Armed Robbery in Liberia: A Symptom of A Nation's Unenlightened Youth Mired in Poverty without any Hopes, Dreams and Opportunities

Written By: Vickie E. Ward
wardfund@hotmail.com

Doing business or running an organization or school in Monrovia, Liberia comes with a very high-priced security tag. In the early hours of the morning on February 4, 2001, an armed robber attacked two security guards hired by the school I founded a few years ago, the Ward Academy for Girls, at 96 Clay Street (between Clay Street and Johnson Streets near the Soneiwen area). The robber had already stolen some chairs from a nearby building and was hiding them on the grounds of our school building while he tried to enter our building from the garage area. He was approached by one of our guards and was asked to leave the property, but he refused to leave. The robber then took out a knife and stabbed the guard in his arm. The second security guard came to help, as well as another young man who lives in the neighborhood. The robber turned to run out of the yard and the other security guard on the scene ran after him, but fell over a large rock. While he was lying in pain on his stomach, the robber ran back toward the guard and stabbed him in his back. Both injured men were rushed to the Red Cross Center where they were told to seek treatment at JFK Hospital. By the time they arrived at the hospital, the guard who was stabbed in his back had to throw away his shirt because it was soaked in blood. The other injured person still could not move his hand when I spoke to him hours after the incident.

I am grateful that the young men are alive, but it was a nerve-wrecking ordeal for them. What is even worse is that the robber threatened to return with reinforcements to kill whoever is guarding the school property. We reported the incident to the police and were asked 2 questions before we were excused: What are the names of the victims? Can they identify the perpetrator? My guess is that nothing will come out of this. My fear is that the robber will return as promised to kill our guards.

The Ward Academy was established in 2008 to provide access to quality early education for the neighborhood children on Clay Street who were not in school. We offer a curriculum that focuses on science, math, technology and Christian Living. We want to help the community, but it is apparent that we need protection from armed robbers who are running the streets during the night and early morning hours trying to steal chairs, pots and pans or anything they can sell. We have a Security staff of three, and we have spent an inordinate amount of money on cutlasses, pepper spray, metal bars, metal doors, hospital bills, etc. But, there are still periodic attempted break-ins at our school. In fact, just a few months ago, a man attacked and beat up our janitor in the early evening because he was asked to stop dropping dirt on the school grounds. The janitor received wounds and lacerations to his head and other parts of his body. Instead of increasing our educational programs with our unrestricted donations, we find that a major budget line item is security.

Last week, I was appalled and saddened when I watched a series of videos captured by a team of camera men from VBS TV, entitled Vice Guide to Liberia. VBS TV correspondents are dispatched around the world to capture on video some of the most dangerous places in our world. It is note-worthy that Liberia is on their list. The videos show slums of Liberia, particularly West Point, a place where it seems the inhabitants, men, women and young people have been forgotten. There are no schools there for the young people according to the video, a boy is seen doing drugs with older men, and young Liberian girls and women speak openly about selling their bodies for less than a U.S. dollar. The young boy speaks with a huskiness in his voice, perhaps a long-term effect of smoking drugs, as he tells the reporters that he had raped a fat woman after pushing her to the ground.

But, what was even more alarming was a former fighter in the war (General Rambo) speaking about the possibility of another attack on the country. He told the VBS reporter that once the UNMIL soldiers leave the country, it would only take a few hours to attack, and he would want to be a part of the fighting again because he will always be a soldier. He mentioned that there are former fighters living in Lofa County near the border of Guinea who still have weapons and are willing and ready to fight again. This is scary and the government needs to address these problems before it is too late. Although I realize that the VBS program only captured a small segment of Liberia and there are many hard working and honest people that the program chose not to show, it was still disturbing to watch.

Our young people are wasting away and, for those who grew up in a violent culture during the war, this will remain a way of life until they are rehabilitated. The government needs to address the untold numbers of young men and women who have no jobs or skills to get a job. As a result of the lack of skills and jobs they resort to violence in order to survive. Perhaps the government needs to consider a program similar to America's Promise, founded by U.S. General Colin Powell in 1997. This type of program will help to:
" connect these young people to business people as role models through mentorships with caring adults
" help them develop basic academic skills and provide job training
" create safe places (Community Centers, YMCA, Youth Soccer and Basketball Leagues, etc) for them to develop leadership and other skills so they are not running the streets and becoming involved in violent criminal acts
" provide opportunities for them to help the community through paid volunteer work

The government of Liberia and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are to be commended for all they are doing to better the country since she took office. However, it seems the youths are being placed on the back burner or they are being ignored and forgotten as if their problems will go away on their own. The reality is that their problems are our problems, and like any other problem, they will not go away, they will only get worse if we don't face them and do something about it.

Sometimes it seems as if development projects such as buildings, roads and other infrastructure have taken on a more important role in the government. I just wonder sometimes what would happen if the percentage of GNP allocation for education (vocational and traditional) in Liberia was much higher than it is currently. The state of education of a country is always a good indicator of how serious a society is about its national development. Yet, it seems like this is the same area that receives little attention.

The United Nations Development Program says that in order to help bring about democracy, thereby stability and economic development, there is a need for qualified and enlightened citizens. If our young people are not being enlightened and they are being left by the wayside, they will continue to be easily prone to a life of crime and manipulation by warlords and rogue politicians. With little or no knowledge about their world and without an education, which can help them to participate in critical analysis, they will once again become followers of rebels and warlords running amok without a true cause. They will not learn the value of an education or the value of the infrastructure being put into place and consequently, will not fight to save it. What good then are those roads and nice buildings when we are not preparing the minds and hearts of a significant portion of our young people to assume the roles of productive, caring citizens?

We can't continue to incarcerate young men when they have not been given the access to any resources, services and opportunities that are vital to positive and full participation in community life. I don't know that Liberia has enough prison cells for that. The public safety of citizens should be a high priority for the government, and key to that safety is transitioning these "grown-up" (gronnah) child soldiers and other juvenile offenders into communities through a process of integration or reintegration. To turn a blind eye to this problem or keep it on slow cook sends a message that we do not care about the future of the country or the spill over that will unavoidably be the result of the slow-cooker.

We have some good examples of what rehabilitation and reintegration can do. We must draw something from these success stories. One success story quickly comes to my mind: The story of Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier who was conscripted into the Sierra Leone army to fight against the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). His life was interrupted by a brutal civil war. His parents and siblings were killed and he was recruited to fight. He was only thirteen, and he fought for almost three years high on drugs and numb from the sight of dead bodies, many he left by the way with his own gun. Luckily, he was rescued by UNICEF and placed in a rehabilitation home. He later traveled to the United States and graduated from Oberlin College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Today, Ishmael is an author of the book, A Long Way Home. He also won Oberlin's Dainne Vruels Fiction Prize for his story, At Noon.

There are many stories of young people like Ishmael still brewing and floating around Liberia. The questions we have to ask ourselves are: How will those stories end? How many young people will become armed robbers? How many young people will end up stabbed or dead because of violent crimes? Do we have it in our power to intervene and change the outcome of many marginalized young Liberian men and women? Are we willing to put these young Liberians first? The answers to these questions will undoubtedly help to determine the future of our nation.

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