Africa-Press – Liberia. From time to time, amendments or outright repeals of legal instruments (or laws, as we call them), commensurate with changes in the social, political and economic dynamics of the domain to which they apply, can be expected. But how strategically are we thinking about the change we seek?
At the legislative level, change is more consequential than we’d like to imagine. On one extreme, we have seen how the undoing of certain tenured positions through legislative actions, for example, called into question the independence of the Legislature and the Judiciary branches from the Executive branch of government. The issue also led us down a rabbit hole that now spans two presidential administrations. With each new take concerning the legality of undoing tenured positions, depending on the prevailing political circumstances at the time, the Supreme Court has something different to say. And on we go.
On the other extreme, some members of the House of Representatives have introduced a bill to allow each of the 72 electoral districts across the country to have their own district flag. But to what avail?
District demarcations change with time, based on national population census results, as a way to evenly distribute political representation across the country. The national Threshold Bill dictates how many citizens per district and informs on whether district boundaries should be expanded with population growth, or new districts should be created.
Counties, however, were divided primarily along tribal territorial lines with the Bassa tribe being an anomaly, spanning three contiguous coastal counties — Margibi, Grand Bassa and Rivercess counties. Essentially, all counties have a distinct sense of cultural and heritage identity worth denoting by flags. Also, boundaries of counties are not as fluid as district boundaries — meaning, they do not change according to population. So why district flags? And are they really a priority for Liberia now, given the array of more pressing national priorities?
Speaking of cultural heritage, two bills were recently sent to the Legislature by President Joseph N. Boakai for enactment into law. One is a draft law to repeal “CHAPTER 25, MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS, TITLE 12 EXECUTIVE LAW OF 1972, LIBERIAN CODES OF LAW REVISED, TO ESTABLISH IN ITS STEAD, A NEW CHAPTER 25 TO BE KNOWN AS THE MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT”. The other bill is “AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 30, PUBLIC AUTHORITIES LAW, LIBERIAN CODES OF LAW REVISED TO ESTABLISH THE LIBERIA NATIONAL TOURISM AUTHORITY ACT (LNTA)”.
We find it noteworthy that the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which has long operated in the gray area of the “cultural affairs”, is poised to become more clearly defined so that the enforcement of the “Local Government Act” would establish “governance and decentralization” as the new identity and function of the prescribed ministry.
However, the other law that was introduced, which seeks to separate “Tourism” from the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism, might be selling itself short.
Tourism is not an industry in and of itself, but “the commercial organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest,” says the Oxford Dictionary. Liberia as a place of interest is a compendium of human, location and intellectual resources deployed to develop and operate cultural, heritage, hospitality, and intellectual property assets, among others, which are then marketed to audiences internally and externally.
Liberia’s rich cultural and historical heritage — collectively a major pillar of tourism — are nothing without the people who form the narrative as creators, cast or characters. So why extract Tourism and not do the same with Cultural Affairs?
After all, when the tourists come, what will they take back home with them? We dare say that more valuable than our country cloth and other Made-in-Liberia products is the nation’s rich narrative and cultural heritage experiences that can generate exponentially more net-positive notoriety and revenue than our entire coastline.
To transform our beaches, waterfalls, mountains, lakes and rivers, as well as fauna and flora, from a state of degradation into assets of national pride and economic prosperity, this legislative exercise should consider emancipating both Cultural Affairs and Tourism — not one or the other — into a single autonomous agency.
This legislative exercise is too consequential to handle in piecemeal, for we have long witnessed foreigners capture signature Liberian characteristics — our intellectual property — and run with it. Need examples? The famous Liberica coffee, which is native to Liberia, from whom the coffee bean begets its name, is now grown in export quantity in Malaysia. Closer to home — and perhaps right under our noses — is the Liberian Jollof Rice, which other West African nations have branded as their own, though it is a Liberian creation. Now, global cooking brands are queueing up to spend millions of dollars to sponsor Jollof Rice competitions in Nigeria, Ghana, and the United States.
For those who think these ideas are far-fetched, know that it was Nigeria’s intellectual property valuation from its music and film industries that elevated it to the coveted rank of “first place” as Africa’s largest economy in 2013 — ahead of South Africa and Egypt. Since then Nigeria has remained among the top five economies in Africa, having achieved the #1 rank again in 2022.
Also, when the French realized that the term “Champagne” was being used generically by non-French producers of sparkling wine, the country decided to defend Champagne against imitations and misuse by external producers who sought to take advantage of the prestigious reputation of the original, authentic product. Thus, the country took measures to exclusively reserve the use of the term “Champagne” for sparkling wines that come from and are made using traditional methods from grapes grown and vinified in the Champagne region of France.
These ideas, therefore, are not new and go far beyond tourism branding and infrastructure. While we source investment and audiences for tourism, let us invest in the education of Liberian citizens and improve our national mindset, as well as develop an intellectual property regime that has a direct correlation to Liberia’s GDP.
As we prepare to lay the foundation for the rebranding of our national identity, we implore the legislature to engage all stakeholders — including those with expertise in intellectual property and education — to actively participate in the crafting of this legislation.
Source: Liberian Observer
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