Petition to the President Of Liberia

We, the concerned citizens of Grand Gedeh County, Republic of Liberia in diasporas, write to appeal to His Excellency, President George M. Weah through Honorable Varney Ali Sirleaf, Minister of Internal Affairs, Republic of Liberia for his intervention in the sales of our farm land to Burkinabe and other citizens from our neighboring states.

There is indisputable evidence that Burkinabe and other non-Liberians are crossing the Cavalla River into Grand Gedeh County in record numbers every day illegally and encroaching on Krahn people forest and farm land.  Whether or not those that are crossing have legal documents such as passports, laissez-passage or ECOWAS Passports from Abuja, Nigeria.  We also discovered that there was no HealthCare worker and no Immigration Officer present. We then realized that without proper COVID-19 vaccine and testing, it may result in moral-decadence in the near future in Grand Gedeh County.

Quite recently a Liberian Immigration Officer admitted the presence of Burkinabe and other non-Liberians are in Grand Gedeh County illegally and alleged that the Liberian Immigration are deporting them.  We want to inform you Mr. President, that his allegation is misleading.  We know for fact that there is no deportation of Burkinabe and non-Liberians going on in Grand Gedeh County.  What we know is these illegal aliens are crossing into Grand Gedeh County every day and out numbering Grand Gedeh Citizens.

We are cognizant that only the Government of Liberia has the right to use the power of eminent domain with just compensation for the good of her citizens. Firestone as an example. We believed that Mr. Harvey S. Firestone did not come to Liberia with a group of United States citizens wrote and secured a land contract from individual/individuals, but from the Liberian Government.  It was done by the three branches of the Liberian Government. Contrarily in Grand Gedeh, ordinary citizens are selling our farm land to the Burkinabe and none-Liberian citizens to plant their cacao and coffee. We strongly believe that this is not the way to bring about lasting development to the people of that county. 

Please note Mr. President, if you are not already aware, 60% of the decent buildings in Zwedru, are built by Grand Gedeh citizens in the diasporas.  Grandeans in abroad also built decent houses in Monrovia. Grand Gedeh citizens in the diasporas yearning to come home to participate in the development of Liberia.  Mr. President, selling their farm land is cruel and humane.  Please put stop to this and drive the Burkinabe and other non-Liberians back to wherever they come from by any means necessary.

Mr. President, Liberian stable food is rice. We should not forget what took place on April 14, 1979 when hungrier Liberians were honestly requesting the Liberian Government to reduce the price of rice so that they will be able to buy a bag, they received bullets and 500 native Liberians lost their lives and buried in one hole in Monrovia; long forgotten, let alone to be memorialized.  Please Mr. President, prosecute those who are illegally selling Liberian land in Grand Gedeh County to foreigners.

Let us digress a little and simplify some of our reasons for a layman to understand.

1.  When the Liberian Government was in economic squeezed and in desperate need of money to meet her payroll in 1926, Mr. Harvest S. Firestone came to Liberia and signed a concession agreement with the Liberian Government to lease over one million acres of land for 6 cents per acre for a period of 99 years. 

In that concession agreement, the Liberian Government failed to write that Mr. Firestone should and must make rubber tires in Liberia and export them abroad.  He must build decent housing for the workers. He must assist the Government of Liberia to build infrastructures, since indeed, the United States has the expertise. Mr. Firestone took the latex somewhere and made billions of tires and imported them to Liberia at higher cost.

2.  The Burkinabe and non-Liberians who are illegally acquiring farmland will in the future, take the raw coffee and cocoa beans to Ouagadougou, sell them to Europeans and import the finished product to Liberia for a higher price.

3.  Who knows Mr. President, that there are terrorists among those without legal documents entering Liberia illegally, buying farm land may have the intention to attack some of our best friends in the world, the United States of America, France and Great Britain.

Therefore, and in the light of the above, we are appealing to you to stop everyone surveying farmland and selling them to foreigners in Liberia. From our experience, land disputes most of the time can end up in chao and deaths.  

Please send your Ministers of Internal Affairs and Justice to Grand Gedeh for thorough investigation. Please be a nationalist Mr. President and use your good offices to stop farm land sales which may displace Liberians.

With sentiment of our highest esteem.

Very respectfully yours,

Honorable Sampson L. Diahn
Chairman, Former Assistant Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, USA

Madam Wachien Beh
Co-Chairlady, USA

His Excellency Harold G. Tarr, Sr.
Advisor, Former Liberian Ambassador, USA

Hon. Edward N. Slanger
Coordinator, Liberia

Mr. Festus Diahn Zeon
Liaison Officer, Liberia