2 weeks Ago By Contributing Writer
Many people and institutions continue to operate on the falsehood that Economic Growth brings Economic Development automatically. This position includes local and global State -oriented entities, comprising the powers that be. This Commentary is another attempt at telling the Truth yet once again.
By Togba-Nah Tipoteh, Former Chairperson, African Group of Governors World Bank and International Monetary Fund and contributing writer Since the 1950s when reliable data became available, we began to know the Truth that Economic Growth does not bring Economic Development automatically (Robert Clower, et al, Growth Without Development, Northwestern University Press, 1966). In the case of Liberia, during the 1950s, less than one per cent of the people of Liberia had access to more than sixty per cent of the income and wealth of Liberia when Liberia accounted for the second highest real economic growth rate per capita in the world. The above information tells the Truth by telling us that Economic Growth does not bring Economic Development, the sustained improvement in the living conditions of the people sustainably, automatically.
Take a look at the data on the National Legislature of Liberia. The National Legislators of Liberia have access to LD200,000 a day and their foreign business partners have access to LD300,000,000 a day while the suffering Liberian people languish in poverty having access to not more than less LD300 a day (The Annual Reports of the CBL, LISGIS, MFDP, MCI, WB, IMF, ADB and UNDP). Through the continuous awareness raising by the people who love Liberia, the National Legislators of Liberia who ran to be re-elected from the 52nd, 53rd and 54th National Legislatures of Liberia were not re-elected, as seen from the data on the October 10, 2023.
Election. This trend is highly likely to continue because the awareness raising is continuing. Some persons with good records were not re-elected because the awareness raising did not cover them.
But we must remember that the awareness raising is a process rather than an event. This explains also why some persons with good records were not elected. The awareness raising also explains the World Record of 76.
86 per cent of the voting age population of Liberia who voted on October 10, 2023. This is the same Liberia that has the Guinness Book of World Records for the most fraudulent election when the National Election Commission (NEC) of Liberia said that there were 15,000 registered voters in Liberia but 243,000 persons voted in the 1927 Election of Liberia. The World Record voting of 2023 was possible because of the transformation of NEC from an unfair prevailing electoral entity to an enduring fair electoral entity.
This transformation is the only and best way to elect persons with good records to the National Legislature in Liberia and in any other country..
