Who is Draining Liberia?

Unimpeachable sources collaborated with public opinions in Liberia have acknowledged that most native-born Liberians or Indigenous politicians and their co-conspirators (Chinese, Lebanese, Fulani, Senegalese, Nigerians, Ghanaians, Guineans, etc., etc.) are willfully draining Liberia of its resources for their personal  aggrandizement at the deprivation of millions of impoverished Liberians in the presence of Liberian bureaucrats.

Regrettably, most of these immigrants are far from practical community engagement initiatives, which are vividly translucent in Liberian society. These outsiders’ fundamental goal is to grab and go at the psychological disability of millions of impoverished Liberians who are still dwindling in dishonorable impecuniousness and dissipated by indigenous Liberian politicians who claim to be thumping the struggle of ordinary Liberians.

Foreigners are successfully traveling to Liberia in drones in anticipation of either hijacking the almighty dollars or expeditiously exiting to the US or both. What is painstaking is that most foreigners are no longer overly zealous for the almighty dollar; they have meticulously and unyieldingly repudiated Liberia into their private and personal investment schemes and production factories to trap the US dollars directly while the majority of Liberians are languishing in abject poverty in their country when Liberians should be direct benefactors of their mineral resources.

The Chinese, for example, are vigorously mining Liberian sands and Liberian rock and have them sold to Liberians. The Chinese are known for inserting three giant pipes into the St. Paul’s River, sucking Liberian minerals from its depth for their gains.

The Chinese are felling Liberian trees and burning charcoal out of those trees and have them sold to Liberians, pocket the funds, and take it to improve their lives both in Liberia and China. It has become customary that the Chinese are very visible in the 16 Leeward counties, villages, towns, and cities, destroying Liberian Indigenous lands in search of gold, diamonds, and other mineral resources under the noises of Liberian leaders.

Interestingly, how many Liberians at home and abroad have ever paused to ask themselves, how many Liberians are in China mining Chinese Sand from Chinese rivers and mining Chinese rocks in Chinese forests in remote China? Another group is the Lebanese, who had been in Liberia long before the arrival of the Chinese.

The Lebanese, for their part, are experts in buying and selling goods and services. The danger of this group’s operations is that they come to Liberia and open multiple stores, bring along with them their brothers, sisters, uncles, distant relatives, children, and wives, and create vibrant employment opportunities for all of them on Liberia’s soil, thus denying Liberians of most needed employment opportunities. Why should the Lebanese erect massive stores in Liberia to create jobs for their Lebanese’ relatives? Do Liberians have stores and other companies in Lebanon that employ fellow Liberians?

The Fulani, Senegalese, Nigerians, Ghanaians, and Guineans are also draining Liberia’s resources and minerals. Sources disclosed that most Fulani came to Liberia empty-handed, and today, they have generated massive wealth on the back of Liberia’s resources for themselves and their children. The Ghanaians and Nigerians, for their part, according to public opinion, are snatching away Liberian jobs when there are equally qualified Liberians in Liberia. According to one source familiar with the Nigerian and Ghanaian rapid migrations to Liberia, these foreigners are also engaged in Rubber, Timber, Palm oil, Fisheries, and Wildlife activities. Most, according to the sources, are involved in fake auto sales business in which they employ their kind and exclude Liberians from such opportunities on their soil. Some of these foreigners, according to sources, are running illegal diamonds and gold creeks that, through their Liberian proxies, are draining Liberia.

The sources indicated that some Senegalese and Guineans are heavily involved in illegal timber trade across Liberia, with the support of their corrupt Liberian counterparts—the late President William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman. President Tubman’s “Open Door Policy,” established by the US in 1899, was adopted by the late President Tubman. This so-called Open-Door Policy is no doubt responsible for the massive influx of foreigners into Liberia as far back as the 40s, 50s, and 60s, which was three times devastating in postwar Liberia at the brink of gross abuses.

The “Open Door Policy” has given foreigners the impetus and leverage to abuse their stay in postwar Liberia. Foreigners need to respect Liberians’ dignity and values more since they have indirectly taken over Liberia as their private and personal endowment and do whatever they want to Liberia and Liberians. The million-dollar question is how ordinary Liberians can stop this widespread menace in Liberia.