-Residents, business people cry for Gov’t swift intervention
PHOTO: Spark
By Edwin M. Fayia, III,fayiaedwin@gmail.com
By all accounts of the business people, residents and development partners, the South-eastern and North-western roads of Liberia are still in total shambles, imposing all-time unbearable socioeconomic hardships on them that seems unending.
From all indications, year in and year out, Liberians, businessmen and women in those parts of the country continue to endure the menace and nightmare of deplorable roads.
The affected Liberians, businessmen, women and some critical development partners have on many occasions reminded past and present Liberian governments that only Heaven knows when a genuine saviour will come to their rescue.
The affected residents, businessmen and women also pointed out that successive Liberian governments had made lofty and sugar-coated promises for the pavements of those hard to reach parts of Liberia decades ago.
Such unrealistic promises have only eroded perpetually in the dustbins of history and the misery of bad roads every year continues to haunt them as their socioeconomic conditions to diminish at an alarming rate.
A prominent Liberian businessman Lamin B. Kamara, who is on business trip from Northwestern Liberia’s commercial town of Foya Airfield to Monrovia told www.newspublictrust.com that Lofa highway and feeder roads should be given serious attention now and not later.
“Our plea is to fix or pave our highway and maintain our feeder roads properly, we will do business and develop our various districts and our country in general,” Businessman Kamara stressed.
Besides, the production capacities of both cash crops and nation other staple diet rice and cassava have drastically reduced due to the fact most of their harvested commodities are often rot owing to the deplorable state of the Southeast and Northwest of the country.
Consequently, a critical development partner, SPARK that recently completed a Market assessment and Value Chain Analysis in some of the Southeast counties told this news organ that working in that part of the country is indeed associated serious challenges of multiple kinds.
Many Liberians, businessmen, women and development partners have consistently reminded Liberian leaders that until considerable priority can be placed on the pavement of Liberia major highways, realistic development will not be achieved.
They also intimated that the Liberian economy will only gain genuine shape if Liberia road networks are placed and tackled in a practical way that will enhance development, growth and progress in the country.
The Liberians, business community and development parts in the most affected areas have also underscored the need for such major road projects place in the hands of credible and integrity companies and supervision and monitoring of works, should be the top priority of the Liberian Government, in order to ensure the durability and viability during and after completion.
On top of the Liberian Government priority of the country road network, the Liberians recommended the regular maintenance of farm to market and the major highways in order to ensure that goods, services, trade and commerce throughout the country.
The year-in and year-out affected Liberians, business people and support called on the current CDC led administration to consider very critical the overall development of the nation road network and not preoccupy itself with political bickering and excuses.
For a considerable population of the country to come out poverty and socioeconomic hardships, many Liberians have stressed the need for the current government to place emphasis on sustained agriculture, with road reconstruction at the center stage of the development agenda.
Now is the best time for the Liberian Government to begin an extensive engagements and contacts with donor governments and institutions, in order to lift the present status of the nation road network as climate change has proven to be a genuine reality for all countries of the world.
Road construction works on the Northwest and Southeast of Liberia seems to be at a sail paces. This is said to be due to what some analysts say the huge bureaucratic bottlenecks associated with concluding negotiations with support partners and other donor institutions.