By Grace Q. Bryant
The president of Fula Business Association (FBA), Mohammed Majah Barrie, has disclosed that Fulani businesses owners are faced with humiliations as foreigners during registration of their business in Liberia.
“Fulani are not foreigners during political elections when all political parties are seeking votes but they are foreigners immediately after elections,” Barrie explained.
Speaking during his representation at the 4th National Judicial Conference, Barrie complained that the Fulahs are not foreigners during the time of donations as reference to the time when the Ebola virus was raging in Liberia 2014.
He noted, “When the national government addresses these issues that are impediments to growth and development, then I will be convicted that there is trade in peace and therefore I can be pleased to tell someone far away that there is also access to Justice for all traders.
“This is owing to the fact that privately owned businesses are often being faced with series of administrative bottlenecks to accessing ways for trading their goods and services,” he added.
He maintained that Fulanis are hugely contributing to the Liberian economy as evidenced by their local businesses in the economy with a greater number of them being in full tax compliance, but most times they are faced with repressions and to some extent exclusion in the real economic decision making and participation for the economy.
He expressed that there still seems to be no effort by the government to amicably handle the situation and therefore called on government to see the conference as way to provide economic security for business people; in spite of ethnicity, religions and creed.
He then recommended that the government identifies alternative energy sources efficiency in the use of existing energy sources and that it also supports in the form of technical assistance in business and project planning and effective savings and credit allocation system.
“In post- war Liberia, the issue of security, respect for the rule of law and the protection of local Liberia business through the legal system continue to be a major challenge,” he revealed.
Meanwhile, the African Bar Association (AFBA) president, Hannibal Egbe Uwaifo, added that the future and prosperity of Liberian depend largely on the effective delivery mechanism from the Supreme Court and down the ladder manages the dynamic of competing complex conflict arising out of the management and utilization of human and material resources.
He maintained that the Judiciary must acquit itself of the many political and social challenges largely orchestrated by politicians and their supporters.
“To effectively tackle this, the Judiciary must be and remain independent, fearless, focused and accountable to accelerate and sustain democracy and national development in the Republic of Liberia,” Uwaifo added.