The Road to National Renewal: A Liberian Scenario

The road to National Recovery requires a Multi-Dimensional Approach to the developmental needs of the destitute and impoverished mass of our people. The wanton destruction and blatant human rights violations occasioned by the civil war has made every need of the Liberian people a priority meaning that an attempt to tackle one leaving the other would creates serious economic paralysis in the other. In this light, national government must embark on a triangular styled agenda that incorporates those crucial needs of our people (health, education, and the restoration of light and pipe borne water etc..). This New government should not loss track of the greater segment of our economy since they are the most vulnerable class in our society like any other third world country-the youth constitutes nearly 70% of our population. They need to build equity of their lives since a continuous being out of either academic or vocational institutions has grossly compromised most of their potentials and skills. They have been debased and pauperized by previous regimes which to a larger extent rendered them remorseless simply because they were exposed to the dehumanizing pogrom and brutality of the war. They now live in an arena of extreme-chronic dependency surviving only on transitory income. With this, Government's national renewal policies must involve the youth largely so as to avoid political misfits and warmongers from using them as bait for the launching of insurrection. National Recovery also requires the setting of a system that would deal with the extremely well orchestrated machinery of corruption that is so entrenched in our society through the setting up of a system that fosters accountability and check and balance, Thanks to GEMAP thus far. This Government must also address the issue of unemployment through the creation of more jobs rather than downsizing in the short term. Downsizing can be achieved through the establishment of a vibrant private sector that automatically attracts people thus resulting to a sharp fall in the number of employees within government. Finally, if this new Government is to succeed, it must follow with keen interest the domestic needs and not losing grip of foreign policy tools implementation as these policies must compliment each other. We need this as a masterpiece and panacea to our Herculean problems.