By S. Siapha Mulbah
Lofa County Senator Momoh T. Cyrus, has attributed Liberia’s poor infrastructure and economic state to poor decisions taken by leaders, especially past senators who signed most of the concession agreements that continue to pull the country backward from time immemorial to present.
Senator Cyrus said the country is such a rich one in terms of the number of natural resources embedded in the soil for the citizens to be entangled with abject poverty while making concession companies financially potent for their day-to-day expenses.
According to him, many of the concession companies operating in Liberia have been given favorable contracts by past members of the Liberian legislature who initiated those different deals for personal benefits putting aside the interest of the country.
“Why is Liberia not rich as a country when this country is endowed with a lot of minerals and we got everything that can make every citizen rich. I blame this on our leaders especially on past senators because most of these contracts that are pulling the country down were signed by them,” Senator Cyrus stated emphatically .
The senator expressed disappointment discovering that Liberia has signed so many bad contracts in the past that continue to hold the benefits of the natural resources far away from meeting the actual needs of the ordinary citizens that are dancing in poverty and hunger every day.
He intimated that Liberia will not develop with businesses operation concessions collecting the resources and giving royalty back in taxes that far less than what the owners of the resources should be getting.
Senator Cyrus condemned an existing contract currently in the immigration sector which he said has given aliens the right to issue resident permits to aliens that are seeking legitimate working status. In his mind the contract is bad for the country when foreign nationals will take control of data security with sensitive information that the Liberia Immigration Service does not have access to.
“We have to review many of these contracts signed on behalf of the country and cancel some of them that are very bad. Those that sign them did so for some personal reasons but if you are taking the country first, these agreements should not be signed the way they are” he urged the legislature.
He named CTN, APM Terminal, Western Cluster and many more to be reviewed speedily by the legislature to stop rubbing the country of its realistic benefits by owners of different companies that are involved into the basic concessions.
Speaking on royalties from companies involved in different sectors, the senator explained that Liberians will have to love the country and renegotiate these agreements as a way of highlighting the country’s stance.
“Liberia is the owner of the resources being mined by the companies that are giving us royalty in exchange. These companies are cheating and insulting our integrity and intelligence. When the investors come with whatever investment, they can do whatever operation and we can share what you get in return,” he noted.
He then called on all government actors to work intensively by pushing a stronger political will to have the interest of Liberia better negotiated before signing future contracts.