Open Letter to President George M. Weah
December 29, 2022
His Excellency George Manneh Weah
President, Republic of Liberia
The Executive Mansion
Republic of Liberia
Dear Mr. President:
Compliment of the Season!
It’s with hope for the future I write you in solidarity with the poor people of Liberia, the less fortunate, the voiceless and the forgotten amidst the constant increase in the price of Rice on the Liberian market without government finding a lasting solution to the problem.
Mr. President, despite you have set aside a committee to ensure the price of rice is stabilized, the Ministry of Commerce recently announced the increased in the price of rice from US$13 to US$17.50 with a US$4.50 difference. This latest decree has met serious public outcries as in most recent cases.
While I believed this is unbearable for the underprivilege and very poor Liberians, I am also aware of the May 2022 Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) alert which indicated that food insecurity was at an unprecedented level in most coastal and Sahelian countries that Liberia is no exception.
The alert revealed that the alarmingly high level of food insecurity is due to localized shortfalls in cereal production in 2021, worsening conflicts, high food prices, and macroeconomic challenges compounded by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the FAO report intoned that the number of food insecure people could increase above the initial projections as the effects of the war in Ukraine, mostly related to soaring international prices of food, fuel, and fertilizers, was not factored in the latest food security analyses. Food insecurity conditions can worsen further if constrained access to fertilizers, persisting local insecurity, and forecast localized unfavorable weather conditions result in lower cereal production in 2022.
Rice, being the staple food for most countries in the region, has seen monumental increments in price across various countries.
In Liberia, the FAO has earlier reported that 80% of all consumables that are imported to Liberia accounts for rice. This in other words, means the Government of Liberia is making importers of rice richer than investing in the core issues of food security for all Liberians.
What seems to be even more frustrating is when citizens of the country keep hearing of millions spent annually to subside importers of rice aimed at ensuring the price of rice on the Liberian market is stable. Over the last two years – 2020-2022 government reportedly spent over US$60 million just to keep the sale of rice at US$13 on the market.
Remember, this has been the practice by governments before this current one since the foundation of Liberia and we are still nowhere as country. Doing this continuously will not in any way eliminate hunger in Liberia, it will just add up to our food insecurity problems and untold sufferings.
We have to end this Mr. President. The most urgent and important opportunity available is for you to champion the “Back to The Soil” Campaign. This might be a borrowed idea from your predecessors but it’s the most appropriate way-out for Liberia moving forward. What would be new about this campaign is the innovative approach your government will apply.
To achieve this, your government has to be practical not in spoken words but through action by appropriating into the 2022/2023 National Budget an initial amount of Thirty Million United States Dollars (US$30 Million) for the production of rice only through a prioritized agriculture scheme. The 53rd National Legislature should be made to consider such request thereby beginning the war against hunger rather than subsiding rice importers.
By this Liberia will be allocating to each food producing counties, two (2) plus Million Dollars; using a regional approach, you will be allocating over US$10 million to five counties in a region. These counties will provide a farm land for only rice production.
If this is done, Liberia can now speak to our donor community to help direct their investment to the nation’s prioritized agriculture program as suggested. The Ministry of Agriculture as a key player in this endeavor should develop a strong concept paper that tend to redirect donors support to the provision of requisite farming equipment for Liberia emerging merchandize farming project. We need minimum merchandize farming equipment like tractor, backhoe, cultivator, front-end loader, baler, plow, harrows, and seed drill as well as complete rice mill plant for production purposes.
Mr. President while we speak of the urgency of rice production, I am aware that one of your concerns would be, where do we get the manpower from? I can beat my chest that Liberia has qualified and competent workforce for the job, especially when we look into the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL).
The Armed Forces of Liberia nominal mission has historically been to defend and guard the Country’s borders, safeguard national security, and protect the population from external aggression.
If we look around us, Liberia’s major external aggressor has been hunger. Liberia is food in secured. The army has a critical role to play and must be supported to take on such responsibility. The Liberian Army is trained in all forms of defense – air, water, and combat- the Engineering Battalion of the Army brings a lot of expertise to the agriculture sector which has not been sufficiently tested. This is the opportunity available Mr. President.
Better still, a stronger collaboration between the AFL through the Ministry of National Defense and the National Bureau of Veteran Affairs can be encouraged for the execution of the prioritized agricultural programs.
Access to quality, nutritious food is fundamental to human existence. This intervention will further provide job opportunities for former soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia. Job opportunity in this regard will not be limited to only the former soldiers, rather a host of the Liberian population, particularly underprivilege youths who are becoming possible threat to the Liberian society.
I don’t intent to speak of the possible havoc disadvantage and/or underprivilege youths are capable of posting to the Liberian society, especially when the stains are visibly on the walls, establishing regional government farms that can absorb the disadvantage youths would be a step in the direction of depopulating the cities and prisons as well as reducing crime rate in Liberia.
In the true sense of development, empowerment breaks the barriers. Liberia must strive for empowerment opportunities for its citizenry, especially the youths who account for 60% of the nation’s population to have gainful employment and better living conditions.
A typical Liberian proverb says: “A hungry man is an angry man.” Achieving food secured society is difficult but not impossible.
Not only that your search for manpower will be of concentration, Mr. President, your interest for road will be also huge. The reality is, this has been the argument over the years but this argument has met the use of innovative approach to get us there.
Mr. President, my call for us to utilize a regional approach for rice production in Liberia is mainly predicated upon the fact that Liberia lacking roads. To achieve this, counties that have access to road will be utilized in a pilot intervention.
The truth is the more food you grow in these places, the demand for road connectivity will be created. By that means, government along with our development partners will also focus attention on road construction given the food production heights in the first period of harvest.
Mr. President, Liberia can be great nation again if you consider this call as critical and needful and save the state from hunger.
Yours Sincerely,
Solomon W. Watkins
A professional, Liberian journalist, activist, advocate, rights defender, and a politician – vying 2023 for Montserrado County Electoral District #: 10 Representative seat
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