Brewerville City– The former president of the Liberia Council of Churches Kortu Brown has cautioned the Joseph Boakai-led government to put the same amount of energy that is put into road development to the rule of law, education, sanitation, tourism, youth empowerment, and healthcare.
By J.H. Websterclayeh Clayeh (0886729972)
As the “ARREST” agenda gets in full swing, the issue of road development is seen as high on the agenda.
In an address, Bishop Brown says the UP-government agenda is laudable. However, it must be executed wholeheartedly with every sector involved.
“That means, you cannot address the building of road infrastructure without addressing the challenges or strengthening the rule of law. You cannot address the challenges of agriculture without addressing the challenges in the education system and so on, at the same time,” Bishop Brown said.
He added: “That’s why I see a lot of concerns about the bringing in of the yellow machines. It is intended to address the challenges in the road infrastructure of the country which is highly commendable and difficult to dismiss. However, there is another component that must be addressed at the same time which is what has eroded this country for a long time.”
Brown named the strengthening of the rule of law which he says promotes transparency, accountability, fiscal discipline, and justice, -enabling integrity institutions like the PPCC, GAC, LAC, C and Internal Audit Agency to perform their responsibilities in the broader sense of promoting the rule of law.
“When President Tolbert built more than 600 miles of roads in the country and ensured that every county had a piece of road equipment to maintain the roads, it was still the concern for the disrespect of the rule of law by the True Whig Party government that Liberians were concerned about”, the former President of the Liberia Council of Churches added.
He continues: “The people argued at the time that there was no respect for the rule of law; no accountability, that justice was for the highest bidder, that government officials did whatever seemed right in their own eyes, the big-shots, and small-people mentality prevailed and generally, lack of coherence in governance; the slogan: ‘I am in go on’ we care less about the other’s views.”
According to him, the people want a Liberia where the rule of law is respected and enforced.
“We all know it’s beneficial to the country because it makes it look responsible, globally”, he said, adding, “It takes nothing from the dire need for road equipment to help improve that critical and long-neglected infrastructure, especially in the southeastern region of the country”.
The Apostolic Pentecostal Church cleric who was speaking in an open interactive forum on the church campus of New Water in the Desert Assembly in Brewerville commended the Ministry of Public Works for their efforts in maintaining critical road infrastructure in neglected parts of the country including the southeast and north-central parts of the country.
“We hear from news reports that the roads are pliable in the middle of the rainy season. Even though we still have about two months to go in the wet season; however, just to hear that the roads are usable with much ease during this time of the year, is highly commendable,” he said.
Bishop Brown added that might it be a good thing if the maintenance of the roads were contracted to engineering companies that could be responsible for their maintenance all year around instead of probably building huge logistics for county administrations that they couldn’t be able to handle due to the lack of adequate budgetary support for maintenance and proper supervision, amongst others.
“Maybe privatizing road maintenance like electricity could do the trick for Liberia,” he said.