BFF Embarks on Mass Awareness On ECOWAS Protocols in Rural Liberia

18 April 2011

Law enforcement agents assigned at the Guinean borders with Liberia have lauded the Better Future Foundation (BFF) for its ongoing initiatives aimed at creating massive public awareness on the importance of the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of People and Goods in the sub-region.

Speaking on behalf of Guinean border security personnel over the weekend when he participated in a daylong seminar for cross-border women traders and law enforcement agents in Ganta, Nimba County, Major Duo Francis said, the seminar provided the opportunity for them, as law enforcement border agents, not only to have a clear understanding of the compendium of ECOWAS protocols, conventions, and decisions relating to the Free Movement of Persons and Goods.

The Protocol seeks to “promote co-operation and development in all fields of economic activity particularly in the fields of industry, transport, telecommunications, energy, agriculture, natural resources, commerce, monetary and financial questions and in social and cultural matters for the purpose of raising the standard of living of its peoples, of increasing and maintaining economic stability, of fostering closer relations among its members and of contributing to the progress and development of the African continent.”

The Guinean law enforcement official also described the BFF initiative as a step to enhance understanding and cooperation between and among cross border women traders and border security personnel in Liberia, Guinea and other countries in the ECOWAS region.

Mr. Francis who received documents at the seminar concerning ECOWAS protocols, conventions and decisions relating to the Free Movement of Persons and Goods assured that the operation of Guinean border security personnel would be guided by provisions of the protocol.

He further assured that a copy of the ECOWAS Free Movement Protocol would be offered to Radio Zaliquellie Fm in Guinea for more awareness among the local residents owing to the importance of the document.

For his part, the commander of border security in Ganta, Nimba County, Col. George Pajibo, also lauded BFF and its partners for the seminar.

Col. Pajibo who is also deputy commander for the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) described the seminar as resourceful and expressed the hope that other regional border security personnel would benefit from similar education and public awareness campaign on the ECWAS Protocols.

He too assured that the operation of Liberian border security personnel would be guided by the ECOWAS treaty and other professional security ethics.

BFF president, Rev. Augustine Arkoi, who served as one of the facilitators of the seminar, later distributed, as part of the awareness campaign, copies of the ECOWAS Treaty and its related Convention and Protocols on free Movement to other law enforcement personnel and residents of Jaky border in Guinea.

Similar seminars had also been conducted by BFF in other parts of the country with the participation of predominately cross-border women traders and law enforcement agents.

Among the beneficiary counties of the ECOWAS and EU sponsored Free Movement seminar are Maryland, Nimba, Grand Gedeh, Bong, Grand Cape Mount and Bomi Counties.

Speaking recently in Nimba County, Ganta city mayor, Dorr Cooper, described the seminar as a “melting point for awareness of the ECOWAS Protocol among cross-border women traders and border law enforcement officers.

At the same time, cross border women traders, through their chairlady, Magret Carson, lauded ECOWAS for the far sightedness in drafting the protocol on Free Movement of People, Goods and Services. She, however, underscored the need for respect for, and adherence to the provisions of the Protocol if the goals and aspirations for which it was drafted by ECOWAS member countries are to be achieved.

She recounted barriers faced by cross border women traders in the region including harassment, extortion and exploitation among others in the hands of some border security personnel in the region and called for measures to address these problems.

Meanwhile, cross-border women traders of Nimba County have called on the Government of Liberia (GOL) to allow them pay their taxes to the central government in local currency as opposed to payment in United States dollars.

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