As someone who has lived abroad for the past 30 years, I always feel unsatisfied when I visit Liberia and look at our villages, towns and cities. Our capital city, Monrovia is among them. It doesn’t feel like a capital city when compared to most capital cities around the world, especially in our West Africa sub region. I struggle to see any place of attraction in the city of Monrovia or any other city for that matter. Burst pipes are everywhere with dirty water, especially sewage flowing in many places.
It seems like there is no city ordinance, or city planning, or if there is, it’s not enforced. You see one good building, there are hundred ugly buildings around it. As such, it’s hard to see the beauty of the city. I often ask myself the question, if you have a foreign visitor, to whom you have bragged so much about your country and cities, where are the places of attraction you are taking him or her to?
That’s one question that’s on my mind often, especially when I am in Liberia. Are there avenues and boulevards that you can stroll through, drinking into the beautiful features of the city? Does central Monrovia really feel like a downtown that you can take pictures and share on social media with your friends far and near?
These are the questions that pop up in my head whenever I am in Monrovia. I sometimes compare it to some of the cities I have visited in the US. I am currently living in the small town called Lansdowne, Delaware County, a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Over the years, I have lived in other small towns and cities like Leonardo, New Jersey, Newport News, and Norfolk, Virginia. I once lived in New York City, to be specific in Harlem, and the Bronx. I have also had the opportunity to visit cities in Europe such as Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, etc.
But let me not go to faraway places like in America and Europe. Let me consider our immediate West African cities and villages I have visited over the years. This includes Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Dakar, Senegal, Bamako, Mali, Accra, Ghana, and Conakry, Guinea. Of all these capitals in our West Africa sub region, Monrovia is the least in term of beauty and attractions.
No doubt, Liberia is a historic place, the oldest independent nation in Africa with the capital city named after the 5th president of the United States of America. Though we maybe a largely illiterate society, there are many educated Liberians who have attended some of the best schools in the world and have, visited or lived in some of most beautiful cities in the world. Yes, Liberians are educated and sophisticated but sadly, our education and sophistication don’t reflect on the infrastructural developments in our country. Given this as the reality, I think that Representative Musa Hassan Bility’s proposal for NATIONAL CITY DEVELOPMENT and FUND are right on point. According to the communication he has sent to the speaker and members of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bility said, “I respectfully present this communication to propose the enactment of a City Development Plan Act aimed at transforming Liberia's cities through a structured, long-term investment program designed to strengthen municipal governance, improve urban infrastructure, and enhance the capacity of city authorities to generate and sustain local revenues.”
Reading through this proposal of Honorable Musa Hassan Bility takes my mind to Richard Florida, an American urban studies theorist and professor whose expertise is sought when it comes to the development of creative class and urban city planning. This only indicates that Hon Bility is a thinker outside the box. He may represent a district in the interior in Nimba County, he is as educated and sophisticated as a world traveller. His extensive travel around the world and his readings might have made him an outside of the box thinker when it comes to development. In the last few years, we have seen him contributing to development through bridge and road constructions in various parts of Liberia. Not yet a president, he’s engaged in development programs that can only be undertaken by governments.
Including his ongoing development projects in various parts of Liberia, this proposal is another chapter added to what’s he’s known for. As such, this proposal should not come as surprise to many who are following his development efforts. I hope his colleagues will readily accept this proposal by the most development oriented leader in our country today.
Could the reasons for lack of progressive developments in our cities be due to budgetary constraints? Well, in that regard, Hon. Bility’s proposal indicates that “Across our country, city governments face enormous challenges. Most municipal administrations lack the financial resources necessary to effectively discharge their statutory responsibilities. Basic services such as waste management, drainage maintenance, street lighting, sanitation, public safety, and municipal administration remain severely underfunded.”
Having read this, the question is, how can we make this proposal a reality when mayors of our cities are appointed by the central government rather than elected through democratic election?
