Living in a country, which is endowed with many natural resources and heavily funded by international partners, many are left to marvel how many of these vulnerable young people may support the process of sustainable peace, reconciliation and development in Liberia, amidst unbearable hardship, rampant corruption, weak policy implementation, absence of a robust and stringent implemented national youth empowerment law, low human resource capacity development and high illiteracy rate, compounded by an economy that is highly dominated by foreigners. The subsisting political condition that is the absence of a significant portion of the nation's population in the national drive for peace, reconciliation and development due to the aforementioned ills, threatens the process of economic recovery and national renewal. As a political interpreter, I have observed that all hope is not yet lost for the young people, provided that National government unleashes weapons from its arsenal to win the war on corruption, creates an enabling environment for youthful participation in the process of ensuring peace, reconciliation and development, invests in human resource capacity development and programs geared toward fostering peace, reconciliation and development among all and lastly that the young people must be willing and see the need to utilize the available opportunities before them. Let's consider those necessary steps bit by bit in this piece. I will begin by commenting on the war on corruption.

GOVERNMENT'S WAR ON CORRUPTION

Certainly, there must be no despair, for the young people to be empowered in order to fully contribute to sustainable peace, reconciliation and development in Liberia, resources are required, but with the prevalence of corruption on a high scale, it seems that resources that are needed to strengthen the process of peace, reconciliation and development end up in the pockets of kleptocrats, bogus patriots and pseudo nationalists.

It goes to say that the government of the day must fight to minimize the chances of corruption and institutional graft, in order to safe resources that will be invested in the development of young people so that they will support the process of economic recovery and national renewal. But it seems that the war on corruption is not certain to be won by the current arrangement, with inadequate systems to combat state criminals, corrupt judiciary and white elephant anti-corruption institutions presided over by relatives and cronies of the president. Corruption brings dissatisfaction, disenchantment, distrust, distress and disharmony among certain group of people suffering its menace, in our Liberian case, the majority. Corruption is cancerous to nation building and is one of the root causes of the civil war that saw the loss of over 250,000 lives, destruction of valuable and invaluable properties and left close to a million persons internally and externally displaced.

While we do not yearn for civil turmoil in Liberia, the fact remains that the young people are in the majority and their dissatisfactions over government's handling of activities remain unaddressed. Since January 16, 2006, the date on which President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared the war on corruption, soldiers have not returned from the battle front rejoicing and it appears that many have lost their lives in this battle that appears endless. We urge the government to fight harder in order to win the war on corruption and pave the way for resources to filter down towards the empowerment of young people. A win of the war on corruption does not necessarily signify immediate empowerment for the young people, but it is the first cardinal step towards youth empowerment.

CREATING AN ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR YOUTHFUL INVOLVEMENT

The war on corruption may be won, but the enabling environment for youthful contribution to sustainable peace, reconciliation and development, if not created, will mean a non-compliant posture on the part of the young people towards supporting the process of economic recovery and national renewal. Hence, it is incumbent upon National government to create the environment, whereby the atmosphere will be conducive for the young people to ably participate in the process of ensuring peace, reconciliation and development in our struggling nation, Liberia. It goes to say that the necessary policies must be put in place to tackle several vices, which are inimical to the process of economic recovery and national renewal. The government of the day must wear the iron jacket by instituting policies that will reduce the chances of young people getting involved in activities like gambling, constantly spending times in video clubs and other actions that are capable of eroding the appetites of young people towards empowerment. Also, policies to strengthen and protect Liberian businesses in the economy will help pave the way for more young ones to get involved in the process of nation building. Let's also bear in minds that policies instituted must be followed by effective, efficient and reflective implementations. One may wonder whether winning the war on corruption and creating an enabling environment are sufficient for the youthful generation to contribute towards the process of sustainable peace, reconciliation and development in mama Liberia. Such imagination sounds good, but that's not all. What's next then?

INVESTING IN THE ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

We will wholeheartedly appreciate, when the government wins the war on corruption. We will also embrace the government, when it creates the enabling environment for youthful contribution to peace, reconciliation and development in Liberia. But does that imply that the government is successful in making the youthful population to contribute to the process of economic recovery and national renewal? Certainly no! The government will insistently need to invest in the human resource capacity building process by creating programs that are intended to build the capacity of the young people and make them useful citizens, who will place our country on the glee and pedestal of development. There will be the need to strengthen those institutions that are youth oriented and provide more support that will capacitate them to reach out to many young ones throughout the 15 political subdivisions of Liberia.

WILLINGNESS OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE

Government may win the war on corruption, create the enabling environment and invest in it for youthful contribution to sustainable peace, reconciliation and development, but do they solve the problems in its entirety? They are important roadmaps to what may be needed to achieve the optimal goal of bringing the young people to the process of peace, reconciliation and development, but overall the young people must be willing to grab available opportunities and make adequate use of them. The subsisting condition in Liberia shows that national government has not succeeded in winning the war on corruption, creating the enabling environment for maximum youthful involvement in the process of sustainable peace, reconciliation and development and investing sufficiently, transparently and accountably in programs that will build the capacity of many young people in order to get them involved in the process of economic recovery and national renewal. Hence, it becomes very grim if not impossible to count on majority of the young people to support the process of sustainable peace, reconciliation and development in Liberia. I therefore call on the Government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to speedily win the war on corruption, create an enabling vibrant policy making and implementing environment for youthful involvement and invest sufficiently, transparently and accountably in programs that will reach out to majority of the young people throughout Liberia. Then, we can finally checkmate the willingness of majority of the young people, not just a privileged few, to contribute to the process of sustainable peace, reconciliation and development in Liberia.