By Aaron C. Sleh
Problem Analysis
Liberia has a large population of “idle” youth who (as a collective) have been identified as a potential threat to national stability and security, and an under-utilized force for national development. This segment of the population is largely characterized by a) little or no livelihood and life skills, b) high indiscipline, c) low sense of patriotism and citizenship.
At the same time, Liberia has huge deficits in social service delivery (e.g. housing, community roads and bridges, water and sanitation, public infrastructure repair, disaster preparedness and response, etc). Public disaffection with these deficits is rife and a further threat to national stability. Yet substantial gains could be made in reducing these deficits through small but disciplined efforts by many people with the right skills.
Moreover, Liberia has a relatively small army that has no reserves that could be quickly mobilized. This is a potential vulnerability that could limit the army’s ability to respond to a large scale disaster, generalized security breakdown or other similar events.
PROPOSED RESPONSE
In order to address, through a single initiative, the problems presented in the preceding section, a national program of voluntary military service is hereby proposed. The program could begin as a pilot initiative. Based on lessons from the pilot, the possibility of a permanent program could be explored through dialogue among policymakers, the youth community and civil society more broadly.
Candidates interested in the voluntary military service program would firstly be screened and publicly vetted based on criteria established by the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL). The successful candidates would then be recruited to receive basic military training as well as vocational skills training.
The AFL would, of course, provide the basic military training directly. The vocational skill training could be imparted through partnership with institutions like LOIC and MVTC. The training period for candidates would be followed by their induction into the military service program and immediate deployment. Each cohort of participants would serve an 18-month period of military service: six months of initial training and one year of active service.
During the initial six months, participants would receive basic military training; training on human and gender rights and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship; life skills training (personal discipline, cooperation, client orientation, etc); and livelihood training in a trade area (e.g. masonry, carpentry, small-scale irrigation, plumbing, well/latrine construction, etc).
Following their training, participants would be deployed as AFL soldiers under normal AFL command to render (or support the provision of) social services in selected communities around Liberia as part of efforts to promote the national development agenda. Their services could include repair and rehabilitation of schools, clinics and public buildings; construction/rehabilitation of log bridges, latrines, wells, housing for rural teachers/nurses, small-scale irrigation structures; providing support at rural health centers (registration, crowd management, monitoring, etc) and rural schools (teaching, coaching in physical education and sports, etc), among others.
BENEFITS TO YOUTH AND SOCIETY
The military service program would offer the chance to mold the youth into a more desirable pool of citizens. It would instill discipline and a strong sense of citizenship, patriotism and community service in the hearts and minds of the participants and equip them with life and livelihood skills transferrable to civilian life. Overtime, a critical mass of youth could emerge that are skilled, engaged, disciplined, patriotic and oriented to actively contribute to community and national development. This would gradually transform the youth from a threat to national stability to an engine of national development.
The graduation process from the military service program could include training in entrepreneurship and assistance with civilian job search. For many youth, this would create a new and beneficial pathway: from idleness to military service to employment.
The work of the military service participants would give direct benefits to local communities, both rural and urban. Some could see a broken log bridge repaired or a new bridge erected where there was none, thereby acquiring better road access. Others could see a swamp site properly irrigated to facilitate multiple harvests each year from rice cultivation. Still others could see school houses, clinics, markets buildings and palava huts rehabilitated or built from scratch. There are just so many possibilities in terms of how the program could help address the development and social service gaps in communities.
BENEFITS TO AFL
The military service program would endear the AFL to the people and further deepen the AFL’s credibility and legitimacy. It would also provide opportunities to increase the AFL’s institutional knowledge of local conditions, events and relations in various parts of the country, as well as increase the AFL’s pool of actual and potential human intelligence assets across the country. All these factors would combine to strengthen the AFL’s morale and overall response capability.
Graduates of the military service program could move on to become members of an army reserve corps that would give the AFL an economical and speedy means of achieving force augmentation in case of national emergency. The reserve corps members could receive regular refresher training (e.g. one week each year) and perhaps perform occasional weekend service (e.g. joint anti-crime patrol with the police, border patrol with Bureau of Immigration, etc).
The presence of a large pool of citizens with military training and discipline (who also have knowledge of the AFL’s operating procedures and are available for call up whenever national needs dictate) would eliminate the need to maintain a large army at great public expense and allow the national military leadership to focus on the development of a small, efficient and highly professional army with a high proportion of technicians and other experts. This could provide the means to lower the proportion of ordinary foot soldiers permanently maintained by the AFL without compromising national military response capacity. The resulting savings could be directed to the technological and technical development of the AFL.
RISK FACTOR
There is a risk that some participants could use the military training acquired through the program to engage in criminal activities. However, this risk may not be so high. Already, there is a high population of former combatants who acquired military skills through their affiliation with various fighting forces during the long years of war in Liberia.
Some of these former combatants have resorted to criminality in recent years but many have not. For those who have chosen crime, the national security institutions have managed to contain them so far. And potentially, the graduates and participants of the military service program could become a countervailing force to wayward former combatants.
The reason is simple: in addition to military skills, it is expected that by the end of their deployment, military service participants would have acquired appropriate discipline, respect for human rights and the rule of law, a strong sense of community service, and livelihood skills. These factors drastically reduce the likelihood of future involvement in crime.
CONCLUSION
A voluntary military service program in Liberia is a viable means to address the triple problems of idle youth, widespread development deficits, and a small army without reserves. It could provide an effective platform for citizenship formation, whereby young people in particular could be socialized into becoming more active and patriotic citizens who contribute to community and national development. It could provide a platform to give livelihood skills and instill discipline and a strong work ethic in Liberian young people. Indeed, a voluntary military service program could be a pathway to youth empowerment in Liberia.
