Your Excellency:

When you took the gavel of authority of the republic though the country’s first-ever challenged presidential elections in 2006, you made it clear to the Liberian people that things had gone so terribly wrong and awry in the country that you will have to make hard decisions and take appropriate actions to jumpstart Liberia’s recovery process. You did not say at the time what the hard decisions and appropriate actions would entail, but we take it that you will do any and everything that ties this nation to its forbidding past – a past where the rule of law was secondary and selective; where corruption was part of the official ball game, where patronage and presidential largesse overruled systematic economic planning and sustained, meritorious job placement; where the economy ran haphazardly and danced to the tone of corrupt, dishonest businessmen in cohort with public officials, and where equitable wealth distribution to the population was a factor of nepotism and illegal social connections.

The public avowal was essential as a confidence grabber, as a captivating starter as it should today be a policy foundation. It therefore keeps coming back as a major policy omission each time Liberia’s recovery is weighed up. It may have been made in passing, as perhaps one of those politicians’ swollen-headed blabs that rear up when the rhythm of applauses is hastened. But unfortunately that avowal resonated through the governance system so hard that it is difficult to let go – it seems actually a foundation policy assertion of your administration without which other statements and current efforts may become less tangible and even void (or vain?).

Madam President, this memo is actually a reminder that you need to go back to the roots of that avowal to rescue the Liberian nation from backslide towards the vices of the past. We see that your administration has the best ever policy put in place to raise a people from the ashes of a crippling war that devastated every infrastructure from hydro-electric plants to water and sewer systems; to roads, highways, bridges, and dams; and to education and health facilities. But we also still see something wrong – an omission rather than a commission. Certain developments in the last two months triggered this observation and therefore the call to roots: one is the response of your administration in June this year to global commodity price increases; the other is your venture into the eerie, risky Monrovia nightline to play the night-time cop. We will take the last development first.

We must admit that we admire your bravery for touring, in the depth of a July night, communities conservatively reported to be crime-infested during the rainy season. But it continues to baffle us what the true intent of that tour was – what it hoped to achieve in the face of rising criminality in Monrovia and other large cities across the country. It is not clear up to now whether you were simply being adventurous, playing the daredevil of an irony lady to contradict reports that Monrovia is a criminal den at night, or to send out strong policy signals to armed criminals that their field day is over. Armed robberies and other violent crimes including extortion, accosting, and rape have been part of the Liberian security problems since your administration took power on January 16, 2007. Not that your administration did anything to stir up the vices but that with the resurrection of civil rule, the citizens surrendered their security to the government and precluded the mob justice that held criminal activities at bay for most of the war years. With the citizens’ surrender, the law took its place and it became the responsibility of government to protect and defend the citizens in line with the Constitution of Liberia.

But more than two years on, Your Excellency, that aspect of governance is still found wanting. The Liberian people are still vulnerable to the cruelty of individuals, who though genuinely in need, chose to take criminality as a career and profession. They have to go to sleep each night with “their hearts in their mouths” and having to “sleep with one eye open”. Armed violence is so such that it has become a source of income for many scoundrels who either cannot find jobs to do or who simply find extortion at gun point an easy game for survival, as lucrative business venture, or both acting together. This is hurting the Liberian people and many are wondering whether it was worth coming back home from displaced people and refugee camps at the request of the government. As for those still out, it is never until the security situation improves, until the government can stand up to criminals and show to the Liberia people who is in control.

And, as we see it, all your administration does is to say, “Well, we have done our best compared with other capitals in the region.” Or at best to declare one police anti-crime operation after the other without noticeable gain: “Operation Spider-web”, “Operation Sweep Wave”, operation this, or that. You need to take the hard decisions you promised the Liberian people. Boost the economy, lift up the private sector using recent diplomatic dividends, complete the reformation of the judicial and security sectors, open job and training opportunities for young Liberians, and then declare armed robbery punishable by life imprisonment or death where murder is involved in the course of the robbery. A strong security policy based on a thorough study of the factors that underlie violent crimes in Liberia at the advent of civil rule is needed here, not showmanship to convince the population that something is being done when what is being done does not run too deep and fundamentally enough to impact society positively. The guns may be silent, but if the citizens cannot move around freely in pursuit of liberty, property, and happiness there is nothing to boast of in sovereignty and in civil rule after 14 years of war.

This, Your Excellency, brings us to your administration’s mid-June response to global commodity price increases. As in the first development, we think your administration was more thoughtful of what must be done and then locked into the usual helpless mode, falling short of and once again missing the opportunity to show to the Liberian people the economist you are made up of. There is much to be said regarding this development, but for the measure of time we will simply say that government did not study the situation well. For instance the government statement argued inconsiderably that a 100-lb bag of rice sold at a wishful price of $35 with the probability of an upward adjustment, plus $4, must be a windfalls for most Liberians because the same quantity (and quality too?) of rice is sold at higher prices in neighbouring countries. It did not bother to note that reducing prices or holding prices constant for a mostly jobless population amounts to nearly to nothing.

Or worse, it did not consider the issues of salaries in the neighbouring countries in which rice prices are said to be higher. It moreover forgot to consider that the transfer of goods and services in those countries is unencumbered by bad roads and high transportation fares. We would have hailed the government for its recent “response” to global increase in prices, but to say that that response met its policy goal of availability and affordability is regrettable, to be diplomatic. Such statement needs immediate review, if not reversal. It would have been forgiven if the response was a stopgap solution to a fluid situation. But it was sincerely not and that is disturbing.

All in all, Madam President, it is not sufficient to say global prices have adversely affected the domestic market and that national conditions will remain vulnerable to such effects. That’s something any one in a helpless situation can say. But for your administration and the Liberian people, it should be a luxury statement that no one can afford. This is why you must take hard economic decisions that will attract meaningful investors; this is why also you must avoid making dead-end statements that makes most Liberians to want to put their hands on their heads in total despair in wait of doomsday. Or how else can you translate your recent much-heralded diplomatic success to social gains in a country where poverty is rife and where unemployment is soaring amidst rising commodity prices? It cannot be gainsaid that now is high times for the hard decisions and actions you promised the Liberian people, lest the Liberian people come to the conclusion that you have become weak-willed in the face of tough governance obstacles.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for your valuable attention and promise to go back to roots – to take policy approaches, and not showmanship, to issues regarding the ever rising prices of rice, petroleum products, cement, and transportation fares, amongst others.