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A New Company for Nimba Mines?-The Lands and Mines’ Minister’s Suggestions are a Good Start

Loco from Yekepa to Buchanan - Source: Yekepa site

By Yini Guva A. Sahn

February 23, 2005 - UNICCO Digest

The weight being added to our request for a fair share of Nimba's wealth by Minister Mason of Lands and Mines is a positive step in the right direction.

A few months ago, I wrote an article, (Liberians from Mineral-Rich Counties Need a Fair Share of their Natural Resources – A Popular Demand of 21st Century Liberia) asking the Liberian government to include citizens of the wealthiest counties of the country on the committee charged with selecting investors. Other important recommendations made included setting aside at least 25% of the proceeds from the sale of diamonds, iron ore, and other resources for the development of the local communities. Minister Mason being concerned about how mineral-rich counties in Liberia were cheated in the past has been assuring Liberians that such previous practices will be curbed. He also noted that the 21st century concession agreements in Liberia would be very transparent as indicated in the following statements:

"We will do all we can in our power to assure the international community that this Ministry particularly, in its effort to develop the minerals of this country, will do with full transparency for the said resources to benefit the people of Liberia". Ref: (Four Compete for Mount Nimba - Gov't. Assures Transparency, Resource Exploitation Must Benefit Communities)

"We will make sure that only the best proposal is accepted so that our country's rich iron ore reserves are exploited in such a way that the revenues accrued will not only benefit the country, but also 25% of the profits from the ore will be used for developmental purposes of the existing communities…that is the demand of government”. Ref: (LIBERIA: Four multinationals bid to reopen Nimba iron ore mine)

While we welcome the minister’s encouraging statements with cautious optimism, we are determined in our request for a fair share of our resources – as outlined in this article "Liberians from Mineral-Rich Counties Need a Fair Share of their Natural Resources – A Popular Demand of 21st Century Liberia.

This article is a continuation of our series on how concession agreements in New Liberia should contain benefits for all Liberians including the local constituency (residents of the county).

The first step in ensuring transparency is making the Mineral Technical Committee accessible to all citizens of Liberia. It’s only democratic for all Liberians whose interests are supposedly being sought to be part of the process.

Our insistence on diversifying the membership of this committee stems from the concession history of our country which has not been transparent. As I write this article, headlines in Liberian newspapers and online news are full of unfolding stories of how UTE, an unknown company, won LTC's bid. The employees of Telecom who raised concerns last week were right to do so because the committee didn't do its home work. Did anyone on the committee suggest a thorough background check of UTE? (LTC Workers Insist On Transparency in Bidding Process). LTC will ultimately need a viable company with credible leadership to revitalize it. In a country where corruption is a heritage, it's not a surprise to see what's unfolding at Telecom.This is why we continue to insist on transparency.

When Liberia shared 75% of LAMCO’s profits (an unspecified amount), nothing was allotted for Nimba County. (There are no public records anywhere to indicate the amount set aside for Nimba development.) When the county provided a bulk of Liberia’s annual revenues for decades, Nimba's annual development budget was always under $200,000.00 and was prepared in Monrovia. In this century, the national development plans must originate from the counties with the input of the people… based on their needs. This is a simple form of transparency.

It’s unbelievable to come from Nimba County with its enormous natural resources and be so poor. The county remains in such a sorry state. It has no good infrastructures, roads, hospitals, and schools. The 10-mile strip from Sanniquellie to Yekepa is not paved, let alone the 30 miles from Ganta to Yekepa. What then did Nimbaians get from all the iron ore LAMCO exploited? Abandoned heavy-duty equipment, polluted rivers and streams?

During the boom in LAMCO, Liberia was said to have been growing economically at an astronomical level, but the growth didn’t trickle down to the local people. This led a group of scholars to refer to Liberia under president Tubman as a country growing without development (The Evolution of the Privilege: J. Gus Liebenow)

Our request for setting aside a considerable share of the profits from iron ore, diamonds, gold and other natural resources of rich counties in Liberia must be not be taken for granted because it's the politically correct thing to do in this century. For too long, they have been cheated and life can’t continue that way forever. The assurance of transparency is a step in the right direction but our expectation is that these kind and thoughtful recommendations by Minister Mason will turn into deeds not empty promises of the past.

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About the author:

Yini Guva A. Sahn lives in Minneapolis with his family. He is among those advocating for a Liberia free of corruption. Corruption is one of Liberia's destructive traditions. Minimizing it will require taking punitive, corrective measures and educating the people.

All opinions expressed on this page are not necessarily those of UNICCO.
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