Rivercess Citizens Union (RCU) over the weekend inducted a new corps of officials at the Living Water Baptist Church, Old Road, Monrovia.
Speaking at the induction ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer of the Morweh Energy Group, Christopher Zeohn Neyor, underscored the need for transparency and accountability to enhance the socio-development agenda of Rivercess County. Neyor stated that the fundamental requirement for county and national development is the role citizens of the county and citizens of the nation play in ensuring good governance.
“Our county mirrors the country in many respects except that we are among the least developed county with not even a mile of paved road. Our schools and healthcare do not leave much to be desired, yet we are a resource-rich county,” he added. “We are endowed with forest, gold and other precious metals and minerals, oil, arable lands, the beauty of the Cestos River flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and a youthful population.”
Neyor noted that for decades the resources of Rivercess have been exploited and made millions, if not billions, for others but the county lacks basic infrastructure and services, year in and year out. The trees from Rivercess are cut, the logs hauled to port and exported with no significant benefit to the county. According to him, at the end of the day, the county is left holding the short end of the rope with damaged roads and degraded environment.
“The roads to Cestos and to Morweh are barely passable during the dry season, except when occasionally graded, and almost impassable during the rainy season,” he said. “This has been the story year in and year out. Senators and representatives are elected and replaced, appointed county officials come and go but the county remains backward with no sign of progress.”
He pointed out that the sad story is that majority of the elected and appointed officials are “friends” of businesses that do business in the county.
“They build relationships with these businesses along with officials of the national government to form an exploitative syndicate that leave the county and its people in continuous poverty,” he lamented.
The Morweh boss explained, “Yes, we want investors in our county and in our country, but not investors that have our officials in their pockets to exploit our resources making millions for themselves with little benefit to the county and its people is wrong.”
According to him, “In 2013 I stated the following in a speech at the first Business for Peacebuilding Conference organized by the UN Peacebuilding Commission in collaboration with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at the UN Headquarters in New York.”
He indicated that a noted indicator that all of the post-conflict developing countries have in common is the low level of wealth created and owned by citizens.
He underscored that while many developing countries, especially in Africa, are endowed with tremendous natural resources, these resources are exploited by their often-corrupt governments in ways that others, including few in the government, are made wealthy except the citizens of those countries who are the collective owners of those resources.
Neyor underscored that in many cases the citizens are poorer and the surrounding environment more degraded than before the natural resources were exploited.
According to him, a key development ingredient demonstrated across national borders and cultures is that governments do not create wealth, but real wealth is created in a nation when its government provides the enabling environment for its citizens to create wealth through private-sector initiatives.
“It is proven by many development economists that the level of stakes citizens have in the economy of a state is directly proportional to the level of political stability, social justice and peace,” he stated.