Monrovia, Liberia – In order to end what he called “ancient colonial arrangements of concession companies exploiting the natural resources and giving the state peanuts purposely to pay the huge salaries of government officials,” the former president of the Liberia Council of Churches has called on the national legislature to start reviewing all concession agreements.
Bishop Kortu Brown, the General Overseer of the Apostolic Pentecostal Church International, stated that the time has come for the average person to benefit since government officials have already benefited from enormous salaries, extravagant allowances, money for scratch cards, fuel, and medical examinations overseas.
In an interview with Reports231 Media Network over the weekend, Bishop Brown suggested that the National Legislature and the Ministry of Labor start a survey to determine the social advantages and effects of concession firms in areas where they operate the most in Liberia.
Bishop Brown said until the government enacts radical policies requiring companies to start producing some finished goods locally and having a significant social influence in their operational regions, Liberia will never advance and the living circumstances of its citizens would never improve.
Now that the crisis is over, the former president of the Liberia Council of Churches urged the national legislature to start taking action right away to reverse all previous concession agreements and start implementing measures that would allow the government and concession companies to share in the profits from the nation’s natural resources.
Black people throughout the world applauded the recent effort by some West African nations to require all concession companies to produce locally in order to create jobs, raise foreign profits, and export goods and services.
