Liberia's New Capital City: A Fiasco?

Having just shared a printed op-ed about the saga of the supposed-new administrative complex in ELWA last week, this op-ed from last week in The New Republic Liberia is effusively written and nicely summarizes the noises that have been made in the last two years about the vague and quixotic plan to move the capital of Liberia from Monrovia to the forested village of Zekepa, an under-developed, remote settlement at confluence of the borders of Grand Bassa, Bong, and Nimba counties, an arbitrary yet mythic location in the center of Liberia.  This apparently remains merely a random fantasy alluded to for unclear reasons, as covered in this blog in mid-2012, and absent during more recent public statements, such as the President's State of the Nation Address last month. Quoting the op-ed in full: 

As did in 2006 before the rest of world that her government would unremittingly wage war against corruption, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to an overwhelming approbation, stood before the National legislature in 2012 and made a solemn proclamation about the relocation of Liberia's Political Capital, to Zekepa, the convergence of Grand Bassa, Nimba and Bong Counties.Growing population, climate change and erosion were cited as reeling factors. One year later while performing similar constitutional duty, she re-echoed similar commitment with resounding punctuations. Considered as national nostalgia, many expected full-blown report on the status of the project. But too bad, either knowingly or unknowingly, the President made no mention of it in her 2014 Annual Address. "So, what's at stake? Has it become a fiasco?" The New Republic, finds out.2012 has since elapsed but some of its grandeurs remained stocked in the bottomless parts of humans across the entire globe, but for Liberians is President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's pronouncement concerning moving the Capital to the center of the country. . President Sirleaf informed the nation that her administration was in the middle of arrangements that would lead to the moving of Liberia's oldest political capital city to Zekepa, a convergence of three counties with identical links, Nimba, Grand Bassa and Bong."I am talking to every single citizen of this great nation when I say: our progress belongs to you, and the future is yours for the taking, a future in which the process would have started to move the capital to the center of the country. Given the effects of climate change and expectation that rising sea levels will threaten coastal cities, including Monrovia, we will have concluded the plan to move the Capital City to Zekepa, where the territories of Grand Bassa, Bong and Nimba converge," Madam President said in 2012 with boomeranging applauds and standing ovation.Not stopping there, the President whose victory in 2006 over other potential politicians hinged on her credentials, reassured Liberians in 2013, a year after the initial pledge, that in developing ment For many, it was one of the president's commitments since assuming office and |Liberians, especially her religious followers exhaled that she was ready to demonstrate her true colors, as a developer. "Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro-Tempore, in my Annual Message to the Sixth Session of the 52ndNational Legislature, I informed your Honorable Body and the Liberian people that in response to the expected effects on population growth, climate change and the expectation that rising sea levels will threaten coastal cities, including Monrovia, in the decades to come, we had decided to commence the process that could lead, eventually, to relocating the Capital City to Zekepa, where the boundaries of Grand Bassa, Bong and Nimba converge.Two years on, we have commenced the research and planning that will enable us to make the decision as to how to proceed with the Zekepa project," she said in her 2013 Annual Message.At the time, she noted that a small task force had been set up and charged with conducting the research, technical analysis, master planning and design that will be essential to the comprehensive development plan for the proposed city of Zekepa. Apparently being aware of the ambitiousness of the plan, and considering Liberia's financially squeezed state, madam Sirleaf said "This is not a quick project. This is a long term project.""The Task Force will spend the next six months in the primary stage of research, after which I will consult with your honorable body regarding a greater national involvement and the way forward in achieving this objective."Since these enthralling remarks of 2013, analysts are concerned that not the President, or any official of her government that has ever made it his/her business to bring to the knowledge of Liberians the status of the project, and the extent of the design and planning work mentioned earlier.What also brings the credibility of the project into the question, according to those spoken with, is her inability to disclose names oaf individuals that comprised the task force."The President made the disclosure in January of 2013. The six months she talked about have since elapsed and there is no information, absolutely, as regards the outcome of the design and planning work. I hope this is not a fiasco,' remarked one Peter Kiadii, who said he is political commentator"It is also troubling that she did not make any mention of the new capital project in her speech on Monday to the |National Legislature."That the Madam eschewed talking about the project which is of interest to all Liberians, speaks volume, he said, and argued that she willfully avoided doing so because "nothing is being done there."President Sirleaf's state of the nation address lasted for over two hours but many said it was only a repeat of things she has said over and again in past annual messages.However, the Liberian government disagreed that the Project is a fiasco as many tend to perceive it. Commenting on the state of the new capital project, Deputy Information Minister for Public Affairs, Isaac Jackson told this paper via mobile phone exchange that progressive actions were being taken.Without specifying actions so far taken by the government, he said, there are intended to actualize the President's vision of moving the capital. Minister Jackson who said he was in the middle of work, noted "detailed will be communicated to you in subsequent time."

Zekepa: Liberia's Abuja?

Although the passage of an Act to establish a new capital city for Liberia came and went in late 2009 with plenty of blustering announcements and chatter there followed absolutely no details and even less action for more than a year. Then, during President Sirleaf's annual state of the union address in January 2011, once again the outline of the fabled city appeared on the horizon. From a press report of later that January [emphasis mine]:

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has unveiled plans for the relocation of Liberia’s capital Monrovia to Zekepa where Grand Bassa, Bong and Nimba Counties converge.Delivering her sixth state of the nation address Monday, President Sirleaf said there was need to relocate the capital city due to the effects of climate change and expectation that rising sea levels could threaten coastal cities.She said plans were being concluded for a new capital city at Zekepa, but warned that it would take time to realize this dream.“The vision I have outlined is a collective vision but we should be under no illusions about how difficult this will be to achieve. There is a long road ahead of us, and that road will not be smooth. We will need great courage and determination to get to our destination,” the liberia leader said.Liberia’s 20th President, William R. Tolbert, Jr. who was assassinated during the  1980 military coup d’etat, planned to relocate the Liberian capital to Gbarnga, Bong County in central Liberia.Meanwhile, President Johnson Sirleaf has disclosed that Liberia is on the verge of becoming a petroleum exporting country in the coming decade.She however said that before the country exports a drop of oil, her government will put in place policies that will dictate how oil wealth will be used for development, stability and poverty reduction.She said if properly managed,  resources from oil could be invested to transform Liberia. Currently, oil exploration is taking place off the coast of Liberia.Monday’s state of the nation address to the national legislature was the president’s  last in her first term as president of Liberia.

Firstly, Zekepa, a place that hardly exists any more than Brasilia did in 1950s Brazil, Abuja did in 1970s Nigeria, or Yamoussoukro did before President Houphouët-Boingy's reign. The Google Earth images above pinpoint Zekepa (not to be confused with the mining site Yekepa) which does indeed rest in a small nook of south-central Nimba County near the border with Bong and Grand Bassa Counties, and as can be seen not particularly far, as the pepperbird flies, from northeasternmost Margibi County nor for that matter Monrovia itself. Yet despite its verdant locale, it is by the few accounts that exist a tiny hamlet, and no matter how geographically proximate it may be, there are no roads to the place, nor really any suitable modern transportation options of any sort nearby.

In placing this proposal in a global context of the the movement of capital cities, this bears resemblance to several, including Brasilia but also Dodoma in Tanzania but most especially Abuja, Nigeria's capital which was explicitly moved away colonial coastal city dominated by one group to more neutral territory near the geographic center of the country and at a intercultural crossroads.

Secondly, its rather remarkable that President Sirleaf's pronouncement listed climate change and sea erosion as the primary drivers behind moving away from the coast. Its on the one hand interesting to see any head of state refer to climate change openly, much less one from a less developed country with a less educated electorate. More curious than that is the idea that the country's current capital, and by far its largest city, with a metropolitan area home to about one in three Liberians, is in danger of being swallowed into the ocean, and therefore the government will vacate the sinking city, leaving the populace behind.

The final aspect of the report to note is the mention of the oil. This is hardly a nonsequitur. From the beginning of the Sirleaf-era talk on capital relocation, the undertaking has been consistently linked to the new revenue stream of oil, often explicitly proposing that a very worthwhile use of the additional funds would be to build a new capital city. This begins to bring to mind Abuja again, which despite the legitimate arguments for its construction in the name of national unity and a break with the past, was without question an orgy of corruption during its establishment, and since that time has served as a comparatively luxurious retreat, hidden away from the teeming cities and the majority of the country's population, where the country's rulers control its revenues and wield power to their own benefit, out of easy reach or sight of much of the population. Its easy to imagine that this has appeal among Liberia's public servants also.

Ripped from the Liberian Headlines: Single Female Refugees Tempt Married Liberian Men

The below is an excerpt from a May 31st, 2011 report in the Daily Observer Newspaper, by Marcus Malayea, entitled,"Gbarnga: Single Women Cause Stir among Couples." Special thanks to Aaron Leaf.

The attractiveness of scores of single Ivorian refugee women roaming the streets of Gbarnga is causing intense fear among Liberian wives.
Resident married women are becoming especially concerned about protecting their homes and maintaining their husbands...

As established by this newspaper’s investigation, most Liberian wives in Gbarnga have either consciously or unconsciously transformed themselves into personal guards for their husbands by making it an utmost duty to accompany them (husbands) everywhere, including night clubs...

Meanwhile, a rather ‘worried’ married woman by the presence of these Ivorian girls screamed that, “We will not sit down here and see these women destroy our homes. We will ensure that our husbands would not fall in the hands of these hungry refugee women.”
“If the situation demands that we employ the use of ‘juju’ to secure our marriages, we will. No woman is willing to be victimized in such manner,” another Liberian wife flared up.
According to the study some married men are threatening to divorce their wives because of what they (married men) referred to them as jealous women, while some have secured rental rooms for their refugee concubines.
“My brother, we have the right to move around and make things happen in different ways as husbands. The saying is ‘one cannot continue to eat one kind of soup over and again,” admitted a husband.

Liberia '77 Photos: Out of Town

Gbarnga, 1977

Building the Tucker Bridge, 1974.

Hippo at the Tubman Zoo in Totota, 1979.

Last of three posts in which I borrow some of the incredible vintage images from the growing Liberia '77 submission page-- although with what is up so far, I cannot wait to see what is added later.

These are some images from out of town: the top has been confirmed to be Gbarnga, showing it to be much less impressive than manicured, curb-cut Monrovia of the time.

The second image is from President Tolbert's personal zoo in Totota, Bong County. I presume this is one of Liberia's famous pygmy hippos. What's especially great about this image is that the beast looks completely un-caged, as if a hippo was just strolling up the street in a central part of town.

Last is a powerful image, seemingly straight out a construction progress report. Its been submitted to Liberia '77 with the label, Tucker Bridge under construction. I just don't know right now exactly what the Tucker Bridge is; presumably this is over the St. Paul River, connecting Virginia to Bushrod Island...but I'm not sure.