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The
Mittal deal and fleecing of wealth in Liberia
Wednesday,
August 09, 2006
By
Nyankor Matthew
"Sometimes,
whenever kings or chiefs were willing and able to work
with colonial government, the systems operated by what
was called "indirect rule" (Basil Davidson)
Even after years of
colonialism, many African governments continue to
serve the interests of European companies and their
governments, while their own countries are posting
unimaginable and astronomical unemployment and
inflation rates.
Instead of European
governments and companies directly extracting wealth
from Africans as they did during colonialism and
post-colonialism, they are now using multi-national
companies such as BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and Mittal
steal – to name a few – to keep African countries
in a perpetual state of economic stagnation, and
depression.
During the last few months of the
transitional government, there were many deals made
allocating mining concessions. One of these was an
estimated $900 - $950 million deal with Mittal Steel.
Recent legal analysis has shown that the Mittal
contract is unfavorable to Liberia and gives all the
benefits to the steel company. It was also alleged
that money exchanged hands providing an incentive to
the transitional government to agree to the
unfavorable terms of the contract.
The 25-year contract
would give Mittal control of a huge reserve of iron
ore, Liberia's biggest economic asset. First and
foremost, the NTGL lacked a legal mandate to negotiate
any long-term concessions. Deals with Mittal Steal,
Firestone, and other companies that have significant
economic impact should not have been carried out by a
transitional government.
Thinking back to the
Firestone economic tragedy referred to as a contract,
and the current Mittal deal has left me asking myself,
why do we have so much faith in foreigners and their
empty promises of investment and economic development
in Africa/Liberia?
Just like Firestone,
Mittal Steel has told the Liberian people that its
25-year contract would provide jobs and bring
investment to the country.
Did our transitional
leaders ever stop to think just how much revenue and
profit Mittal Steel will generate in the 25 years? If
you think I am over-reacting, take a look at how much
profit Shell, Exxon mobile, BP, and the rest of the
oil companies are generating in revenues and profit
quarterly while in Nigeria, the Niger Delta, and the
Congo citizens who live next to oil exploration sites
would be lucky to make enough money to send their
little ones to school.
Why use oil companies
when I can use an example closer to home. The
Firestone Corporation has operated in Liberia for
decades, and failed to make maximum economic impact on
the Liberian economy.
After years of exploiting Liberia, what did
Firestone do for Liberia in terms of infrastructure
development and investment, other than poor working
conditions and high production quotas?
To be fair to
Firestone, they built some schools for employees and
their children on the Firestone Plantation (sarcasm
intended).
Let's not allow our
leaders and law makers to make decisions to hand over
control of some of our biggest assets over to foreign
operators and companies who, - to be quite honest –
don't have
Liberia at heart. Why are we allowing these companies
to run Liberia under 25 to 30-year leases? We should
not allow multinational companies to run Liberia and
call it "free market".
Modern imperialists are
not interested in owning foreign lands but in
controlling foreign markets and resources, and in some
cases their governments; and this is what African
leaders are now giving away in the name of economic
development and investment.
When we compare
Africa's economic development to that of Europe, we
see that from the moment Europeans carved up the
continent and put Africans to slave labor, they were
advancing themselves organizationally and
technologically.
The Mittal deal is
nothing more than a perpetuation of the exploitative
economic system created by Africa's colonial
"masters"; a system of economic dependency
that's choked and continues to choke Africa, while
creating wealth for countries other than African
countries.
Thanks to our selfish self
seeking POLI-TIC-ians, one can't blame companies that
are taking advantage of the so called investment
opportunities in Liberia, as many of these companies
are easily bribing their way to life time contracts
that never seem to leave Liberia and Africa better off
than when they saw it.
Firestone signed a contract
for 99 years, making Firestone a multi billion dollar
empire.
The firestone family – not the company itself
– makes and spends more money a year than the
government of Liberia. Let's us not forget that
European/western companies have never cared about
Africa's development, despite what they say. If
nations in Africa become economic competitors, and
economically vibrant, where will multi-national
companies get their cheap resources and billion dollar
profits?
Everyone is enjoying Africa's
wealth except for Africa and Africans. If it isn't the
Europeans, it's the Lebanese, and now the Indians; why
not the Africans? When will we say enough is enough?
Liberians should continue to
raise concerns about the Mittal Steel contract and
encourage the current administration to thoroughly
evaluate other major contracts for the benefit of
Liberia and the Liberian people.
Those of us who have the
opportunity, and not necessarily the power should
continue to question and bring attention not only to
the Mittal Steel deal, but those of Firestone and
other contracts awarded and signed by Gyude Bryant's
former interim government and other future deals,
because these deals have financial significance and
potential long-term effects on national development.
The
writer, a Liberian is a municipal bond/financial
analyst. She lives in Chicago, Illinois.
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