BEST TV- Liberia

05/12/2025

Letter to President Joseph Boakai – November 18, 2025 made Firestone Rubber Plantation 99 Years in Liberia. What do we have to show for this?

Martin K. N. Kollie
Liberian Activist in Exile
Spui 70, The Hague, Netherlands
Western Europe

December 5, 2025

H.E. Joseph Nyumah Boakai
President
Republic of Liberia 🇱🇷

Ref: November 18, 2025 made Firestone Rubber Plantation 99 Years in Liberia. Can they now start to manufacture rubber tyres, buckets, slippers, bands, gloves, tubes, PPEs, etc. in 2026?

Dear Mr. President,

Technically, Firestone Rubber Plantation will begin a new journey as of 2026 after operating in Liberia for exactly 99 years (1926-2025).

Timeline:

1) First Contract: November 18, 1926 – November 18, 2025 (99 years).

2) Second Contract: Extended in 2008 for 26 more years (December 31, 2015 to December 31, 2041). Add 99 + 26 = 125. We’ve given Firestone 125 years just like that. This covers almost 5 generations of Liberians. Imagine 🤔.

3) Firestone bought 1 million acres of land in Margibi County, paying only 6 cents USD per acre. So, they paid just US$60,000 for 1 million acres even though they have generated hundreds of billions of USD from exporting natural rubber since 1926.

Today in Liberia, US$60,000 can only buy 15 acres or 60 lots of land assuming if an acre is sold for as low as US$4,000 or a lot is sold for at least US$1,000. Assuming they are to paid for 1 million acres now like they did in 1926, Firestone would pay at least 400 million USD to Liberia. But we allowed them to pay just $60K (0.06 per acre). And $60,000 is just 0.015% of 400 million USD.

Mr. President, is 60K for 1 million acres not a land grab? Land Grab in Realtime. Even though they bought 1 million acres, they have only been able to put 118,990 acres into use after 99 years, constituting 185 square miles. So, this means that 881,010 acres are yet to be put into use. Mr. President, the need for land reform across Liberia cannot be overemphasized.

Mr. President, what do we have to show for 99 years, almost a century now? Perhaps, almost every Liberian born between 1926 and 1936 is dead. After 99 years, our people on these plantations still live in huts and shacks. No safe drinking water. No electricity. No quality education. No better healthcare. No improved housing. No food security. No social welfare. Bad roads. Etc. Harbel, where Firestone largely operates, is still underdeveloped and poverty-stricken.

Mr. President, it is time to pragmatically engage Firestone – The largest contiguous natural rubber plantation worldwide. They need to pay their fair share like other countries are demanding. In 2026, they will begin a new journey after 99 years of rubber production and export (1926-2025). It’s time to shift towards manufacturing (value addition or from raw materials to finished products). This is where true economic growth and development lies. Our natural rubber is not only good enough to be exported. It is also good enough to be manufactured.

Recommendation:

Our recommendation to you, Mr. President, since January 2024 when we used to regularly talk, still stands: Thoroughly review and renegotiate ALL concession agreements, shift towards profit sharing, compel all companies to pay for long-term compliance breaches/violations, review 'unjustified' tax holidays and credits which is allowing us to lose over US$300 million every year, amend the revenue code, and impartially enforce all MDAs, EITI regulations, and MM and Natural Resource Laws to ensure full compliance and public interest. It is time t remodel and restructure our economy. An export-manufacturing-based economy is the way forward. Anything less than this, Liberia will continue to remain an aid-dependent, food insecure, debt-ridden, and poverty-stricken nation. It’s time to rethink public governance and reimagine public service. The Liberian people are suffering, poor, and unemployed.

November 18, 2025 made Firestone Rubber Plantation 99 Years in Liberia. What do we have to show for this, Mr. President?

The suffering in Liberia is artificial. It is man-made.

Have a blessed weekend, Mr. President.

About The Author: Martin K. N. Kollie is a Liberian in exile and a former student leader in Liberia.

05/12/2025

A single mother with 3 children who is a staunch supporter of JNB said she will take DEC 6 to swear him for lying to her.

05/12/2025

04/12/2025

Atty. Abraham Godsent Wheon writes:

I know you fear that my patriotic work undermined your selfish appetite for salaries that ends 2029. .

I understand the reasons behind this whole fight and the anger directed toward me, Abraham Godsent Wheon. Your issue is not really about what I say about JNB because deep down, you know the things I say about him and his governance styles are based on facts. Many of you have said the same things in the past, but now that he has satisfied you or rescued you from the very poverty he once experienced, you pretend to be angry with me today.

Your anger and ranting are rooted in the fear of potentially losing salaries and jobs in 2029 because my voice against JNB and your misrule may contribute to Liberians deciding otherwise at the polls.
The difference between you and me is this: I am not in this for myself, my family, Former President George Weah or the CDC as many of you assume. I have consistently made painstaking decisions to resist every temptation to accept a government job, even though it is not a crime to do so.
In 2014, when I transitioned from sports commentary to political commentary through political endorsements, the same UP supporters accused me of seeking a government job. I understood their assumptions because Truth FM holds the record as the only post-war media entity that produced the highest number of public officials from the media environment when people like Ambrose Nmah, Patrick Honah, Christopher Sirlee, Smith Toby, So, among others, all received presidential appointments. And for this, I applauded the UP government.

In 2017, these same UP supporters attacked me when I spearheaded the Liberty Party media campaign and later supported the CDC for regime change. Patrick Honah, then Deputy Director at LBS, even claimed on local radio that I was only doing so to take his job. He was wrong. During the entire six years of CDC’s leadership, I resisted every temptation to accept an appointment, including a Deputy Director General role at LBS offered when Jallah Grayfield and I were recommended by Nathaniel McGill and Ledgerhood Rennie. Jallah accepted; I declined and chose to remain in the private sector, leaving Truth FM in 2021 and joining Freedom FM.

In fact, the current LBS Director General, Eugene Fagon then Deputy Minister of Information, once joked, “You are the first Bassa man to leave a $4,000 job for a $500 job.”
Yet, through all these choices, God blessed me. Even without a government job, my modest salaries and occasional support enabled me to build my dream house, earn three degrees, own and drive my low level luxurious vehicles, and ensure my family is well.

The puzzling part of your behavior is glaring: you insult President Weah a man I love and support wholeheartedly; and say all sorts of degrading things about him. Yet, I do not silence you or attack you. But when I speak the truth about JNB, you abuse me and sever relationships.

As I have said, you do not truly love JNB. You know he is not fit. You know I am speaking facts that could help redeem this country. But selfishness and greed have blinded you to these truths that could save Liberia.

Finally, I am not in this for myself, my family, Weah, or the CDC. I am in this for Liberia. As long as this country exists, as long as I am alive, and as long as JNB remains in power, I will not stop speaking out. Your unpatriotic desire to place personal interest above national interest will continue to be resisted.
So help me God.

“We are getting there.”

03/12/2025

Kweku the traveler gone again with 100,000 usd on his credit card.