Imperative for All-Liberia Economic Conference Made -Mitchell Says Weightlifting, Paradigm shift Indispensable

MONROVIA – Tons of whitepapers, concepts and theories are dusting on the shelf, in addition to political rhetoric, proposed by various Liberian intellectuals and scholars towards pulling and rescuing Liberia’s macroeconomy from the valley of squalor and debauchery in which it has wallowed from time immemorial. Despite the expressed ideals and ideas, the economy of the Africa’s oldest republic is yet to leapfrog and get better. Does someone care? Are Liberians complacent with the mediocre, regime-owned remedies available? One Liberian who sees a glimpse of hope in getting things radically kicked off and better is veteran national security expert Atty. Abraham Teah Teh-bah Barlou Mitchell, who believes a meeting of the minds, the coalescing of all the isolated concepts from a range of Liberian academics and public servants is the most plausible way forward. And, as The Analyst reports, he is proposing a Liberian Government and partners convening an All-Liberian Economic Conference.

The Analyst has taken a cursory glimpse of a public policy paper on a Proposed Economic Conference on Liberia, titled, Economic Road Map for a 25-Year National Development Blueprint for 21^st Century Liberia written by Atty. Abraham Teah Teh-bah Barlou Mitchell in which he called on the Government of Liberia and the country’s major development partners to organize a serious meeting of the minds.

Disclaiming that he is not an economist, Mitchell who have grown in the ranks and files of Liberia’s “progressive struggle” contends that one does not have to be a rocket economic scientist to see some of the fundamental challenges (systemic and structural) that have characterized and engulfed the Liberian economy for more than a century since the 1950s.

And for one who has paid some times in developing expertise in the development of Liberia’s National Security Strategy Architecture – based on threats perspectives, the former Commission of Immigration noted that the Liberian economy, particularly in its current post-war state, is one of such national security threats to peace, development and stability.

After more than 20 years of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (August 2003-December 2023), he opined, Government’s Fiscal Annual Budget can hardly hit a billion-dollar mark, in 20 years of successive annual budget submissions and intake – despite the boast of economic growth.

“Interestingly, as God would have it, the Unity Party is back in power, inheriting virtually the same economic mess it left behind in its first twelve year rule, and additional six years of the CDC’s failure to reform the national economy,” he said, “Whether or not the new administration of the Unity Party would recognize it ‘squandered’ the opportunity in its first term, and is prepared for an economic paradigm shift, to change the situation, remains the one million dollar question.”

Mitchell said he as making the proposition for an all-Liberian conference on the Liberian economy, because he believes strongly there’s a need for a critical review of the Liberian economy for the purpose of far-reaching reforms, so as to break the backs of the syndrome of “growth without development” of the Liberian economy, for an internally sustainable economic stability.

According to him, as the root causes of endemic poverty and underdevelopment in Liberia are structurally and systemically entrenched and very complex indeed, five years of vague, generic economic plans are short and strategically inadequate to address the herculean economic problems of Liberia.

He argued that no serious government can seriously fight and reduce endemic poverty in Liberia, as well as meet the nation’s Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) with superfluous, generic, and voluminously vague, short-term 5-year development plans, as the Poverty Reduction Strategies (I & II), AfT (2012-17), and PAPD (2018-23), respectively were, and unsuccessfully sought to do in Liberia.

Then he added: “I maintain that Liberia needs an overarching minimum 25-year economic plan, sub-stratified into five (5), inter-related sub-plans (of immediate, medium, and long terms).  Such a plan should be nationally-owned, legislated, and should transcend regime sentiments.  It may sound mystical, but it can become a real possibility. It means the architecture of such a plan should take on a whole nation, an all-party, and an all-civil society approach.”

Mitchell noted that when such a plan is crafted and further nationally validated, the nationally validated draft could be forwarded to the National Legislation.

“The point is, if we can legislate laws for unjust multibillion dollars ‘Mineral Development Concession Agreements’, we should develop the courage do the same for a National Plan on the economy of Liberia,” he said.

Mitchell lamented that Liberia is unnecessarily amongst the least developed and poorest countries in Africa, exhibiting all manifestations of this category of nations including poverty, poor nutrition, health, chronic illiteracy (prevalent amongst both youth and adult) and economic vulnerability – instability in agricultural production and export of goods and services, etc.

Thus, he said, Liberia cannot afford to dodge the unavoidable and fundamental issue about the national economy, adding that without a sound economy capable of providing jobs, quality health care and education for particularly for young people, as well as maintaining national security and defense forces, including the Armed Forces of Liberia, police, immigration and national intelligence, “we are doomed to the state of uncertainty”.

“We need an economy that addresses the agricultural and food security needs of the people; that enhances trade and commerce, and above all increases the revenue generation capacity of government for improved national budgeting, as well as modernizing our infrastructure,” he stressed. “Without this, politics and democracy become a matter of dried bone talk.”

As it stands, he asserted further, “no political leadership of any given country, particularly we in the developing world, bugged down by poverty, disease, hunger, and ignorance can show the salt we worth, nor can we ever be taken seriously internationally, if we cannot show a clear-cut and well-defined national development blueprint that serves as a roadmap to tackle the root causes of poverty and dependency, and at the same time that directs social development in a planned, non-interrupted and coordinated way.”

The Liberian progressive also intimated that experience has also shown that national development plans in themselves, are not sufficient only when determined political will, but that they are required to translate such plans into tangible results for national renewal and redirection, and that’s the only way can such plans be taken seriously.

“Fellow Liberians, we must jealously develop, take control of, and protect our national economy.  Without a developed economy capable of responding the needs of the nation, we are doomed,” he emphasized.

Today, notwithstanding the land mark achievements made by Liberia in its political democracy, including free speech, free association, recurrent and peaceful elections and constitutional transitions and transfers of power from one administration to the other; Public corruption, poor natural resource management, and the consequential effects of extractive plunder, as well as total economic non-performance, remain the greatest challenge to national security and governance.

Mitchell said despite all the regime-driven “national plans” from the Unity Party’s 12 years and CDC’s six years, the Liberian economy has not shifted from its obsolete model responsible for tolerating and sustaining dependency, endemic poverty, corruption, unemployment and social deprivation.

In this regard, he opined, many assessments of the Liberian economy by international institutions and experts have painted a gloomy picture of the Liberian economy, particularly after the EEBOLA pandemic that visited untold devastation on the national economy.

Economic Hamstrings

Further hammering the exigency of the national economic conference, he said such an issue to boldly identify and deal with traditional impediments that have struck the Liberian economy in the abyss.

He added: “The problems we face in Liberia about economic underdevelopment, dependency and foreign domination are not unique to Liberia. This is a general post-colonial phenomenon in post-independence Africa.

“Most of Asia and Latin America are far ahead and have left Africa way behind. Realizing this situation leaders of Africa, torchbearers of the continent’s independence, had put forward very fine economic blue prints to lead the struggle of Africa’s economic independence that has been thwarted by global forces that feel threatened by an economically independent and industrialized Africa.”

Envisioning Conference Outcome

Mr. Mitchell has impressed upon the Boakai administration to see the exigency for such a conference involving all stakeholders towards developing a 25-year economic blue print for Liberia that will not be regime-based, but become national development in scope and substance.  Development, Mitchell said, is not an event but a process, that should be undertaken in an uninterrupted long-term approach, and guided by some well-defined indicators.

He noted: “Thus, by its vision and mission, this economic blueprint is a long-term economic strategy intended to lay the foundation of a new paradigm shift in the way we do business economically in Liberia. We want to shift from a mere producer of Natural Rubber (in the form of latex), timbers, iron ore, oil palm, coffee and coco, to a producer of semi and fully-flesh- finished goods.

“We want to process our raw materials trough skilled and knowledge-based labor and not the reverse (unskilled, casual labor). This is the secret behind the developed economies of Asia and elsewhere.  By doing what the mission and vision of our new economic blue print espouse, it means we want to increase our GDP, increase our revenue generating capacity as a state, export finished goods, and create the basis for trade – trade not in unprocessed logs, Natural Rubber (latex), palm oil, but quite the opposite.  In short, we are striving towards a new economy characterized by made in Liberia.

“When the plan is finally drafted after the conference, it is expected that it would be divided into either a five 5-year separate but integrated phases, or a first 10-year phase, to be followed by the next 15-year phases.  Importantly, the cornerstone of the plan would be a long-term training component for the necessary human capital, manpower development in all fields of study relevant and necessarily related to the general and peculiar characteristics of our national economy.  For example, since our economy is rubber, palm, and other cash crops-based, we must train our people to be specialized in all aspects of rubber, oil palm, coffee and coco as well as wood processing.

As we strive to modernize economically through industrialization, the call for the review and adjustment of all current “state awarded concession contracts” is not intended to antagonize foreign investors nor scare them away.  Certainly, we are not interested in the doctrine of “appropriation of the expropriated (nationalization). Angry as we are, this is the extreme approach.  We are interested in constructive engagement with all foreign capital owners, for a win-win situation.  In fact, we need a wider foreign investment space in Liberia, today than ever before, notwithstanding, within a freer, fairer, a more just and mutual architecture.

To legitimize the proposed 25-Year Economic Development Plan, we propose a national economic conference, to validate the blueprint drafted by technocrats, as was the case of the “Monrovia Declaration” and the “Lagos Plan of Action”.

If need be, when validated and becomes nationally owned, the 25-Year Economic Development Plan with an implementation framework developed, can also be legislated.