Monrovia, a city of nearly two million people, lights up the night sky. In any other city, this would hardly be a point worth noting. The funny thing in Liberia, however: there isn’t a single power plant in operation. They are still being rebuilt. Nor is there a power line linking Liberia to the nations next door. Every light, computer, fan and fridge is powered by thousands and thousands of small diesel generators. The air literally hums.
I say two million residents, but this number is a fiction. At best a rough guess. A census hasn’t been run in 24 years, and so the number of people in the country is literally anyone’s guess. The first census since 1984 started last Friday, and they had to close the University since so many of the students were employed as enumerators. Those that weren’t enumerating hurried to their homes outside the capital; by being counted at home rather than the city, they had a chance at boosting federal transfers from Monrovia to the rest of the country.
But who decides to launch a national census, in a staunchly Christian country, on Good Friday? Turns out that two years ago, when setting the date, no one looked at a calendar to see when Easter fell. Oops.
Things are definitely back on track in the country, however. A statistics agency that essentially did not exist two years ago is mounting a survey of close to a million households this week. The plane into Monrovia was full of educated middle class Liberians returning to their home country to start businesses and join the public service after years in exile. Under the Sirleaf government (Africa’s first female head of state, and a former UN and World Bank technocrat) the mood is buoyant. Imagine walking into Berkeley, California a month after Obama’s inauguration and you get the general idea.
And construction is booming. Walking about Monrovia, I’m overwhelmed by the construction activity. Scaffolding everywhere. Half-built hotels that are nonetheless filled to capacity with guests. Petrol refineries and power plants reconstructed from rubble. Roads to somewhere. Donors usually abhor infrastructure programs, but the World Bank office is so completely consumed by roads and power that they refer to the head of economic and social development as “the guy not working on infrastructureâ€.
But a troubling thought occurs: why don’t I see the same bustle in northern Uganda? It covers about the same territory, with about the same number of people. But the only new structures are the four-bedroom houses being built for humanitarian workers. Road reconstruction is little more than a twinkle in the government’s eye. Not only is there no power plant, there is a single power line connecting all of the north to the power generation in the south. Twice a week a pole falls, and twice a week the power is out for a fifth of Uganda.
What accounts for the difference? A few unsatisfying explanations come to mind.
One, the Acholi in northern Uganda do not have a large educated elite that have been living and earning money in the U.S for 20 years.
Two, less time has passed, and in fact a peace agreement has yet to be signed in Uganda. Should I simply bide my time?
Neither explanation feels right. In fact, Uganda should have plenty of advantages: a developed financial sector and relatively easy credit, ability to borrow abroad, a strong and capable civil service. I needn’t stop there.
The big difference? Northern Uganda is not sovereign. They rely on a central government to make transfers—a central government that they (for the most part) did not help elect. They compete for federal funds and attention with wealthier, more educated, more influential and better-connected regions. The result is self-evident.
One can see how independence has its privileges.
Please note, this post is not a plea for the separation of northern Uganda. It is, however, a suggestion that the central government (and the donors that fund half its budget) ought to take a hard look at the apparent double-standard. To do otherwise may only fuel the secessionist aspirations of more than one neglected periphery in more than one post-conflict nation.
I wonder, though, how much of this infrastructure is being developed outside of Monrovia. If you went to Lofa, would the development of infrastructure be a whole lot different than in Northern Uganda?
There have been some sporadic calls for independence for northern Uganda of late, not the least from Gulu district chairperson Norbert Mao. As far as I can recall, no one from the north had called for secession in previous decades, despite the longstanding underdevelopment of the north. Mao linked up any secession to a potential secession of southern Sudan – which in fact may prove another point of comparison with northern Uganda and Liberia.
Love the updates from the field. Thanks and keep it up!