By: Samuel P. Jackson
In sixteen days, God willing I will be reaching my 72nd birthday and entering my 73rd year. This is no small feat for a boy from Soniwehn and other slums in Monrovia. From the mean streets of New York City, rough neighborhoods, projects, and the grind of working in the corporate jungle. Alcohol and drugs, seediness, cancer, and other health issues I consider myself indeed blessed by the mercy of God.
Most of my childhood friends are no longer with us. My first-grade buddy, Samuel Heath, my Brooklyn intellectual bluff boy Edwin Benedict Sambola, and the cousin Carsu Sengbloh Carsu who welcomed me into this little space in the Vanderveer Apartments on New York Avenue also in Brooklyn. My political mentors, Oscar Quiah, Baccus Matthews, Tom Woewiyu, Marcus Dahn and Leslie Norman Abayomi Cole. My life, reckless most of the time, booze, smoking, philandering all made me a prime candidate for an early death but the magnificence of God, even explained insufficiently in the Bible saved my life to see peace, upheaval, coup, wars, and postwar reconstruction in Liberia. Thus my perspective is broad.
I’ve surpassed the life expectancy at birth for most Liberians, at 62 by almost ten years and approaching that of the United States at 77 years. I may not be so lucky, but I plow ahead. Thus Joseph Nyumah Boakai, the current president whose first term will end in 2029 is my last hope to see a united and prosperous Liberia. This is science, but only God can determine the final outcome. But as a mortal human being I will stick to the science for now and predict that this President may be my last hope to see the healing of wounds in a divided nation, and set in motion the steps to reorder our failed nation into a productive country characterized by the building blocks of successful societies.
If you see me yelling, expressing indignation at the chaotic steps, missteps, and outright inertia in the Boakai Administration, now you know the genesis of my frustration. I believe in Joseph Nyumah. I know him to be a decent human being, Effort Baptist Deacon, extraordinary statesman and a humble spirit. These characteristics are not enough to rebuild a failed nation but they are adequate human elements that can be used as a foundation to unite our country and catalyze growth and development if connected to an inspired vision and supported by a cadre of dedicated men and women who are selfless and understand the larger goal of the collective instead of the narrow interests of party apparatchiks and sycophantic surrogates.
Despite my disappointment, I still believe the President can reorder Liberia into a united nation and begin the building blocks for prosperity, but time is running out for him. Of all persons, this President has nothing to lose. He is in the twilight of his charmed life, a young man from the despair of village life to the city, studying and besting the children of elites, and rising to the noble heights of the presidency, all in one lifetime. It is only God. Therefore, the President must remember his own journey and concentrate on those factors that made him succeed against all mathematical odds. There are other young children in the villages and slums whose lives depend upon what he does or omits to do. It’s time for recalibration, to rethink his current posture of using old policies and political arrangements. Liberia requires a radical shift from the paradigm of minimalist interventions that make development move at a snail’s pace obstructed by corruption, bad governance, and gross incompetence. This is the current state of development in Liberia despite what seems like the President mustering the political will to fight the vices that have kept us the eighth poorest country on the planet.
President Boakai cannot vacillate on good governance or compromise on shared prosperity. The President says he has begun the fight against corruption, but he came to the battle without shedding all of the elements that have made previous fights only scratching the surface. He cannot fight corruption when he funds and supports renegade lawmakers to break the law, ignore rulings of the Supreme Court and selectively prosecute those viewed as his political enemies. He cannot fight corruption when he continues on the ill-fated path of his predecessors. He cannot fight bad governance when he puts a band aid on serious acts of economic injustice such as Medtech and CTN.
President Boakai’s vision must include a platform to decrease the widening wealth gap between Liberians and foreigners. Most of the economy is controlled by foreigners. All sectors. All of the supermarkets on Tubman Boulevard are owned by foreigners. All of the Class A mining licenses for gold, iron ore and the emergent oil industry are owned by foreigners. The trading architecture, the industrial value chain and even the provision of electricity are outsourced to foreigners.
Clearly there are many challenges that the President must tackle, including health, education, and an unproductive agriculture sector, but this document is not meant to be a shopping list of ills in the Liberian society. I only intend to remind my President that he has the opportunity, the full backing of the Liberian people and he can attract the resources of the international system through “commercial diplomacy” to make the building blocks of a united and a prosperous nation. Even in my lifetime. And so it goes.
PERSPECTIVE:
