Pleebo City, Maryland County – Youths of Maryland County are still savouring the long standing advocacy by Liberia’s current House Speaker against alleged illegal activities by the Cavalla Rubber Corporation.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected]
Before his ascendancy to the Speakership, Hon. Bhofal Chambers, Representative of Pleebo Sodoken district, was adored by his constituents for flagging several inconsistencies in the concession agreement of the rubber plantation company.
Despite the many years of advocacy, communities affected by the company’s operations are still enduring alleged mistreatments including bad labour practice and failure to fully implement its social corporate responsibilities.
Amos Nyemah, youth president of Pleebo, claims that 60 per cent of “the things embedded in the CRC concession agreement have not come to pass, yet the company is paying deaf ears to us”.
“When we talked about some of the facilities that should be given to us, as affected communities, every time we are denied,” Nyemah told FrontPage Africa in Pleebo city recently.
The youth leadership claim CRC offers no vocational training program for the communities although it is written in the concession agreement.
Pleebo city, a very populated settlement in Maryland County, is in close proximity to the company’s vast rubber plantation, but locals have continuously complained about the firm’s failure to impact their lives.
The feeder roads connecting communities are deplorable, leaving farmers and people seeking medical care in dire strait. Recently, a pregnant woman died of complication after giving birth to a child. She could not get to the hospital in time due to the bad road condition.
Safe drinking water remains scarce and the youth leadership claim that communities are still drinking from streams.
“And we have noticed that they are planting some palms in the creeks, so these creeks are being contaminated, too,” Nyemah said.
Job opportunities are not given to residents of affected communities, while foreigners are reportedly being preferred for new openings – jobs, locals claim should be preserved for them.
Nyemah is disappointed that several attempts to mitigate the problem through a dialogue with the company have been rejected.
He said they have opted for dialogue instead of reverting to violence, which led to destruction of the company’s properties several years ago, but to no avail.
“So when we took over, we wanted to sit with them to know some of the company’s challenges so that in terms of anything we can come back to our people. But up to this time the company has refused to hear us,” the youth leader said.
Series of letters have been written to the President of Liberia and Speaker Chambers, seeking their intervention to resolve the challenges.
The letters, which are in the possession of FrontPageAfrica, cite the alleged numerous bad labour practices, high unemployment of locals, and lack of community services by the CRC management.
Speaker Chambers, who is the direct representative of Plebo Sodoken District, Maryland County, has been revelled by his kinsmen for raising concerns over the appalling condition of his constituents while serving in the 53rd Legislature.
His advocacy, according to observers, strained his relationship with former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – who was accused of protecting the interest of SAFCA, owners of both Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP) and CRC. That bad blood saw Chambers acrimoniously leaving the Unity Party and joined the Congress for Democratic Change – the main opposition party at the time.
Chambers’ ascendency as presiding of the House is still being celebrated back in his district where his constituents’ optimism has now elated. They are hopeful his advocacy and oversight responsibility will earn them benefits from the company.
“We have heard from his (Speaker Chambers) office that he will soon be on the ground so we should exercise patience; we are very sure when he comes he will speak to the issue,” said Nyemah.
“These are issues that Dr. Chambers had been pushing from day one about this company. He has been raising this thing but the past government was not listening.”
But the Pleebo youth leadership worries that Chambers’ massive role as Speaker would now limit his advocacy for the district.
While the youth intensify their advocacy, their efforts are being thwarted by some elders of the county whom they describe as a ‘cartel of elders’ playing double standards.
These elders include four chiefs that are considered the mediators for the affected communities.
“The chiefs are the ones who supposed to draw the line between the company and the people, because the company came for profits but they are siding with the company and a document we have is saying that they should be the only ones that the company should discuss issues about the welfare of the communities,” Nyemah said.
However, the youth are suspicious that these chiefs are self-seeking individuals taking bribes from the company at the detriment of the communities. They also argued that Speaker Chambers is unaware of the chiefs and their “clandestine activities.”
“So, we are asking Dr. Chambers to dissolve this group of chiefs – because why will we have a group like this in the county and we are suffering,” he said.
“We know that Dr. Chambers has been discussing this issues and he was being hated and disrespected by these same chiefs and Barkameni.”
John Y. Barkameni is a top level manager of the CRC, who is being accused by the youths of ignoring the plight of the affected communities.
An FPA reporter was unsuccessful in getting comments from the CRC management during a recent trip to Maryland County.
Meanwhile, Nyemah is also facing pressure from a fraction of youth leadership in the county. He has been asked to step down for allegedly disrespecting officials of the county over issues concerning CRC.
But he sees it as plot designed to impede his consistent advocacy for affected the communities and he’s now hopeful that Speaker Chambers’ mitigation would influence change in the county.