18/07/2025
An Appeal to President Joseph Boakai by Mr Abe Wonta prominent son and elder of Nimba county.
Mr. President, on your recent visit to the United States of America, at the invitation of President Donald J. Trump, you solicited the American government’s help to survey the minerals deposit in Liberia. I am appealing to you, Mr. President, to reconsider your request.
We have geologists and technicians trained by our universities – that must be valued – who have acquired the necessary skills and are capable of doing the survey. Most of them, mining professionals, have several years of exploration experience.
Moreover, our universities are presently training more geologists, mining engineers, scientists and other disciplines related to mining and minerals.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy has in its employment several qualified geologists, technicians and mining engineers. And, unfortunately, there are still trained geologists, technicians and mining engineers who are currently either under-employed or unemployed. We have trained professionals who can do the work, with reasonable confidence, and produce quasi results as any foreign entity would. We should, rather, invest in equipment and the required technologies, not foreign entities!
Mr. President, it goes without saying, using our own human resources to carry out the survey has many benefits including, but not limited to, improved confidence in our own education system, lower costs of the operation, increased economic activities, hands-on practical and academic training for students in mining related disciplines and minerals development.
Using our own trained local experts will cost just a fraction of what foreign professionals will demand - for the same result.
Second, it will create employment for the underemployed and the unemployed geologists and technicians and provide opportunities to local contractors. Third, students in the mining department will benefit from practical hands-on experience and most importantly, collaboration will be developed between the universities, the Ministry of Mines and mining companies.
Such collaboration is very positive and necessary to create curriculum that is relevant and adapted to the needs of our economy.
Mr. president, there is no doubt in my mind that you want to make Liberia economically prosperous and leave a legacy for history to remember your presidency for many generations.
That goal is perfectly achievable. We live in an era of possibilities. All that is required is the will, and you seem to have the political will.
There are more options now than we had, for example, in the 1920s when we entered into the “Agreement” with “Our Friend”, the USA, that resulted in us having Firestone Rubber Plantation and since then, we produce nothing “Made in Liberia” from rubber products.
It good policy to collaborate with all friendly countries and all our international partners, but in my humble opinion, any such collaboration or partnership, with respect to our natural resources, must always put our strategic development goals first, and it must be Liberians in the driver seat implementing it.
Unfortunately for us, history has proven that “Third World Countries”, like Liberia, who are enticed into depending solely on outside institutions and “friends” to determine and pilot their economic and social development agenda have been total failure for over 80 years now.
Therefore, we need to try different approaches instead of those same strategies that have been used until, Mr. President, your ascendancy to the office of the chief strategist of our country.
Without completely abandoning “Business as usual”, we should break away from heavily relying on external resources and use what we own; massively invest in developing our human resources and in disciplines (professions) that are relevant to getting us ahead and out of abject poverty.
Mr. President, getting Liberia to transition from a poor country status, with all the resources that we have, to a thriving economy producing a huge middle class is possible, in a not-too-distant future.
There are lots of cases where countries that intentionally formulated and meticulously implemented policies geared toward developing their human capital got phenomenal results, as a return on their investment.
Many Southeast Asian countries, who got their independence few decades ago, are the case in point.
Singapore is a perfect example that has proven that policies intentionally crafted to make a country great, and meticulously implemented, without the influence of bad politicians and greed, can perform economic and social miracle, and lifts the country up out of poverty and make it become a place where everyone wants to invest and vacation.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheels! We can get inspiration from their policies and best practices that are producing excellent results for its people.
We can be more intentional, invest more money in our public schools and universities, promote curriculums that are relevant to the socio-economic and socio-cultural development of Liberia, as an essential step in taking our economic destiny in own hands.
For example, the government could make it a policy to fund and award scholarships to top academic performers from the 15 counties. That is 15 top academic performers every year. They should be selected solely based on their academic abilities – fraud and corruption must be severely punished. Any fraud or corruption when proven, the perpetrator(s), must be publicly shamed, dismissed and jailed. This is how to break away frow “Business as usual”.
The top academic performers, selected and awarded scholarships to study in top universities and colleges must commit by signing a contract with the Liberian people, represented by the government, to return to public service.
Any beneficiary of the scholarship who breaches the contract should be jailed, for at least, the number years they trained on the scholarship, since we cannot erase the knowledge acquired, paid for by the Liberian people’s tax dollars. This clause should be included in the contract.
We should put the products from our schools first, when it comes to employment and contracts, because we invest in producing them and we must value our own products.
It is understandably disconcerting to consider our own trained mining professionals, without the leadership of a foreign entity, to carry out the survey. We are not used to doing business this way. This is unshattered territory. But I am convinced it is the right thing to do, Mr. President, that is the reason I am appealing you please reconsider your solicitation to our foreign “Friends” and try our own home and foreign trained mining professional this time. Thank you and I rest my pen!
