PATEL seeks seats at Legislature

By Lincoln G. Peters 

Patriotic Entrepreneurs of Liberia (PATEL) President, Mr. Dominic Nimely, is appealing to the national legislature to grant them two business seats in both the Senate and the House of Representatives to help properly scrutiny concession agreements that will come to the business community.

Speaking in an interview on Wednesday, December 29, 2021, with judicial reporters at his office in Monrovia, Mr. Nimely stressed a need for the business community to be given two seats in the legislature.

Seats in the legislature are elective positions and are contested during elections, but the PATEL president notes that when they are given such opportunity, it will enable them to resist business agreements that are not in the interest of the business community and Liberia at large.

“We are appealing for two seats at both houses, not by-election means but favor to help assess agreements. If our appeal is not given attention, we will protest for the seats because we are dying from the agreement and concessions passed by our lawmakers”, he laments.

According to him, if the business community was represented during the APM Terminals deal which states that the company should not receive taxes in Liberian dollars, this could have been rejected.

He explains that lawmakers are the biggest problem to economic growth due to their quest to prioritize personal interest over national interest.

“How can you give 100% right to APM Terminals and agree in an agreement that they should not accept Liberian dollars currency? That agreement and many others are things that we want to ratify because it’s killing us and we have no voice in our country. Our legislature our poor, therefore, they signed all kinds of mess that is killing the business community and called it agreement.”

Mr. Nimely however, urged Liberians to stop voting hungry people in power, adding these are some of the reasons the country is poor because they are not afraid to compromise their integrity for little or nothing.

The PATEL president, who is also on the Trade and Commerce committee of the Liberia Business Association, said they will make sure through necessary means that the plights of Liberian entrepreneurs receive attention because the country is gradually being run and controlled by foreigners.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/patel-fears-serious-economic-problems/ Editing by Jonathan Browne