PHOTO: Liberian writer Gebah Sekou Kamara
By Kelvin Gonlah, gonlahkelvin1995@gmail.com
A Liberian writer based In the United States of America wants Liberia politicians to put the Tourism industry on the front-burning in the next administration.
Just two weeks before the presidential runoff election between incumbent President George manneh Weah of the CDC and former Vice President Joseph Boakai of the main opposition UP, the US-based Liberian writer, Gebah Sekou Kamara has cautioned Liberia politicians not to abandon the tourism industry.
According to him, tourism will help boost Liberia’s economy and as such, politicians in Liberia should change their style of politics and focus on tourism because it will help to attract more investors in Liberia and create more job opportunities for less privileged Liberians.
Mr. Kamara has written several books including ‘Slavery and Black Americans Statehood’, America’s Forgotten Star-Liberia, “The Boy from the Slum Who Became the World’s Best Soccer Player, and From a slave family to the First Black American President –JJ Roberts.
Speaking to him via WhatsApp on October 29, 2023, he told this Reporter that, the Liberian government should invest in the tourism industry in Liberia to help reduce the poverty rate Liberians have engulfed. He explained that tourism is one of the fastest ways to create jobs for citizens.
“No candidate is talking about investing in tourism in Liberia. Ghana has been doing that long time and Liberia has more relationships compared to Ghana but the Ghanaian leadership was very smart and they invested in tourism. Black Americans spend over USD$300 billion dollars in tourism every year. In America, most black Americans are trying to connect to their African route. But what Liberians are doing to invest in tourism?” Gebah Sekou Kamara noted.
“I don’t see where these two candidates’ platforms is going to take Liberia for the next six years. During the first round, Alexander Cummings spoke a lot about tourism in his platform. If you are in Grand Cape Mount County or Robert Field Highway, you are going to have airlines that will be traveling to Liberia. You will have marketers and transportation services, you will have workers who are going to work in that hotel, and security personnel will be at that tourism site. So that’s one of the ways to create a fast job in Liberia.”
The US-based Liberian writer added: “I have not heard anything from both size like policy-wise that will change the trajectory of Liberia that will put Liberia on the platform that we are looking for, a platform that will take Liberia to the 23rd century. I don’t see anything on their platforms. Today we still see the superintendents in Liberia being appointed by the president not elected by the people. No candidate is talking about changing them; today we have all the ministries in Liberia that are situated in Monrovia and no candidate is talking about decentralizing ministries across the 15th counties in Liberia.”
He then appealed to the Liberian government to provide justice and a level of fair plain field for opposition political parties; for voters to exercise their constitutional rights without being subjugated and prosecuted in the round-off election.
Mr. Kamara added that Liberians should vote wisely and stop what he terms as election violence and the culture of impunity in Liberia; at the same time, he applauded Liberian citizens for peacefully conducting themselves in the just-ended October 10 election.
“Liberia practices a truth democracy, but I think Liberia’s problem is mostly with governance. Is so difficult to differentiate between democracy and good governance and that’s an African problem. We need to conduct ourselves in a civilized manner, emotions are very hard now, and Liberian people want change. Some people want change, some people want the status quo. Others are supporting the current administration and others also understand that Liberians want change that the current administration did not deliver,” said the Liberian writer based in America.
“Liberians have the power right now, the power is in their hands given by the constitution to exercise your democratic right and who they want to elect as their next leader. This can only be done when we put ourselves in an orderly and respectful manner. In Africa now, we are seeing a lot of coup d’é· that is taking place around us”, Mr. Kamara indicated.
At the same time, he mentioned that Liberians should conduct themselves in an orderly and peaceful manner as they are preparing to go to the poll on November 14, in the round-off election; everybody’s rights should be respected during the voting process.
“As Liberians go to make their last decisions on November 14, everybody has his or her choice, your choice doesn’t have to be mine, we can determine that from the ballot box. And I will also caution people that this process should be free and fair. The losing side should accept the will of the Liberian people and not create any violence around the democratic process,” he disclosed.
“Probably in Africa, a losing party always complains that they are being cheated; sometimes there is no cheating there. And it cements more hatred in the electoral process; you start to count your vote before the vote can be counted, and you start to declare yourself before the winner is declared. And I saw that the two political parties did that last election and these are the things that can create problems. They need to stop that,” Gebah Sekou Kamara, a Liberian writer further stated.
“I supported Alexander B. Cummings in the first round, but I knew he wasn’t going anywhere because of the way people were running his campaign. The way people structured the system around him was determined to fail. And I knew that for a very long time, I told prominent people who were around Cummings that he was not going to win this election,” Mr. Kamara averted.