Act Establishing Land Reform Commission Shows Seriousness of Problem     1940 - 11112008f- Two- Soccer Legends

  Friday, August 07, 2009         

Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     “I will not work for government when I go home,” the gentleman proudly told me. “I will buy my land and build my retirement home in Monrovia,” the other fellow said.    

     Those are exactly the words of Liberians who are contemplating returning home to Liberia one day never to work for government, but to engage in business and hire other Liberians in the process.         

     They are the new class of Liberians, middle class, educated and hardworking Liberians who surpassed the dreams and hopes of their parents of a better life through hard work and education.

      These Liberians are not alone. In fact many of these Liberians who bought their parcels of land while living overseas are now returning to Liberia in droves to build their dream homes and be business owners and employers in a nation where the government of the Republic of Liberia is the largest employer in the land.

               Pres. Sirleaf signs Land Commission Act as lawmakers look on

     It is a dream come true for some who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to buy a piece of land in their own country, let alone build a dream home and own a business that hires other Liberians whose hard-earned money would also go into feeding their kids, sending those kids to school, and taking care of the all too familiar extended family members; or paying the school fees for the family member’s kids to learn and contribute to society in a positive way.

     That’s exactly what the Liberian spirit is all about – doing for others, contributing positively to society; or like one Liberian told me recently, “contributing my quota to the development of my country.”

     The ‘quota’ the Liberian speaks of is indeed needed if we want to move our country away from “mat” to “mattress” like the late former President William R. Tolbert Jr., once said, which is to strive for a prosperous country with endless opportunities its citizens can be proud of through the vision of their political leaders – a nation that inspires Liberians to dream of becoming whatever they want to be in life and in the comfort of their own homes.

     While it is true that land ownership has now become a fad among Liberians in the Diaspora, with most Liberians returning home to purchase a parcel or parcels of land to build their retirement homes, the ideal of land ownership in one’s country of birth or ancestral home is admirable but not without its own share of problem.

     The selling and re-selling of another person’s land to multiple persons is a dishonest practice all too common in Liberia often causing conflicts between neighbors, families, and even tribes, in a country with abundance of lands but an obvious lack of a coordinated national plan.

      While it is true that the criminal act of re-selling a parcel of land to multiple persons is wrong and has become a nightmare for many families, there is no serious national policy that protects, thoroughly examines and deals with issues such as private, public and tribal land ownership, genuine registration of lands in the interior of the country and the cities, prosecuting criminal land surveyors, the obvious lack of a fair, balanced and coherent policy regarding eminent domain and citizen’s right to protest and be justly compensated for their land, as well as issues regarding the exploitation of natural resources on a private or public land, are legitimate concerns that needs national attention.

      The other problem I see with this rush to buy land to build these retirement homes is the obsessive focus on building homes in Monrovia and the surrounding metro area, at a time when other areas in the country that equally needs development are being ignored by these Liberians, who supposed to know that the entire country, and not only Monrovia should be the focus of their development and real estate plans.

      With Monrovia falling apart and becoming a death trap every day because of over crowdedness and the lack of or delivery of poor services or no service at all, the obvious lack of sanitary and modern sewer facilities, and the lack of a coordinated urban planning and code enforcement policies, creates an urgent need for a new city, which I wrote passionately about in a previous article; are enough reasons for Liberians to focus their land-buying and home building efforts to other parts of the country.             

     With land disputes becoming a national problem, President Sirleaf reportedly added her voice to the debate by first announcing the introduction of a commission with a mandate to set up guidelines governing the acquisition of land in the country, then recently signed into law an Act establishing a Land Commission. Now that there is a Land Commission, what is the role of the Ministry of Lands and Mines?

     With the country just coming out of a terrible and senseless civil war, another war, this time over land cannot and should not be tolerated. As such, every available attempt must be made to halt the escalation of any conflict that derives out of land disputes or any other issue that compromised the safety and security of the Liberian nation and people. As such, genuine land reform in the interest of all parties must be instituted by the commission to bring about genuine peace in all of Liberia.

     With another commission, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission still bleeding profusely from criticisms regarding its controversial and unedited final report about the civil war, and who should or shouldn’t be prosecuted, this new land commission should learn from the TRC so as not to repeat the mistakes of that body.

      No joke about it, there is an urgent need for land reform in Liberia. However, with families and legitimate landowners now displaced or were once displaced and finding it difficult to retrieve their lands occupied by new owners, who bought the land from a dishonest person whose only goal is to make a buck at the expense of the actual landowner, is a recipe for another civil crisis.

     The Land Commission, on the other hand has to identify the original landowners versus the new landowners, must engage in an aggressive advertising and public relations campaign that educates potential land buyers to beware of buying lands from those who will re-sell the same piece of land to multiple parties, must play a balancing act by being respectful and sensitive to the original landowners, and must also be sensitive to the other person claiming ownership to the same piece of land.

     Liberians who contemplates going home to buy a piece of land to build their retirement homes shouldn’t be carried away either by the emotional aspects of landownership so much that they ignore doing the right thing, but should also do their homework by investigating thoroughly the singular or multiple owners of that piece of land before committing to buying it.