MANY PEOPLE would be surprised that the Nimba County 3, Lofa County 2 final result from the County Football Championship provides lessons for moving Liberia from Mess to Best, improving the living conditions of the people of Liberia sustainably. Nimba County, like all other Counties in Liberia have people who think that winning is attaining the best in life. These people do not think that the human resource is the best resource. They think that the natural resources that they have, like the timber and iron ore in Nimba, the gold and diamond in Lofa, along with the money that these minerals bring, are the best resources from Liberia.
LOFA COUNTY was considered as the "foodbasket" of Liberia because of its production of rice, the staple food of Liberia. Other foods widely eaten in Liberia were also produced in Lofa County. Now, a quarter billion United States dollars worth of rice is imported into Liberia (MCI, 2022). There is no systemic approach to promoting rice farming in Liberia. Nimba County was known as the "moneybasket" of Liberia because of the money from the iron ore exports that went into GOL revenue. Now, the iron ore range at Yekepa, Nimba County is under depletion and is highly likely to become Nimba Holes like the iron ore mine in Bomi County that has become Bomi Holes.
IN THE MIDST OF NO systemic approach to terminate systemic corruption, the GOL declared number one enemy of Liberia, the LRA has declared that it can raise revenue to the tune of a billion United States dollars. Any increase in GOL revenue necessarily means the maximization of corruption, with more public money going into the private pockets of the powers that be. With this enhanced corruption, poverty generation rather than poverty alleviation is promoted
THE FOOTBALL FINAL is over and there is a lot of excitement over the victory for Nimba. But nearly all of the people of Nimba have no hope of having access to more than LD300 a day. This hopeless exists when the National Legislators have access to at least LD150,000 a day and their foreign partners, in the commercial sector alone, have access to at least LD300,000,000 a day while the poor people of Liberia have access to at most less than LD300 a day (Annual Reports of CBL, LISGIS, MFDP, MCI, WB, IMF, ADB and UNDP).
THIS HOPELESSNESS stems from the longstanding and widespread poverty on account of the decision of the powers that be to promote the system of the production of raw materials for export without any prioritization of Value Addition. This poverty has become violence-oriented, which, at times, takes on the forms of coup d'etat and civil war, experienced particularly by the people of Nimba and Lofa. The people of Liberia are tired of experiencing the diseases and suffering from the logs being transported on the life-threatening dusty roads, where schools and clinics are hard to find. And if schools and clinics were to be found, they would be irrelevant because they are operated on the basis of American rather than Liberian culture, which is unhelpful in solving the problems of Liberia. The people of Liberia want to get out of this hopelessness and this is why they continue to say in Kpelle, Gweh Feh Kpei and in Mah, Wa-o waleh nyehn, meaning that the Struggle for Justice Continues.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
THIS TIREDNESS will not lead the people into violence when the people who love Liberia continue working together harder and better to transform the electoral system from UNFAIR to FAIR. This transformation, through the Rule of Law, is the only way that persons with good records, living to serve the people rather than to be served by the people, can get elected to bring the system of Justice, the indispensable ingredient for Peace and Progress in Liberia.
GWEH FEH KPEI! WA-O WALEH NYEHN!
