PHOTO: Eddie Beangar Sr.
By E. Festus G. Frazer, Jr, efgfrazerjr@gmail.com
SANNIQUELLIE, Liberia- In the northeast, the Nimba Land office has embarked on a land right awareness in the County.
The awareness, which is aimed at sensitizing women, disabled and youth as well as the entire Nimba citizenry about their rights to own land in the county, is being fully sponsored by the Nimba Land office through the County land administrator, Mr. Eddie Beangar Sr.
The awareness is been carried out in various dialects through songs by some well-known Nimba musicians, Morris King, Amos Porque among others; as well as town hall Meetings in various towns in the county.
He was speaking to Reporters at his office in the county’s capital, Sanniquellie.
The Liberia Land Authority was established by an act of Legislature on October 5, 2016 under the laws of the Republic of Liberia. The primary mandate of the LLA is to develop policies on a continuous basis, undertake actions and implement programs in support of land governance, including land administration and management.
Mr. Beangar disclosed that the essence of the awareness is to ensure that the minority group that are marginalized most often in Land cases know their rights to own land in the county.
He maintained that the Chapter 10, Article 22a of the 1986 constitution give right to only Liberian citizens to own land and without discrimination. Therefore, he said it is important for citizens to know about their rights to own land to avoid discrimination and violence.
The Nimba County Land office awareness is happening barely months after the Liberia Land Authority ended its nationwide awareness on the Liberia Land Authority Act and the Land Rights Act across this northeastern country.
According to Mr. Beangar, the county awareness will reach to every town and village in the county.
“We are carrying out this awareness from our own little resources. We don’t want to wait for our head office before doing our work. Nimba is a county where land issue have spiked out tension evidenced by the most recent one in Ganta. We don’t want to sit and see the reoccurrence of this, that’s why you see us produced our awareness messages in song so that it will get to the least person in the remotest part of the county, we want our people to know and understand their rights to own land especially women and youth,” the Nimba land official said.
He said that the awareness started since August and is expected to end this October. When quizzed about challenges during the course of the awareness, the Nimba Land named lack of mobility (vehicle) and finance to feed those carrying out the awareness as challenges hindering their operation.
Mr. Beangar furthered explained that the only motorbike that is been used by the County land office doesn’t have the capacity to transport the team.
At the same time, he said that when there are land cases in some remote area of the county where he has to transport his team, they have to rent a car to make their way to the location of the incident.
“Our major challenge for now is logistics, mainly vehicle. Vehicle because when we have land issue that involves survey, how do I transport my surveyors and other technicians on this single motorbike? Imagine transporting 3-4 people including myself from Sanniquellie to Yarwinmensonnoh, to Tappita or to any of the 776 towns, etc., it’s challenging! We do not already have the money to pay their way. Sometimes we rent vehicles to get to those places. And the sad thing about it is the disputants are always curious about the source of the vehicles that we rent wether they were not given to us by any of the parties,” he lamented.
The peace and stability of Nimba County and Liberia as a whole depend on proper knowledge about land issues in the county, the local land official stressed.
He maintained that when the citizens are knowledgeable to land matters, they will always take all land matters to the relevant authorities and not engaging in to violence.
Some achievements are said to have been made since Mr. Beangar took office.
According to him, he has been able to reduce unauthorized random land sales by people appearing to be administrators in various cities in the county.
He also pointed out that the Nimba Land office concluded survey for 12 of the affected farmers in the Arcelor Mittal operation areas in Gbapa and Zolowee, as well as the Gbarplay_Gbeletuo_Toweh Town boundary issue among others as major achievements.
“We concluded survey and power point presentation of field activities of 12 of the affected farmers at the ArcelorMittal Liberia operation areas in Gbapa and Zolowee. Their deed processing are in progress,” Mr. Beangar added.