(English) March 4th, 2013
A three-day regional consultation on the Draft Land Rights Policy statement came to an end recently in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County.
The three-days regional consultation on Land Rights Policy which began at the Zwedru Multilateral High School which was climaxed at the Zwedru City Hall brought together Superintendents of Sinoe and Grand Gedeh Counties. The consultation was also attended by elders, chiefs, youth, and women from various districts and chiefdoms.
The regional workshop on the Draft Land Rights Policy statement was organized and conducted by the Land Commission in partnership with USAID and LPIS, among others.
Addressing the issue of land throughout the country, the head of the Land Commission, Dr. Cecil T.O. Brandy, said for the first time in the history of Liberia, they are developing a land policy after almost 170 years.
Dr. Brandy said the Land Policy which is being developed recognizes the rights of the indigenous people not for them to use the land as it was done in the past, but for them to also own land.
He therefore called on a cross section of the people who attended the three days consultation on the draft land rights policy statement to speak out for the improvement of the policy, document that is placed before them for their understanding.
In another development, Dr. Brandy said it is their hope as authority of the Land Commission to have a national conference that will ratify the land policy in April 2013 with delegates from every county at the Centennial Pavilion in Monrovia.
According to the Land Commission Boss, the three days consultation on land matters is for them to look forward to put in place policy that will ensure that all Liberian people have the right to land and to make them feel as part of the country.
Also giving a brief overview of the policy, Madam Estella Liberty, Commissioner of land Policy and program at the Land Commission said the Commission is responsible to advocate and formulate policy that will be in the interest of everybody.
Based upon that in 2010, the Land Commission began to request other experts from all over the world to come to Liberia to carry out some studies that will help the commission to look at the Liberian laws so as to deal with the law. Commissioner Liberty said based upon the survey done it was discovered that the 1943 Public Land Law was used to become part of the Land Policy.
Besides, she said other studies were done particularly with respect to women land rights with several issues raised. When those issues were identified, the Chairman of the Land Commission quickly recommended to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf a land policy taskforce.
The member of the land rights policy taskforce included the Land Commission as its chair, the Ministry of Lands Mines and Energy, Center for National Documents and Records Agency, National Investment Commission, Internal Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Forestry Development Authority, Public Works, Planning Ministry Finance ministry, Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services amongst others.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Superintendent Counsel Hon. J. Milton Teahjay on behalf of the various county Superintendents described the Regional Consultation on the draft land rigjhts policy statement workshop as historic than anything that he would reflect on in the past and hope that those who attended were there with awareness and the seriousness that the consultation would require.
Superintendent Teahjay said Dr. Brandy and team at the Land Commission have been working over the past years for this day to come to fruition.
As we speak, Superintendent Teahjay pointed out that they are tied up with confusion over land in every county, district, chiefdom, and this is now the opportunity for those who attended the consultation to take their own time to properly view the document step by step to make sure that what comes out of the meeting will be that which the people of Liberia will live by on land issue.
«One of the reasons many counties will have problem to be like Grand Gedeh in terms of development is because the people of Grand Gedeh have flexible land policy,» Superintendent Teahjay said.
He said that is not the case in Sinoe, Maryland, Bassa and other counties. In Sinoe, Teahjay said, in other for someone who wants a piece of land to buy, that person will have to call those who get the land in Germany, France, the United States and in Belgium and that person will end up forgetting about the land.
He is said that as a very serious matter that needs to be addressed at such a consultation by the land Commission. He therefore appealed to all participants at the Consultation and various county superintendents to look at every line in the land policy document so that when they leave from the policy meeting, nobody will sit in Germany to say he or she owns land in Sinoe and other counties.
He later expressed thanks to Dr. Brandy and his Commission for such a laudable forum because the issue of land is killing our country. In most cases, Hon. Teahjay said companies come to an area to help develop the land and also create job but the very people who own the land can say to the companies don’t touch our land and because of that the companies go away.
Therefore, he said time in, time out, those who own the land that cannot be used by any company remained in abject poverty when the very land they are sitting on could be developed to improve their condition.
Meanwhile, the participants of the land rights policy workshop expressed gratitude to the authority of the Land Commission for such consultation on land matters. They therefore promised to uphold their understanding about the land policy right in the various counties, districts and chiefdoms.
Source: All Africa
Deja una respuesta