Don't or can't you idiotic fools think about the current governance and the economical problems in facing "GhanaToday"?
For how long do you Marons want to think outside the box?
Don't or can't you idiotic fools think about the current governance and the economical problems in facing "GhanaToday"?
For how long do you Marons want to think outside the box?
Kojo T 8 years ago
Dr Otto shut up as ways are being sought to make Ghana better.You NPP demonize Nkrumah while Lee Kwan Yew used similar methods to make Singapore what it is today.Try to learn from the examples of others .Baffour Akoto nor Dan ... read full comment
Dr Otto shut up as ways are being sought to make Ghana better.You NPP demonize Nkrumah while Lee Kwan Yew used similar methods to make Singapore what it is today.Try to learn from the examples of others .Baffour Akoto nor Danquah left no blueprints for development Nkrumah did
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Kojo T,
YOUR: "...Baffour Akoto nor Danquah left no blueprints for development Nkrumah did..."
WE SAY: Nuff said!
Thanks.
Kojo T,
YOUR: "...Baffour Akoto nor Danquah left no blueprints for development Nkrumah did..."
WE SAY: Nuff said!
Thanks.
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Kojo T,
Excellent rebuke from you!
Bravo!
Dear Kojo T,
Excellent rebuke from you!
Bravo!
Mahmoud 8 years ago
Dear Prof. Lungu, could you remember that Nkrumah used to incite workers to strike against the Whiteman but outlawed strikes in his regime when living conditions were genuinely difficult and said strikes were unpatriotic?
... read full comment
Dear Prof. Lungu, could you remember that Nkrumah used to incite workers to strike against the Whiteman but outlawed strikes in his regime when living conditions were genuinely difficult and said strikes were unpatriotic?
"Communism was intended as a political-economic system which would liberate oppressed workers in industrialized western countries. It never took root in the intended environment and instead spread to undeveloped agrarian countries, the largest being Russia and China. Instead of liberating workers, the ideology was co-opted and used as a stepping stone to power by dictators who became the new oppressors. I wonder if Marx and Engels envisioned their system being used by Stalin, Mao or Nkrumah to starve, massacre and imprison tens of millions of their own citizens. "
Nkrumah was in power for sixteen years and turned himself into a president for life when he realized that his popularity had waned. In the sixties and after he had squandered the huge reserve bequeathed to him by the Whiteman, the country started to sink and Ghanaians visibly yearned for a change. But since Nkrumah closed all the doors and channels that could have been used by Ghanaians to exercise their political will of changing him democratically through the ballot box, they had no choice other than to force him out of office through a military coup. Therefore, the coup that removed Kwame Nkrumah from office was the only legitimate coup in the history of Ghana.
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Attorney Samuel Adjei Sarfo As Mahmoud!,
You are making is work over-time!
(In the future we may limit response to your comments: We will present a standard response for "Mahmoud" and "Nii Tieko".
ITEM: Elsewhere, yo ... read full comment
Attorney Samuel Adjei Sarfo As Mahmoud!,
You are making is work over-time!
(In the future we may limit response to your comments: We will present a standard response for "Mahmoud" and "Nii Tieko".
ITEM: Elsewhere, you are talking about "Poor Analysis". (To that, we have addressed fully)!
You take the trophy!
Just to say, to repeat, only one (1) individual was arrested and executed under Nkrumah.
But the NLC-NLM-Busia dictatorship killed people in the 10s, caused more than 10,000 Ghanaians to lose their jobs, and ushered in a period civil strife - mayhem, bank robberies, public corruption, etc.
Just ask your partner, Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe, or better yet, listen to yourselfs...
Nii Teiko 8 years ago
You cannot use Liberia to measure the achievements of ghana under Nkrumah's leadership. What you are failing to see is that before Ghana there was a Gold Coast that was "well structured " under the the colonial rule, not forg ... read full comment
You cannot use Liberia to measure the achievements of ghana under Nkrumah's leadership. What you are failing to see is that before Ghana there was a Gold Coast that was "well structured " under the the colonial rule, not forgetting about the contributions of some traditional rulers in their individual capacities. Nkrumah did not inherit a ghana that was totally broke. The same could not be said about Liberia. Those freed slaves, with little or no education and without any cultural values were just dumped in the jungles of that West African state and abandoned the wicked slave masters. It took determination, resilience and courageous act by those freed to achieve that enviable feet. For me, the Liberian rather deserve recommendation rather than Nkrumah, who like biblical parable of the prodigal son, inherited part of his father's wealth and foolishly squandered these wealth on Guinea and Mali in his bid to become the life president of ghana, and by extension , the president of the desired United Africa.
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
ITEM: This is not a "...biblical parable..." . Rather, it is the story of "...the prodigal 'father'" who, the history shows, did not care enough for the "son", and the son's neighbors!
Attorney Adjei Sarfo, coming from y ... read full comment
ITEM: This is not a "...biblical parable..." . Rather, it is the story of "...the prodigal 'father'" who, the history shows, did not care enough for the "son", and the son's neighbors!
Attorney Adjei Sarfo, coming from you, it is no surprise to hear that "...Gold Coast...was 'well structured' under the the colonial rule..."
After all, the record shows the remnants of the UGCC and the NLM wanted the colonial administration to linger on and on, which Nkrumah would not entertain.
Tell us how much resources were being siphoned by the British from the Gold Coast every year after 1867, and how much of it was used to "well structure" the Gold Coast for Africans.
Obviously you did not read even the preliminaries of the final essay. After 110 years as free People, under American protection and supervisorship, you would expect Zero from Liberians, but expect an "Angel" of Nkrumah, after 9 years.
Nkrumah delivered for Ghana, period!
Further, your comment shows you are some what ignorant of the founding of Liberia, to the effect, "...freed slaves, with little or no education and without any cultural values were just dumped in the jungles of that West African state and abandoned the wicked slave masters. It took determination, resilience and courageous act by those freed to achieve that enviable feet.
WE SAY: If they were freed slaves, why would the people who abandoned them be "slave master" still, and and why would they even bother, at their expense, time, safety?
And to say that the original settlers did not have any "cultural values".
That one is an Ananse tale, and totally consistent with what you have said about Ghanaians, the record shows. (Maybe you do not understand what "culture" really means).
ITEM: Fact is, many of the settlers actually were "strongly religious and...felt called to evangelize the indigenous people of Africa...". That includes the first President of Liberia, Joseph Jenkins Roberts.
READ THIS: "...In 1833, Joseph Roberts became high sheriff of the colony. One of his responsibilities was to organize militias to travel to the interior to collect taxes from the indigenous peoples and put down their rebellions against colonial rule. In 1839, the American Colonization Society appointed Roberts vice governor. Two years later, after the death of governor Thomas Buchanan, Roberts was appointed as the first black governor of Liberia. In 1846, Roberts asked the legislature to declare the independence of Liberia, but also to maintain cooperation with the American Colonization Society. The legislature called for a referendum, in which voters chose independence. On July 26, 1847, Roberts declared Liberia independent. He won the first presidential election on October 5, 1847, and was sworn into office on January 3, 1848, with Stephen Allen Benson as vice president..."
(Source: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jenkins_Roberts).
WE SAY: Living in Texas you should know who a Sheriff is, and what taxes are for!
In effect, Liberia was an American colony, a Protectorate - they called it!
THEN THIS TO ADDRESS YOUR IGNORANCE ON THE SUBJECT AND TO DEFEND OUR "ANALYSIS" AND THESIS ON THIS YOUR MINOR POINT ON OUR FULL-FLEDGED ESSAY:
READ:
"...MILESTONES: 1830–1860
Founding of Liberia, 1847
The founding of Liberia in the early 1800s was motivated by the domestic politics of slavery and race in the United States as well as by U.S. foreign policy interests. In 1816, a group of white Americans founded the American Colonization Society (ACS) to deal with the “problem” of the growing number of free blacks in the United States by resettling them in Africa. The resulting state of Liberia would become the second (after Haiti) black republic in the world at that time.../
/...
Prominent Americans such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Randolph were among the best known members of ACS. Former President Thomas Jefferson publicly supported the organization’s goals, and President James Madison arranged public funding for the Society. The motives for joining the society were vast as a range of people from abolitionists to slaveholders counted themselves members. On the other hand, many abolitionists, both black and white, ultimately rejected the notion that it was impossible for the races to integrate and therefore did not support the idea of an African-American colony in Africa. Still, the ACS had powerful support and its colonization project gained momentum...//
//...In 1818 the Society sent two representatives to West Africa to find a suitable location for the colony, but they were unable to persuade local tribal leaders to sell any territory. In 1820, 88 free black settlers and 3 society members sailed for Sierra Leone. Before departing they had signed a constitution requiring that an agent of the Society administer the settlement under U.S. laws. They found shelter on Scherbo Island off the west coast of Africa, but many died from malaria. In 1821, a U.S. Navy vessel resumed the search for a place of permanent settlement in what is now Liberia. Once again the local leaders resisted American attempts to purchase land. This time, the Navy officer in charge, Lieutenant Robert Stockton, coerced a local ruler to sell a strip of land to the Society. The Scherbo Island group moved to this new location and other blacks from the United States joined them. The local tribes continually attacked the new colony and in 1824, the settlers built fortifications for protection. In that same year, the settlement was named Liberia and its capital Monrovia, in honor of President James Monroe who had procured more U.S. Government money for the project.../
/...Other colonization societies sponsored by individual states purchased land and sent settlers to areas near Monrovia. Africans removed from slave ships by the U.S. Navy after the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade were also put ashore in Liberia. In 1838 most of these settlements, with up to 20,000 people, combined into one organization. The settlers attempted to retain the culture they had brought from the United States and for the most part did not integrate with the native societies. Today, about 5 percent of the population of Liberia is descended from these settlers...//
//...The U.S. Government had provided Liberia some financial support, but Washington expected Monrovia to move toward self-sufficiency. Commerce was the first economic sector to grow in the colony. However, French and British traders continually encroached upon Liberian territory. As it was not a sovereign state, it was hard-pressed to defend its economic interests. The U.S. Government lent some diplomatic support, but Britain and France had territories in West Africa and were better poised to act. As a result, in 1847, Liberia declared independence from the American Colonization Society in order to establish a sovereign state and create its own laws governing commerce...//
//...Despite protests by the affected British companies, London was the first to extend recognition to the new republic, signing a treaty of commerce and friendship with Monrovia in 1848. Because of fears of the impact this might have on the issue of slavery in the United States, Washington did not recognize the nation it had played a role in creating. In the meantime, a mass exodus of African-Americans to Liberia never materialized. Though President Abraham Lincoln was open to promoting the idea, several abolitionists in his cabinet opposed it, some for moral considerations and others for the more practical reason of retaining sufficient labor and military forces for the future. The United States finally established diplomatic relations with Liberia in 1862, and continued to maintain strong ties until the 1990s..."
WE SAY: You just don't get it, Attorney Samuel Adjei Sarfo.
Imagine, after independence, Liberia existed under US tutelage for 110 years, before the independence of Ghana. And it was the US that spear-headed the overthrow of Ghana's first President, with the help of people like Danquah, Busia, Ankrah, Kotoka, Afrifa, Harlley, etc.
Chew on all of that, Attorney Dr. Adjei Sarfo!
This is not a "...biblical parable..." . Rather, it is the story of "...the prodigal 'father'" who, the records of history show, did not care enough for the "son", and the son's neighbors!
Get it!
This is not an attack on Liberia! That idea, ought to be clear to a lawyer, if they actually read our "Final" essay!
BTW - See the Charts and Graphics at ModernGhana, in the same "Final" paper!
Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Listen to yourselves, and Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe!
BY DR. SAS, ATTORNEY AT LAW
READ:
"....Biological sciences affirm the notion that all humankind are equal, and that exposure to knowledge and culture accounts for why s ... read full comment
Listen to yourselves, and Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe!
BY DR. SAS, ATTORNEY AT LAW
READ:
"....Biological sciences affirm the notion that all humankind are equal, and that exposure to knowledge and culture accounts for why some are more inclined than others to achieve greatness, power and wealth...Therefore the defining variable in mental development is “opportunity” which establishes the most legitimate intellectual differentials in the cognitive abilities of groups and individuals.../
\...It is in the context of all this knowledge that Ghana’s first president, soon after independence, deemed it fit and proper to concentrate on the formal school system to boost the African personality and to merge the tribes under one great banner of nationhood . Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s vision for Ghana was the elevation of the confidence of the African and the unity of the nation and her people. This vision extended beyond Ghana’s borders to include the whole of Africa. What Nkrumah conceived of nationhood made philosophical sense because without knowledge and unity, no country can claim nationhood. If ignorance makes people show greater allegiances to tribes at the expense of the nation, then the survival of the nation is under serious threat. For a country to be a nation, her people will have to subsume ethnicity under the aegis of the national interest. The present conflicts amongst the tribes, though so far verbal, is a testimony that our country comprises nations within the state. In effect, we of this generation have repudiated the concept of nationhood with our ethnic animosity and undermined the very tenets under which the nation was founded..." ( 6 February 2007, Ghanaweb, Samuel Adjei Sarfo, J.D., AKA, Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law).
BY, DR. KWAME OKOAMPA-AHOOFE!
READ:
"....It is...instructive...that none of the...coup d'états have been staged by any other than bona fide members of the Ghanaian military. Granted, some rascal civilians...staunchly backed regressively Darwinian means of political access, including a world-renowned...former prime minister (Busia). Interestingly, in July 1956, when President Nkrumah's...CPP...won a landslide victory... Busia rode herd on a delegation to the British office in London, to petition the British Crown, and...colonial overlord, to desist from granting the already-scheduled return of Ghana to self-governance. Fortunately... Busia and his right-wing bourgeois reactionaries did not succeed. (Busia)...however, succeeded ten years later in backing the military junta that unseated the Nkrumah administration and facilitated the precipitous devolution of Ghanaian national destiny....\
\....Indeed...Ghana's major and...only international airport is named for...Kotoka....outlaw who spearheaded the grossly unimaginative overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of the CPP... Mr. Rawlings, whose...parentage is purported to be Scottish, presided over the dastardly kidnapping and summary execution of three Ghanaian supreme court judges, all of whom belonged to a single ethnic nationality....Needless to say, the 1966 Kotoka-led coup initiated the barbaric, neo-colonial military dynasty that Ghanaian continue to suffer….\
\... In fact, many of the most vociferous civilian opposition party leaders, some of whom are currently sitting in parliament, representing misguided and hoodwinked constituents, are known to have collaborated with Kotoka's so-called National Liberation Council to unseat President Nkrumah. It is also significant to observe that these...(Busia)...rascals and executive...muggers continue to dominate whatever passes by the name of "the legitimate opposition." This state of affairs, coupled with a largely under-educated and under-informed electorate, has made it almost impossible to rectify the prevailing socioeconomic chaos ravaging...(Ghana)...” (Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe's testament for the CPP and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was taken from “SOUNDS OF SIRENS: ESSAYS IN AFRICAN POLITICS & CULTURE”, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr (2004)," courtesy Atakora-Mensah, Ghanaweb, 2015-04-15 13:21:28).
WE SAY: Nothing to add, further!
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
Dear Prof. Lungu & SAS,
Title: "Liberia: Where will a stern hand come from?"
Source: New African
Author: Baffour Ankomah
............................................................................................. ... read full comment
Dear Prof. Lungu & SAS,
Title: "Liberia: Where will a stern hand come from?"
Source: New African
Author: Baffour Ankomah
........................................................................................................................................................
Not having been back to Liberia since 2002, New African editor Baffour Ankomah returned to Monrovia in early February to find a city under renewal. Progress is being made but a lot of challenges still remain, especially defeating corruption in high places and instilling accountability in public officials. Not surprisingly, people are yearning for a stern hand in the steering of the ship of state, and the next elections in three years’ time will be a crucible for the candidates who will throw their hats into the ring.
The British Airways flight landed at Monrovia’s Roberts International Airport at 8.10 pm instead of the scheduled arrival time of 9.25 pm. Cars, or rather their drivers, are known to speed sometimes. But have you ever heard of commercial airplanes or their pilots speeding in the air? Maybe in the age of fast food and Twitter, we shouldn’t really be surprised when pilots are caught speeding in the air – how else can they get their fast food hot? And who wants cold food anyway?
So it happened that we arrived one full hour and 15 minutes early, upsetting every pick-up arrangements we had put in place. Ending up at Roberts International when your journey started at a spanking new Terminal 5 at Heathrow is like going from Singapore to … not quite a provincial airport, but something near it.
To be fair, Roberts International, originally built by the Americans as an emergency landing site for NASA’s Space Shuttle programme, is in better shape today than the last time I was there in 2002. At the time, the burnt-out shell of the old terminal and VIP Lounge stood mocking the wisdom of the men and women who thought of themselves as saviours of the country and yet became the destroyers of its national symbols and utilities, like the airport and the only hydroelectric project supplying power to the capital city.
Roberts International, named after Liberia’s first president Joseph Jenkins Roberts, had been built by the Americans as a base for the US Air Force. Its massive 11,000-feet runway was made long enough to take B-47 Stratojet bombers on refueling stops. For a good many years, Roberts International had the longest runway in Africa.
But during Liberia’s civil war that started on Christmas Eve 1989, Roberts International saw pitched battles waged to control its soul by both Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and the manifold warring factions sponsored by the interim governments based in Monrovia and supported by the international community, including Ecowas, whose peacekeepers, Ecomog, had turned into a warring faction themselves at the instigation of the military leaders of Nigeria.
Incidentally, in early 1990, the Americans had promised Charles Taylor that if the NPFL took control of Roberts International, Washington would ask Liberia’s then military head of state, Master-Sgt Samuel Doe, to leave the Executive Mansion and surrender power. The NPFL duly overran Roberts International in a matter of a few months. Ecomog and its allied warring factions took it back after a fierce battle. After another few months, the NPFL overran the airport again.
Ecomog and its allies retreated, regrouped, and after another few months, bombed the NPFL out of the airport. Not to take an upset for a defeat, the NPFL came back after another few months and re-captured the airport. When I went there on my first reporting trip to Liberia in May 1992, the airport was under the control of the NPFL.
But in the process of changing hands, the airport that the Americans built was totally destroyed. Ironically, each party to the conflict thought of itself as fighting to save the airport. Today, 10 years after the last gun fell silent in Liberia, Roberts International remains a pale shadow of its former glory. But enough of the history.
........................................................................................................................................................
Renewal everywhere
As our British Airways flight descended into Roberts International, via a stopover in the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown, I looked out of the plane’s window and saw the flickering lights of Monrovia far in the distance. There are a good 35 miles between Roberts International and the capital city.
The airport was swathed in darkness, save for the navigation lights and a few bright bulbs here and there. The “new” terminal buildings are a misnomer, to say the least. The real surprise though lay on the long road to town: the surface of which was smooth, unlike the last time I was here.
Daylight brought even more surprises the next morning. To my visiting eyes, the city looked like an adorned bride waiting for her Mister Handsome. The decayed, and decaying houses of 2002, strewn with bullet holes, are all gone. In the place of the holes are plasterwork and layers of paint in various hues.
The major roads in the city have all been resurfaced, and marked to boot, bringing a touch of beauty to the city that suffered so much during the war. Even the traffic lights are working, thanks to the Chinese contractors who replaced them all and put them on a supply of solar energy.
Monrovia still does not have a mass electricity supply or pipe-borne water. The hydroelectric dam that supplied both the city’s electricity and water was destroyed during the war. According to one source, after President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf came to power in 2005, the Chinese government offered to repair the “hydro” (as it is called in Monrovia) for free, as a gesture of goodwill to the long-suffering country, but Washington told the new president to firmly reject the Chinese offer.
As a result, it was only towards the end of 2013 that funds became available – from the “international community” of course – to enable the rehabilitation work on the “hydro” to begin.
Surprise, surprise, in contrast to the signs of renewal visible all over Monrovia, the Executive Mansion (Liberia’s equivalent of America’s White House) is in ruins. It is said that on the very day, in 2005, that President Sirleaf was being inaugurated to begin her first term in office, the Executive Mansion caught fire – a bad omen, she thought and still thinks. So better let the evil spirits have their way, and so they are having their way.
As a result, the once majestic but abandoned building stands begging for repair 8 years after the fire. And Madam President, having moved the offices of state into the adjacent foreign ministry building, has, in the intervening years, acted as though the Executive Mansion does not exist. Yet she sees it every morning and evening as she is driven to and from her “temporary” offices in the borrowed foreign ministry building.
........................................................................................................................................................
The verdict
Liberia’s opinion leaders and critics can be scathing at the best of times, and this is not the best of times for President Sirleaf’s government. A series of corruption scandals and what one critic calls “Madam’s ineffective leadership” are making life difficult for the government.
As such, while I, a journalist who covered the country intimately for 10 years during the war, and now returning after a 12-year absence, can see renewal and progress (by whatever definition) all over the place, the opinion leaders are not impressed one bit.
Their major concern is the corruption in high places, and Madam President’s alleged “inability” to curb it. There is broad unanimity that “this government has received more donor money in the last 8 years than all the previous governments of Liberia put together, yet there is very little to show for it.”
“So, in short,” says Philibert S. Browne, publisher of the Monrovia-based National Chronicle newspaper, “the progress they are talking about is superficial because the country still lacks so many things. We still don’t have electricity, we still don’t have pipe-borne water, we still don’t have so many basic services. The former combatants who were traumatised by the war have not been brought back into mainstream society.
“Our schools are still in bad shape, our hospitals are in bad shape, you have 90% of people working in this government, our policy makers, all being American citizens, which is a violation of the national constitution … There is no nationalism. There is no patriotism. There is no love for the country. So Liberia is in a worse shape than before the war. There is still a lot to be done.”
Surprisingly, Browne’s views are overwhelmingly shared by many people, including even Justin P. Zigbuo, a member of the Executive Committee of President Sirleaf’s own ruling Unity Party. Zigbuo says he does not look at things from the party line; “I look at things as someone who wants to make a difference”.
According to him: “We need a stern hand to jump-start this country, to make people know that if they go against the grain, there will be repercussions. That is what we are lacking, but that is what we need now. There is a time for everything. There was a time in the beginning for a light hand to bring stability to this country, and to bring cooperation. But that time is over.
“God gives everyone gifts, some people may have gifts to stabilise a country, but that is where their gifts end. Others may have gifts to push a country forward, and that is what we need now. We need someone to push this country forward into a better economy, better opportunities for the people, more law and order, and people being accountable for what they do.”
Sadly, for a ruling party member, Zigbuo thinks the “stern hand” has not, and will not, come from President Sirleaf, who, incidentally, has become the target of the sharp tongues of the opinion leaders and critics.
“The buck stops with the president,” Zigbuo adds for good measure. “If this country progresses, it is because of the boss. If it regresses, it is because of the boss. So it is not something that I am saying, it is just something that is the international standard.”
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Next race open
As fate would have it, President Sirleaf’s government has three more years to go to its constitutional end, in 2017. She will not be able to run again, as the national constitution allows for only two terms of 6 years each for the president. As such, the next presidential race, in 2017, is now tantalisingly open.
Most of the likely candidates will come from the old order – George Weah, Winston Tubmann, Charles Brumskine, Varney Sherman, and the others who have now become fixtures of Liberian politics. But pundits are also predicting that the current vice president, Joseph Nyumah Boakai, and the central bank governor, Dr Joseph Mills Jones, may equally contest.
But Dr Mills Jones has a problem. The upper house of Liberia’s Parliament, the Senate, wants to stop him from running (there is a bill before parliament aimed at doing just that), because the Senators fear that Dr Jones would take undue advantage of his role as central bank governor and misuse both the position and taxpayers’ money to run his campaign.
So far, however, only one candidate, the multimillionaire businessman, Benoni Urey, has formally announced his intentions to run for president in 2017. Urey worked under various Liberian governments in the past, but his highest position in government was under former President Charles Taylor as the commissioner for maritime affairs, though he has never been a politician.
Perhaps this explains why he feels obliged to announce his candidacy three whole years ahead of time. Since leaving maritime affairs, Urey has gone on to become a successful businessman whose empire now stretches from mobile telecoms, to farming, to real estate, to car hire, to publishing, and broadcasting. He now employs over 1,600 people.
He says he made his money, first, by starting a poultry farm (“we were the only poultry producers in the country during he war, and I made a lot of money from my farm,” he says), and then by founding what has now become the country’s largest mobile telecom network, LoneStar Cell (now merged with MTN under the trading name, LoneStar MTN).
“That is where the bulk of my wealth came from,” Urey explains.
According to half a dozen opinion leaders I interviewed in Monrovia, Urey stands a high chance of winning the presidency, based on his personal merits, and his long experience in government and the private sector.
People speak well of him generally, and when I asked him why he wanted to run for president, after all that he has achieved in private business, Urey, the son of a former political prisoner (his father was arrested in 1955 and jailed for four years by President William Tubman), explained: “I want to lift our people from the trenches of despair, poverty, corruption, and underdevelopment by creating reforms in the system in Liberia that will create jobs, bring in industries, good governance, and give the people the opportunity to prosper and become dedicated and discipline citizens.”
That may be a big ask, but perhaps not for Urey, one of the few millionaires to ever come from Liberia. As Zigbou put it: “Urey has been around for some time, and he knows what to do. This country is our birthright. I can’t go to the USA, neither can he, and say the USA is our birthright. So we must make Liberia work, and Urey, to me, has all the qualities to make it work.”
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Prof Lungu 8 years ago
Thanks for the additional details, Francis Kwarteng.
Greetings!
Thanks for the additional details, Francis Kwarteng.
Greetings!
francis kwarteng 8 years ago
"In 1930, the government of president Charles D. B. King resigned after a League of Nations' (now the United Nations) investigation revealed that the government was involved in the slave trading of Liberia's native peoples... ... read full comment
"In 1930, the government of president Charles D. B. King resigned after a League of Nations' (now the United Nations) investigation revealed that the government was involved in the slave trading of Liberia's native peoples...Liberia remained a close ally of the United States, siding with the Allies during World War II. After a visit to Liberia by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943, the United States agreed to develop a modern port in Monrovia. Liberia was a founding member of the United Nations (UN) and Liberians helped write the UN Charter...
........................................................................................................................................................
Title: "Former American Slaves Played Oppressive Role in Liberia's Past."
Author: Shamara Reilly (Feb. 1, 2010)
n January 7, 1822, a transformational event happened in Liberia that links with African-American history: the first group of black American emigrants landed on Providence Island near what is now the capital city of Monrovia. Remembering Pioneers Day is significant to African-American history for three reasons:
(1) While African-Americans started emigrating in small numbers to Sierra Leone as early as the 1780s, the Providence Island landing marks the first “Back To Africa” critical mass emigration flow from the U.S. Between 10,000-15,000 African-Americans would later emigrate to Liberia.
(2) African-American settlers (with the help of the American Colonization Society, which possessed motives ranging from altruism to wanting to prevent slave revolts) established Africa’s first republic.
(3) This is linked to a little-known historical fact: the short-lived nation called the Republic of Maryland (1854-1857), comprised of black emigrants from the U.S. state of Maryland, before being annexed into the Republic of Liberia.
A national holiday in Liberia, Pioneers Day is controversial because of the historically tense relationship between the so-called “Congoes” (Americo-Liberians, who are 2.5 – 5 percent of Liberia’s total population of 3.5 million) and “country people” (indigenous Liberians). The Americo-Liberian elite’s historical faults are sizeable: denying citizenship to indigenous Liberians until 1904, denying full voting rights until well into the 20th century; one-party oligarchic rule for 133 years; lack of property rights, and forced labor which “prompted a League of Nations investigation...
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"The slaveholders were anxious to rid themselves of troublemakers, fearful that a growing number of free blacks would cause those still in slavery to demand freedom and eventually revolt," said Gabriel Williams, the Liberian author of Liberia: Heart of Darkness, who now lives as an exile in Sacramento, California.
The movement led to the 1816 establishment of the American Colonization Society, which was tasked with handling the emigration. Its first president was Bushrod Washington, a nephew to President Washington. Society agents soon went to West Africa to find and purchase suitable land. At home, the ACS encouraged slaveholders to offer their slaves freedom on the condition that those accepting it would move to Liberia.
While some African Americans supported the idea, seeing it as an opportunity to start over in a free country, many were deeply skeptical. Most northern free blacks opposed colonization and instead continued to press for full citizenship within the United States.
The majority of African Americans who set sail for Africa were educated free blacks who owned property and hailed from Maryland and Virginia.
"It was American racism that drove literate and accomplished free blacks to Liberia," said Tyler-McGraw.
Colonists vs. Natives
The first ship, the Elizabeth, headed to Liberia in 1816. On board were 88 voluntary emigrants and three white company officials. They landed off the coast of Liberia and immediately began to construct their new settlements.
Things didn't go according to plan, however. After only three weeks, 22 African Americans and all the white officials had died of yellow fever. But soon a second ship, Nautilus, arrived with more passengers and supplies.
Several thousand more colonists were put ashore by the U.S. Navy, which intercepted slave ships along the African coast. Descendents of these people are sometimes still referred to as "Congoes" in Liberia.
After 1832, slaves freed on condition that they migrate to Liberia comprised the majority of emigrants. But the early emigrants became the new leaders.
The new land, of course, was already inhabited by native tribes, who vastly outnumbered the African Americans. Much like European settlers elsewhere in Africa, the colonists saw themselves as bringing civilization, Christianity, and commerce to the unenlightened Africans. This conviction of cultural superiority—and a constant acquisition of land—led to continual friction and warfare between the Americo-Liberians and the indigenous groups.
"The blacks from America who went to Liberia took with them the worst lessons of the ante-bellum South," said Williams. "They treated the Africans they met there the way the slaveholders in the American South treated them."
Still, they struggled. The farming techniques they learned in Pennsylvania and North Carolina were inappropriate in Liberia's tropical climate. There was no "mother country" to provide financial support, and the colonists received very little support from the ACS, which was always in debt.
In 1841, Joseph Jenkins Roberts became the first black governor of the colony...
The True Whigs
At first, the U.S. government didn't give Liberia diplomatic recognition, which several European nations did. When the United States eventually did recognize Liberia in 1862 as part of President Lincoln's wartime planning, Americo-Liberians hoped more blacks would emigrate...
But the nation as a whole struggled. Americo-Liberians, based mainly around Monrovia, denied the native tribes the right to vote under the new constitution and even used them as forced labor. It was the beginning of more than 100 years of totalitarian rule by the colonists...
The graft culminated during the 1923 election when incumbent candidate D. B. King received 45,000 votes at a time when only 6,000 voters were legally registered. "[It] earn[ed] Liberia a dubious place in the Guinness Book of Records for the world's most rigged election," Burrowes wrote via e-mail...
In 1926, the Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company opened its largest rubber factory in the world in Liberia. It quickly became the backbone of the Liberian economy, and as recently as the 1970s, Liberia's per capita income was equal to Japan's...
But ordinary Liberians grew increasingly angry at the corrupt rule of the Americo-Liberian "True Whig" party. In 1979, riots convulsed Monrovia when President William R. Tolbert Jr., whose family was the biggest importer of rice in Liberia, proposed an increase in the price of the commodity...
"After the U.S.-trained army seized power in 1980s, American military aid increased from U.S. $1.4 million to U.S. $14 million annually, effectively militarizing the society and allowing the expanded army to become increasingly repressive in its bid to retain power," he stated...
READ: "...(3) This is linked to a little-known historical fact: the short-lived nation called the Republic of Maryland (1854-1857), comprised of black emigrants from the U.S. state of Maryland, before being annexed into the R ... read full comment
READ: "...(3) This is linked to a little-known historical fact: the short-lived nation called the Republic of Maryland (1854-1857), comprised of black emigrants from the U.S. state of Maryland, before being annexed into the Republic of Liberia..."
WE SAY: Revelation!
THEN THIS: "...The majority of African Americans who set sail for Africa were educated free blacks who owned property and hailed from Maryland and Virginia.../
//..."It was American racism that drove literate and accomplished free blacks to Liberia," said Tyler-McGraw..."
WE SAY: Another conforming point of view!
We encourage the reader to read this report in its entirety courtesy of Francis Kwarteng!
Thanks.
Yoomobega 8 years ago
It is a great pity that you intellectuals and pseudo intellectuals don't have much to contribute to make Ghana as functioning as Singapore and Malaysia.
I suggest each and everyone one of you should consider seriously chan ... read full comment
It is a great pity that you intellectuals and pseudo intellectuals don't have much to contribute to make Ghana as functioning as Singapore and Malaysia.
I suggest each and everyone one of you should consider seriously changing your frame of mind. Guys, your approaches haven't work so far.
Don't or can't you idiotic fools think about the current governance and the economical problems in facing "GhanaToday"?
For how long do you Marons want to think outside the box?
Dr Otto shut up as ways are being sought to make Ghana better.You NPP demonize Nkrumah while Lee Kwan Yew used similar methods to make Singapore what it is today.Try to learn from the examples of others .Baffour Akoto nor Dan ...
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Kojo T,
YOUR: "...Baffour Akoto nor Danquah left no blueprints for development Nkrumah did..."
WE SAY: Nuff said!
Thanks.
Dear Kojo T,
Excellent rebuke from you!
Bravo!
Dear Prof. Lungu, could you remember that Nkrumah used to incite workers to strike against the Whiteman but outlawed strikes in his regime when living conditions were genuinely difficult and said strikes were unpatriotic?
...
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Attorney Samuel Adjei Sarfo As Mahmoud!,
You are making is work over-time!
(In the future we may limit response to your comments: We will present a standard response for "Mahmoud" and "Nii Tieko".
ITEM: Elsewhere, yo ...
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You cannot use Liberia to measure the achievements of ghana under Nkrumah's leadership. What you are failing to see is that before Ghana there was a Gold Coast that was "well structured " under the the colonial rule, not forg ...
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ITEM: This is not a "...biblical parable..." . Rather, it is the story of "...the prodigal 'father'" who, the history shows, did not care enough for the "son", and the son's neighbors!
Attorney Adjei Sarfo, coming from y ...
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Listen to yourselves, and Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe!
BY DR. SAS, ATTORNEY AT LAW
READ:
"....Biological sciences affirm the notion that all humankind are equal, and that exposure to knowledge and culture accounts for why s ...
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Dear Prof. Lungu & SAS,
Title: "Liberia: Where will a stern hand come from?"
Source: New African
Author: Baffour Ankomah
............................................................................................. ...
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Thanks for the additional details, Francis Kwarteng.
Greetings!
"In 1930, the government of president Charles D. B. King resigned after a League of Nations' (now the United Nations) investigation revealed that the government was involved in the slave trading of Liberia's native peoples... ...
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READ: "...(3) This is linked to a little-known historical fact: the short-lived nation called the Republic of Maryland (1854-1857), comprised of black emigrants from the U.S. state of Maryland, before being annexed into the R ...
read full comment
It is a great pity that you intellectuals and pseudo intellectuals don't have much to contribute to make Ghana as functioning as Singapore and Malaysia.
I suggest each and everyone one of you should consider seriously chan ...
read full comment