As the debate over ArcelorMittal Liberia's Third Amendment drags on, it is hard not to recall a quiet but telling moment from the final days of former Mines and Energy Minister Wilmot Paye's tenure. As he handed over the ministry, Paye did not boast about achievements or trade blame. Instead, he left his staff with a sober reminder--one that now feels uncomfortably relevant.
His point was plain: Liberia's biggest problem in managing its natural resources is not that we lack laws, policies, or agreements. It is that we are poor at enforcing the ones we already have. We sign deals with high hopes, celebrate them with fanfare, and then slowly allow them to drift--watered down by politics, weakened by pressure, and ignored until the next renegotiation comes along.
That observation fits the ArcelorMittal story almost too neatly.
For more than two decades, AML has operated in Liberia under a series of agreements and amendments. Each one arrived with promises that things would improve--better oversight, more benefits for communities, stronger local participation. Yet the same complaints keep resurfacing. Roads and public facilities are left unfinished. Communities still waiting for basic services. Questions about profits, costs, and what Liberia truly gained from years of extraction.
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Paye understood what many prefer not to say out loud: when a country cannot hold a company to its existing obligations, signing a new agreement does not fix the problem. It only postpones it. It tells concessionaires that if they wait long enough, or push hard enough, yesterday's commitments will eventually be replaced by tomorrow's negotiations.
He also spoke to something even more worrying--the slow weakening of institutions meant to protect the public interest. Over time, ministries stop acting like referees and start acting like negotiators. Oversight becomes occasional instead of routine. Rules bend, not because they are wrong, but because enforcing them has become inconvenient.
This helps explain why today's Senate debate feels so divided. One senator looks at the agreement through years of lived experience and says, "We have seen this movie before." Another looks at the wording on paper and says, "This time, it might work." Both views exist because Liberia never forced a proper reckoning earlier--never drew a firm line and said, "First, finish what you promised."
Paye's warning also connects directly to the growing unease about conflicts of interest. When lawmakers who approve agreements also benefit from contracts tied to those agreements, enforcement becomes uncomfortable. When regulators and politicians are financially entangled with concessionaires, holding anyone accountable starts to feel like a personal risk rather than a public duty.
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This is not about singling out individuals. It is about a system that makes compromise easier than confrontation and delay safer than discipline.
Liberia has come to believe that development lives inside documents--MDAs, amendments, access agreements. But paper does not build roads, clinics, or schools. Only follow-through does. And follow-through requires institutions strong enough to say no, even when the pressure is high.
That was the heart of Wilmot Paye's message. Without discipline--discipline in negotiation, in enforcement, and in separating personal interest from national duty--every new agreement becomes a reset button. The company moves forward. The country waits again.
The Third Amendment now before the Legislature is more than a test of ArcelorMittal Liberia. It is a test of whether Liberia is ready to stop repeating itself. Whether unfinished business finally matters. Whether enforcement is no longer optional.
Paye left office quietly. But his final words linger because they speak to a truth Liberians recognize all too well: until we learn to stand firm on what we already agreed to, no new deal--no matter how polished--will deliver what it promises.
