move vigilantly. Moreover, the war has been influenced by peddling, bigotry, and a system of ‘cover-up’ for those who are in or near the ‘kitchen cabinet’
The government of Liberia is armed with all necessary weaponry and units to ensure victory. The infantry battalion at the GAC is doing all to dig out the hidden public enemy in government agencies. But it seems that forces representing the government in the illusive, yet publicized war are not appreciative of each other. Some public occurrences in recent time can actually tell where the public enemy is being hosted. The Deputy Auditor General was brutally attacked at the Ministry of Public Works, while officials indicted by audit reports are sponsoring bogus ‘pro-democracy’ groups to undermine the credibility of the GAC. Reports of influence peddling are lingering in the spheres of government operations in terms of contracts, concessions, and political appointments. The worst of these reports are the ones occurring in the camp of the commander-in- chief, and the u-turn in decision concerning the Western Cluster deal which was widely believed to be characterized by ‘palm greasing’.
The judiciary is swimming in serious pool of malfeasances where justice is now on bonanza for sale, and the Supreme Court is nearly turning to a partisan syndicate, where majority votes, influenced by lobbyists - not reasons, precedence, and statutes - are determining verdicts.
The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission was intended to reinforce the battle, but its rejection by the civil society has dumped it into a pool of the incredible syndicates. This had left the people with no hope in the war, as the public enemy gluttonously consumes their resources with no accounts.
After crying wolves for nearly three years, the president announced a policy on corruption which still falls short of effective political will to prosecute and restitute stolen assets. Yet she claimed that the battle will be won. Intellectually, as they are now fighting the war using public speeches and gimmicks, they may win applause from their cheering squads for their oratorical skills. Fantastically, the government claims that the widespread talk about corruption in the country is an indication that the fight is succeeding, but that is a sheer farce. The noise is publicly made because the people are deeply frustrated and tired of corruption because they are still feeling its impacts in the presence of intellectual grandiloquence and opulent pleasantries.
The battle line has been absorbed in extreme hypocrisy thereby putting the true owners of the nation’s resources, in whose interests the war is purportedly launched, in sheer disillusionments.
But at the end of the six-year term, it will be no surprise to see the masses of the people weeping for losing the corruption war, because it is not fought in their interest. The war has taken a trend that had left pundits to believe that it is intended for those who are innocent and have no real affiliations with the ‘untouchables’. Audit reports from the statutory audit institution, the General Auditing Commission, have been reduced to legislative debate where anything can happen and anyone can lobby to go free, while audit reports from quasi panels are used as the basis in the fight against corruption. But let them know that whatever the case, we are aware that the prosecution based on the ECOWAS Panel Report is in no way a fight against corruption in this government. What we know is that those accuse of corruption in this government are either changed from one Ministry or Agency to another, or forwarded to the Justice Ministry for investigations- the reports of which are never made public or heard of anymore .
Finally, let’s make no satire of this situation; the Liberian people will definitely lose the corruption war. At the end of the six-year term, those that have been destitute will still be the same or deteriorate beyond conventional poverty classification, while the central clique, the group that earns nothing except in government, will grow their bellies and secure big accounts out of the country; paying huge mortgages on properties in the U. S and Europe while Liberia remains undeveloped; paying tuitions in schools and Universities in Europe and the U.S thereby giving them no reason to improve educational facilities in the country. Shamelessly, the same group seeks medical treatments abroad, benefitting from the products of the farsighted leadership given by others while resources given to them to manage are squandered. The much talked about Poverty Reduction Strategy, a fine intellectual paper, is nothing but an illusion, because even those that are preaching it around are aware that it cannot be achieved in three years, and resources to be used for its implementation are transferred to private pockets. But the sycophancy and hypocrisy has to go on, to pave the way for continuity in the spree of ‘gobachopism’. Who wins the war is left with anyone to determine, but the loser is clear.
But I say this to my dear people: The days of weeping shall one day be over, and a leadership that will fight corruption in the true interest of Liberia will one day come. And so, ‘endure the times and weep no more, for your days are ahead’.

In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, The Pen Shall Never Run Dry

CRITICAL ISSUE OF NATIONAL CONCERN (V)

2008-11-24T08:20:00.000-08:00

THE CONDITION OF DISABLED LIBERIANS: MY ENCOUNTER WITH THE BLINDS

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

While roaming the streets of Monrovia one encounters many things, sometimes strange, mysterious and sometimes very interesting events that seem to be unimaginable. For those with hearts and minds for humanity come across sorrows while others may just move about. During those chores, it sometimes becomes a fortune to meet an old friend or a good friend and, to see entertainers –most of them in search of a bread to take home.

My observation has roughly concluded that three out of every twenty Liberians that roam the streets of Monrovia during the week must have some form of disability, or inability- blindness, physically impaired, mentally impaired and technically incapacitated (lacking in productive skills) - but LISGIS can prove me otherwise. These are really the people that most often come out with no specific routine or schedule for the day but with high hopes of taking bread to feed a family and keep life going.

This, in some ways, is indicative of the depth to which poverty have sunk into the lives of the people that it is becoming deep-rooted and finally accepted as part of life. Interestingly, it is prevailing in the midst of multilateral donor funding and acclaimed professional government with a much publicized poverty reduction agenda coupled with huge revenue intake. This unfavorable, yet prevailing state of affairs had involuntarily reduced thousands of our people to sheer mendicancy at the expense of the dignity of their humanity and personal integrity. Anyway, let’s get to the critical issue.

On a hot Saturday afternoon I encountered four blind Liberians who had come on what they normally term as field outreach – singing in street corners. The four blinds were engaged in a hot feud over the spot at the Carey and Lynch Streets intersection. One had claimed that the spot is his position and he gets his daily bread from there. The other, a lady in a counterclaim, averred that she had met no one there; therefore she is entitled to be there. The other two were peacemakers. One of the blinds being so farsighted suggested that a deal be agreed upon: One person use the location for three days in the week, and the other for the remaining three days excluding Sunday. The blind man who claimed ownership of the spot refused to accept the deal on grounds that the lady has always obstructed his normal ‘eating spot’.

I could not withstand witnessing what the people were going through. They attracted a huge number of people that stood witnessing them, some steering in laughter while some expressing sympathetic ululations. Even within the audience witnessing the blinds, there were some Liberians who still complain about the presence of unfavorable economic conditions that are making life unbearable.

But why will everyone complain in the country. The survivability of the physically, mentally and visually disabled and the technically unable who move around the streets depends on those that are both physically and technically able, and if the latter group complains of hardship, by extension, the disabled only survive at the general mercy of God.

Yes everyone must survive at the general mercy of God, but the segment of our society surviving on welfare needs special attention from the society – the state, religious groups, philanthropic organizations, and the family. These groups must work to ensure the upholding of the dignity of those people by providing better livelihoods for them that their survivability can not be dependent upon transitory incomes obtained from begging in street corners.

The empowering of those people economically through the provision of skills that will make them independent will not only take them from the street as beggars, but it will also reduce the state’s expenditure on welfare for the disabled. By extension that will in some way reduce burdens and stress on those that are able in a way that saving will increase in the economy.

Finally, it will also be important that relevant line ministries and welfare groups focus attention to the mentally impaired. The number of mentally impaired persons (mad men and women) is increasing steadily in the city of Monrovia and the country at large. Some of these people begin their madness with minor psychosocial problems that can be solved. But the absence of care through counseling and encouragement gradually leads them to a terrible situation of madness. This group of people needs to be catered to at a special center for mental rehabilitation where they will be properly monitored and protected from returning to the streets where they are abused, beaten, raped, and sometimes kidnapped.

-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice the Pen Shall Never Run Dry-

THE CHALLENGES OF ACHIEVING GENUINE RECONCILIATION IN LIBERIA

2008-11-21T03:22:00.000-08:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

Introduction

Reconciliation as an institution and function of the transitional justice system is done with contrition and forgiveness based on the conviction of the parties involved. There have been numerous discourses to explore possibilities of genuine reconciliation in the absence of justice. Justice comes in two forms, restorative and retributive. Restorative justice calls for the reconciling of the forces involved in a conflict to restore and build broken relations without punitive actions against perpetrators. On the other hand, retributive justice prosecutes and punishes guilty perpetrators for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In all cases, transitional justice examines the two – restorative, through truth commissions, and retributive through tribunals or courts. In the transitional justice process none is a substitute for the other, and individuals searching for the truth, or prosecuting perpetrators are to have no connections with the conflicts and its associated problems. A tribunal can succeed a truth commission or any of them can be duly implemented. Other countries like Sierra Leone and Rwanda have experienced some forms of the two. While South Africa, Ghana, and some states in the United States resolved their internal conflicts with only truth commissions.

The post-conflict situation in Liberia is challenged by numerous occurrences and expectations. The effort to establish the actual causes of the Liberian Civil War is on-going through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission established under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that finalized the brutal aspects of the Civil War. The process as a whole is transitional and needs to be handled carefully in the absence of biases and prejudices. This paper is an attempt to critically examine the ability and will of the commission to effectively propel the shattered and traumatized people of Liberia towards the achievement of genuine reconciliation in the midst of blunders, glaring deficiencies, oversights, contradictions, claims, counterclaims, rebuttals and propositions and limited human, material and financial capacity. The argument therefore does not attempt to dismiss the strides made by the commission in executing its mandate.

Historical Distortions and Empirical Contradictions

History as the account of events of the past built on political and socio-economic occurrences can not be evaded in reality. What history suffers is distortion and biases from academicians who deliberately write to satisfy clique or individual interests. However the case with Liberia, it is empirical that the written history of Liberia is replete with errors and deliberate distortions. Written Liberian history texts taught in schools have no details on the contributions of many sectors to the growth of the state, some are humiliating to the tribal communities, and many with glorifications for the settlers. Today, eyebrows, and questions are being raised about the reality of the existence or actual occurrences of some incidents in Liberian history, the Matilda Newport and Canon situation is one of such.

Every event of today must have some connections with precedence from the past. The present can not therefore be decided without references and linkages with the past just as the future can not be determined in the absence of acquaintances with the past and the present.

This issue of deliberately prejudicing and slicing the contextual issues of our history does not only pose a challenge to our reconciliation process, but also retains a declassified mentality of the Liberian psyche for a significant part of our population. Our reconciliation process is therefore highly challenged to clarify the contradictions.

One of the mandates of the TRC is to ‘conduct a critical review of Liberia’s historical past, with the view to establishing and giving recognition to historical truths in order to address falsehoods and misconceptions of the past relating to the nation’s socio-economic and political development’ [Article IV (d) TRC ACT]. With varying and controversial accounts of our history, one wonders critically as to whose writing may be considered the falsity and whose writing the truth by the TRC.

The Commission, according to its Act is to investigate occurrences between the period January 1979 to October 14, 2003. We will have to be told by common logic whether an incident that occurred on January 1, 1979 have no unbalance force that precipitated its occurrence from December 31, 1978 backward. The causes of events can not be evaded in a reconciliation or prosecution process, and a problem can not be addressed without using its causes as a prime variable. These are necessary to further expound in the discourse and sharpen the contradictions in our reconciliation process because the Act did not mandate the Commission to go into events preceding 1979. The Commission will only thread into such incidents based on an application by any person or group of persons.

Critically, the Twin Battles, the issue of the Fernando Po Crises, the Matilda Newport Situation (whether True of False), the 1951 and 1955 incidents, the numerous raids of natives by the LFF and many more incidents are not within the stipulated mandate of the Commission, except by the interest of a group or an individual who may by inquisitiveness request the Commission to do so.

Questions of Neutrality and Independence

If we are all to be at the Great Judgment Day, those to prosecute or ask us questions are those who never live with us on earth. There hands are cleans of all worldly deeds, whether good or evil. They therefore morally fit to mount the podium, enjoy the requisite independence, and characteristic neutrality to ask anyone a question and declare you fit for either heaven or hell.

Transitional justice or conventional judicial systems require independence of juries, panelists, judges, and commissioners, etc. This independence is required to render unbiased and impartial decisions that will set a peaceful trajectory for progress and avoid, by the conscience of the participants –perpetrators, victims as well as witness- a relapse into chaos. Does our institution of reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission possess the characteristics of independence, impartiality, neutrality with reference to our civil war, and our political evolution as a nation-state in connection with varying ideologies? This question is puzzling and raised another critical one of the possibility of x-raying every Liberian to find the most neutral to lead the reconciliation drive. Is there any of us, so unique and without stains from the causes and consequences of the conflict? Let the search begin. So help us God!

Since the process began many questions of such have emerge from key actors as well as victims. Some members of the Commission, however the case, were connected to either the cause or the consequences of the civil conflict. Some are from the political institution which many of the witnesses have condemned for being responsible for our national woes. Will they now resign and put out public defense for their party. At the same time, some are from various activist organizations, and student groups that agitated in the country thereby necessitating the change that led to the war. What can they also say of their roles? One may wonder whether they will build their defense in their report, or possibly, there may be a compromising report to satisfy the apparently opposing forces on the Commission.

Claims and Counterclaims

We are seeking to have genuine reconciliation. This desire, if fervent and ardent to our quest for peace and development must be guided by principles of truth and judgment of morality. In this effort, we must speak nothing but the whole truth since indeed we have decided to speak of our roles and reconcile our socio-political and economic disparities that will lead to the possible consolidation of peace among us as a nation and people.

It is the importance of the truth to the process of reconciliation that all witnesses are required to take oath before explaining their roles. But if the witnesses are fiendish enough and have no reverence for the process, their testimonies become clothed with lies, errors and contradictions, thereby making a buffoonery of the process.

The hearings of our Truth and Reconciliation Commission since its inception in January 2008 have been characterized by claims and counterclaims which expose the possibilities of falsities and distortions in the testimonies of witnesses. With these ensuing, it ponders our consciousness to think with exegeses about the prospects of achieving genuine reconciliation when the truth or the whole are allegedly not been told.

In fact, the first testimony that was made before the Commission on the first day of public hearing still remains an issue of serious controversy. The accused perpetrator has mustered all courage to challenge the testimony against him on the basis of its inaccuracy as he alleged. That testimony also lifted the floor mat and dragged the public attention to a claim that it was done under a conspiratorial supervision of one of the Commissioners.

In recent occurrences, the pages of newspapers and headlines of major news have been focused on the thematic hearings of the Commission, but regrettably, rebuttals and counterclaims and street discussions are challenging those testimonies continuously, and are simultaneously posing more encumbering challenges to the overall process of genuine reconciliation, since the parties involved in the cross-claiming scenarios are not submissive to accepting what have been said under oath vis-à-vis there is no barometer to test the testimonies and determine the lies form the truths, or no means of avoiding witnesses from lying under oath.

General Expectation versus Capacity

The general expectation of the people of Liberia is to live in perpetual peace and economic prosperity. Toward this end, the people are committed to whatsoever initiative that can reconcile the past, build the peace and improve both the governance and the economy. This is generally demonstrated by the people’s support to major activities in the country – the Elections, the Reconciliation process, etc.

At present, the vicinity of the Centennial Pavilion that has been over the years an abandoned and quiet area is fully active and paying host to Liberians from all orientations who assemble daily based on their inherent interests to follow the reconciliation process of their country. At the bottom of their heart is to have PEACE and DEVELOPMENT, though many persons suggest different ways of reaching that ultimate desire. For some a War Crime Tribunal is the best way to solve the problems of our civil crisis and bring perpetrators to justice. But others believe that reconciliation through the TRC should remain the only channel of addressing national anguish and tragedy. Yet, there are some who believe that ‘sleeping dog should lie’, so that ‘we can not dig out old wounds’.

However, the road to achieving genuine reconciliation to meet the general expectation of the people need to be matched with the capacity of the state, its institutions of governance and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The capacity of the Commission- human, material and financial needs significant support and effective monitoring till the end. The Commission at one time went comatose as a result of limited funding to the extent that statement-takers launched series of strikes.

People are recommending, in regards to the alleged connections of some members of the Commission to the conflict which undermines their neutrality, that foreigners be hired to write the report and actual history of the country based on the data gathered by the Commission. With the ongoing expectations of the public, the need to empower the commission in finance, human and material resources needs not be overemphasized. In the absence of such capacity building to ensure efficiency in its work, the people’s expectation will be cataclysmically defeated and the reconciliation process will remain illusive.

Conclusion

The process of attaining genuine reconciliation in a post-conflict nation is as delicate as the process of making and keeping the peace. Our quest to have a nation reconciled with its people in harmony and economic prosperity must be treated with much delicacy and reverence for basic principle of transitional justice.

The truth and Reconciliation Commission, the transitional justice institution championing our reconciliation agenda, is threatened by many challenges that may erupt controversies after the process have concluded. These challenges are manifested in the structure, mandate and targets of the commission as have been made public during its period of
Hearings. The process has witnessed accusations from major actors on the independence and neutrality of Commissioners, on the credibility of witness and so forth.

The people are now in their consciousness, diagnosing the possibilities of achieving genuine reconciliation amidst the deliberate distortion of historical facts and claims of falsities and witch-hunting, and limitations or inadequacies on the part of the Commission itself.

However, the Liberian people are committed to seeing their nation peaceful in booming with economic opportunities, and a spirit of trust and confidence in the system of governance. This resolve of the people to reconcile and build peace have been manifested to their courage and support given to all national initiatives.

CRITICAL ISSUES OF NATIONAL CONCERN (II)

2008-11-19T12:12:00.000-08:00

On Constituency and Representation

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

The dynamism of our country in all sectors is faced with the problem of meeting the challenges of globalization and development. Since the end of the civil war, attempts to make strategic reforms in all sectors to set proper national development agenda have not been realistic and effective. The leakages have primarily been due to the unavailability of relevant statistics and data to tell the total number of people in the country, and give the actual composition of our resources and mosaic- social, geographic and economic information.

With the conduction of the 2008 Census, the discourses have extended with appendages to all ends. National development agenda, according to development specialists is drawn and implemented according to population distribution in a given community. Our reform and development strategies, therefore, will have to consider with priority those counties that are highly populated before those with fewer populations. Our representation in the legislature, also, has to be redistributed on the basis of population per county in continuation of the reform process and in consonance with the Constitution.

In terms of parliamentary composition and structure, particularly a bicameral legislature, members of the House of representatives are practically and theoretically drawn from the people in numerical consideration of their population, while members of the upper house or senate, are equally divided to represent the political subdivisions. That is why it has been conceptualized that the representatives represent the people, and the senators represent the political subdivision.

Like the United States, from whose system we formulated our system of government, membership in the House is based on each state’s population, and the size of the House is therefore not specified in the Constitution. But for the Senate each state is entitled to two that is why Rhode Island, the smallest state, with an area of about 3,156 sq. km. has the same senatorial representation as Alaska, the biggest state with an area of some 1, 524, 640 sq. km. Regardless of population, every state is constitutionally guaranteed at least one member of the House. At present, seven states – Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming – have only one representative. On the other hand, six states have more than twenty representatives, and California alone has fifty-two.

The European Union parliament has 732 members apportioned among the EU’s 25 countries on a modified population basis. The most populous country, Germany, has 99 seats and the least populous, Malta, has five seats.

The ongoing debate in the Liberian legislature on the issue of constituency and representation should be an anathema if indeed we are constitutionalists and pragmatists. But unfortunately, people are ignoring the mobility of the population as indicated by the census result to claim that there are attempts to disenfranchise their people. Who then are the people? Let it be clear that where ever the people are there were they should be represented from in the House. So wherever the people moves, they literally take there seats with them there. It is on the basis of accepted threshold that our constituencies are carved, and subdivisions that do not meet the accepted threshold are given some guarantees to be represented with specific amount of representatives.

The results of the 2008 census tell that we are a little over 3.5 million with some counties densely populated and some sparsely populated. If the 20, 000 provision is to be adhered to, then we will have to open up for a constitutional referendum or revision, but where in the constitution provided that the legislature can adjust the representation in the House to a number not exceeding one hundred, it is prudent that the given threshold of 45,000 per constituency be used and that every county be guaranteed with at least 2 seats regardless of populations. The number of representation per county is not in any way an indicator of development or economic growth for such county; it is the quality of the representation which is underpinned by the integrity, political-will and competence of the representative occupying the seat that makes the lawmaking effective and credible.

In fact, there are arguments now that the more there are people on a decision or lawmaking body, the less functional and effective it becomes in making executive and influential decisions, and conversely. That is why conservatives are robustly challenging the proposals of increasing the members of the United Nations Security Council from 15.

Finally, this era must be considered as an era of reformation, and we must now begin to put forth arguments and proposals that will benefit the national interest, instead of thriving on trivialities on the basis of regional divides. I hope that one day we will all make laws and say that this will benefit the country and not the county.

-In the Cause of Democracy and Social Justice, the Pen shall never Run Dry-

The American 2008 Elections: What Can Africans Do? And Why?

2008-11-19T12:02:00.000-08:00

Ibrahim Al-bakri Nyei

INTRODUCTION

The United States plays a dominant role in the political and economic governing systems of the world. Since the collapsed of the Soviet Union or the virtual end of the Cold War, the United States controls a unipolar world with all power, including those of continental and regional economic and political groupings, directed by the dictates of the U.S. This control of the world systems by the U.S. has created a de facto world empire with its president being the de facto world emperor. The critical question or issue this fourth edition of this series seeks to address is the role of Africans, mainly Liberians, in the ensuing elections of November 2008. Plainly this paper intends to critically know ‘what should be the role of Africans (Liberians) in determining the leadership of this de facto world empire’. It began by briefly citing cases of the United States and the activities its presidents in directing the world to their whims.

The U.S. As A World Empire

The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold marked by the apparent success of the U.S. Doctrine of Containment saw the emergence of the United States of America as the superpower of the world since 1991. This supremacy by the U.S. is not just based on military dominance. It extends to the economy, currency, lifestyle and the product of mass culture. In the exertion of its role as a supreme power in world’s affairs, the U.S. contributes about 22 percent of the budget of the world governing body, the United Nations. As such it claims a position of unlimited power to act, and to defy any resolution that restricts it in pursuing its foreign policy objectives and goals. This status of unchallenged dominance and economic supremacy has given the U.S. a considerable edge in deciding the policies of the U.N. and the future or destinies of its members - sovereign states of the world.

The United States, in its quest to sustain its role and remain influential in all aspects of world politics and economy have established trade and military missions around the world, and at the same time striving to dismantle potential threats against its existence as a superpower. At present, it leads the world in an ‘anti-terrorist’ war and donates huge sums of money in building ‘democracies’ in other nations. The U.S in 2003 led a coalition of forces and dethroned the government of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In 1994 the U.S. forced the military ruler of Haiti to relinquish power to the democratically elected president they had overthrown. A U.S. peacekeeping force later followed to oversee the return of democracy in Haiti. Towards its emergence as the sole superpower in 1989, U.S. troops invaded Panama and overthrew the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega, whom it had accused of aiding international cocaine trade.

In the continual effort of exerting itself as a world power, it plays major roles in developing world torn nations and disadvantaged countries. The United States Agency for International Development and other U.S funded institutions currently work on major development and peace building programs around the world. Liberia and many African countries are typical beneficiaries.

This control and direction of the world by this one nation (the United States) makes it an imperative for every other nation, sovereign or independent, to be very circumspect and concerned about political development in that one nation.

The U.S. President, A world Emperor

The president of the United States is the custodian of its sovereignty and director of its foreign policy. With such a domineering role in global politics and economy, the President assumes the role of a ‘world leader’, or a ‘world emperor’.

The major foreign policy doctrines executed by the U.S were the makings of the presidency. And these policies have forced other countries, mainly third world countries like Liberia and its African neighbors to take directions that suit the activities of the foreign policies of the U.S. It had also caused contraction, congestion or expansion of our policies, and sometimes leads to utter failures due to the incompatibility of the policies, the environment and the practical reality. But in all, successes have been reported in some instances.

However, the U.S. presidency had been concerned with pursuing foreign policy objectives that will to the best of all, secure U.S. domestic and international interests in trade, military and political diplomacy. Immediately after independence, President George Washington declared a policy of isolationism, a policy built on the principle of avoiding formal military and political alliance with other countries. But this policy was abandoned in 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The U.S. then embraced the war against the Axis Power and adopted a policy of Globalism, the idea that the United States should be prepared to use military and economic force around the globe to defend its political and economic interests.

In the pursuit of the policy of Globalism, President Harry Truman sent U.S. troops in Greece in 1947 to counter the Communist guerilla war against the people of Greece. That was directly a way of containing communist expansionism against the interests of the United States. President Truman then propounded his famous doctrine as he strived to be a world emperor: “The U.S. must support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or pressure.”

Let the 21st Century (the present) be our concern now at this point. The beginning of this century has indeed witnessed international development and the grandiloquent influence of the United States as the growth of a ‘world empire’, and the president, George W. Bush, a ‘world emperor’. His policies, both domestic and foreign, have in some particular way, affected every nation, particularly those of the third world category-Liberia and her African neighbors. His declared war against ‘terror’ had kept the world political system busy with confrontations and rough diplomacies; and the economy fluctuating among recession, collapse and stabilization, while social values erode invariably.

The Bush Presidency has introduced a tradition, and his retirement is of global focus as the race for his successor is portraying. He actually accentuated and exerted himself as a world leader in many instances by issuing ultimatums. In March 2003 he mandated that “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours, their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing”. Saddam’s refusal led to that conflict and it is ongoing with uncountable casualties to both sides, and at the expense of the world economy. In July of the same year, after several efforts had failed to end the bloodletting in the city if Monrovia (Liberia), Bush intervened strongly by declaring: "In order for there to be peace and stability in Liberia, Charles Taylor needs to leave now." That intervention probably brought an end to the street fighting between government militias and rebel forces. With what his presidency introduced, every African has been concerned as to what happens after him, thus everyone will want to know exactly what are the qualities of his successor and what level of impact will there lives be affected with. What are his plans for Africa? More to that are questions like ‘will there be a diversion, modification, or adjustment to the Bush style of leadership’.

CONCLUSION: What Can Africa Do?

This inquiry may sound laughable. But it is important to take note of the above exposé, though abridged, of what the U.S does and what its presidents do, and in relations to the current world unipolar political order.

Africa, from all aspects of developments, is affected by decisions made in the U.S. mainly as the world becomes a global village with the U.S controlling the strongest global financial institutions – the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Using Liberia as a point here, it is important to note that Liberians use both the U.S Dollar and the Liberian Dollar as legal tenders with the U.S. Dollar valued very high and considered with preference. U.S local policies affect Liberia. There are thousands of Liberians living on incomes earned by families residing in the U.S.

The U.S. diversity Visa program makes thousands of Africans to travel and settle in the United States every year. Some who called themselves ‘the totally successful’ in the program abandoned their nationalities for U.S. citizenships. But these people maintain regular ties home. They have roles to play in the elections. These people will have to join a campaign for a president that will help, using the traditional influence of the U.S. presidency, bring relief to the peoples of Africa by advocating and implementing sound policies that will lead to progressive development in Africa. Africans home are also to call on their relatives in the U.S. to join a side, a side that is an African-focused side, because this side will be concerned about developments in Africa rather than aid. That could lead to a U.S development package for Africa as the Marshall Plan was there for Europe after World War II.

With the level of progress taken place on the African Continent, Western Media focused mostly on the worst side of Africa thereby giving the world a terrible look at the continent. This is to explain how the media works in making things look their way. African media houses will have to join the elections and give more coverage to the side that will help give Africa a good look on the International scene. Media houses must carry more advertisement and publicity to capture the people’s attention on the candidate most needed now to take the problem of the African peoples at the workings of American bureaucracies.

Than all other things, African leaders and technocrats must get themselves set for the new order that may result from the ensuing elections. The result may have the proclivity to chart a different course on the continent. Changes on the right side of the plane must be accepted, while those to left that undermine African cultures and systems must be rejected with decisiveness. Africans must also follow the electoral process with curiosity to understand how a mature system works without organized fraud that stimulates violence and casualties. It will also be good to learn from the lapses of the process and build on ours.