SQUABBLES OVER ‘ELWA LAND’

The government of Liberia wants a portion of the land, some 14.5 acres of idle area for the construction of a complex to accommodate three government ministries. With some resentment from ELWA Management, both sides must step up to the plate and find common ground for the future development of Liberia

POST-WAR LIBERIA’S biggest threat has hit the doorsteps of the government. The issue of land which has been grossly ignored for quite sometime has taken center stage lately amid plans by the government of Liberia to use portion of idle land on the property of the ELWA to construct government ministries.

THE PLAN bearing good intentions has run into a state of complications with ELWA management apparently unwilling to budge.

THE GOVERNMENT, too appears unwilling to budge and has failed so far to find common ground with the ELWA management.

COMPLICATING MATTERS, the ELWA management is threatening to withdraw from the country if the government insists on claiming the land.

WE SEE the land war at ELWA as a possible litmus test for the rest of Liberia swarmed by numerous cases of squabbles over land.

TODAY, SCORES of Liberians who fled due to the civil war and left their properties behind have returned home devastated to find their lands in the hands of squatters and wrongful claimants.

IF THE GOVERNMENT is to make any headway in the ongoing wave of land squabbles across Liberia, it must seize the moment on its current predicament with the management of ELWA

IT IS NO secret that land wars threatens to disrupt the post-war peace Liberia now enjoys, any semblance of trouble spells danger. Thus, government must use all its resources to ensure that it exhausts every imaginable methods to calm the storm now brewing.

THE MANAGEMENT of ELWA must also move with caution and consider the future of Liberia. The land in question covers a stretch which has not been developed for years. Unless the management of ELWA has intentions to develop that stretch and help beatify the Robertsfield highway, it must see reason to find common ground.

IN ESSENCE, both sides need to rethink strategy on the negotiations table and bring this squabble to an end.

IT MATTERS that Liberia shows the world that it is making headways and people can agree to disagree. But the ELWA land issue does not send a good message to the outside world about Liberia’s post-war development.

THE SAGA must come to an end and it must reach climax now.