By Rep. Musa Hassan Bility
One of the greatest tragedies of Liberia is that we have been blessed with abundant natural resources for more than a century, yet we have failed to build the institutions, systems, and human capacity needed to transform that wealth into lasting prosperity for our people.
For generations, foreign companies have come to Liberia in search of iron ore, gold, diamonds, timber, rubber, and other valuable resources. During that same period, nations around the world have developed sophisticated systems to monitor production, verify revenues, and ensure accountability. Liberia, however, remains largely dependent on the very companies extracting our resources to tell us what they are taking, what they are earning, and what they owe us.
In effect, those exploiting our resources have become their own auditors. They measure, report, and account for their own activities while we lack the technical capacity, modern accounting systems, and independent expertise necessary to verify their claims. No serious nation can build prosperity while relying on others to tell it the value of its own wealth.
Even more troubling is the secrecy that often surrounds our natural resource agreements. Too many concessions are negotiated behind closed doors, approved without meaningful public scrutiny, and implemented without the benefit of independent expert analysis. The owners of the resources—the Liberian people—are too often the last to know the terms under which their national wealth is being surrendered.
The result is painfully clear. Our resources leave at an alarming rate while our people remain poor. Mountains disappear, forests shrink, minerals are exported, and profits are transferred abroad, yet the communities from which these resources are taken continue to struggle with poor roads, inadequate schools, weak healthcare systems, and unemployment.
What makes this even more frustrating is that we have failed to use our resources to build our own capacity. Every concession agreement should be creating Liberian geologists, engineers, accountants, auditors, environmental scientists, and resource managers. A portion of every dollar generated from our natural wealth should be invested in training Liberians to manage the industries that shape our future. Instead, we continue to export raw materials while importing expertise.
Our oversight institutions must also do better. The agencies responsible for managing our resources should be subject to constant review, rigorous audits, and public accountability. Transparency should not be optional. It should be the minimum standard.
Today, we find ourselves in the painful position of being spectators. We watch as our resources are depleted, our opportunities are lost, and our future is mortgaged. We watch as those entrusted with protecting the national interest too often remain silent or inactive. We are not merely witnessing the extraction of resources; we are witnessing the erosion of opportunities that belong to future generations.
The question is simple: when the resources are gone, what will remain?
If all that remains are empty pits, depleted forests, and communities still trapped in poverty, then we will have failed. But if our resources produce educated citizens, strong institutions, modern infrastructure, and a diversified economy, then they will have served their purpose.
Natural resources are not development. They are an opportunity. Whether they become a blessing or a curse depends on how we govern them.
At this moment, Liberia is dangerously close to becoming a nation that watched its wealth disappear while doing too little to stop it. Unless we change course, history will remember this era not for the resources we possessed, but for the opportunities we squandered.
That is the great Liberian tragedy.