MONROVIA – Liberia’s ace economist, Togba-Nah Tipoteh, has been lamenting the generation and regeneration of poverty in the country, something he believes is often used as pretext for war, conflict and violence.
He said: “When I see a world class bridge in Liberia, I feel good to know that Liberians built the bridge. When I see a world class building in Liberia, I feel good to know that Liberians built the building. I feel good because when Liberians build a bridge and a building I can promote Liberianization rather than westernization. Then I know that Liberians can build rather than break
The big thing about Liberians building bridges and buildings is that such actions promote the good enduring poverty alleviation rather the bad prevailing poverty generation.
Poverty generation is bad because is leads to poverty that has become the pretext for violence. The situation called violence is what most Liberians do not like. The world-renowned research organization, Afrobarometer, did research on Liberia during October to December 2022. Afrobarometer found the following: Most Liberians agree that Liberia is headed in the wrong direction.
Liberia is headed in the wrong direction because Liberia prevails in poverty generation. Poverty has now become the pretext for violence. Liberians have experienced violence in the forms of coup d’etat and civil war which took the lives of at least 300,000 people and injured many more people. This experience took place in 1981 with the coup and from 1989 to 2003 as well with the civil war.
