More Grease to Liberia's Elbow

The Analyst (Monrovia)

Barely four months after the partnership forum on Liberia yielded millions of U.S. dollars in debt relief, another partnership-style conference on Liberia is in the offing. This time it is organized by private African American businessmen. But what is the end of what seems to many a follow-up forum to rally to Liberia's cause?

The Analyst culled this dispatch from FPA.

Maurice Morton has big plans for Liberia. Later this year, the Detroit Lawyer and African American Business man will oversee a partnership-style conference hoping to create awareness and strengthen the common bond and heritage between the Liberian People and African American Community.

The Conference being planned for October 2007 will seek to encourage humanitarian as well as private sector investment. The conference is expected to close with the signing of partnership agreements between Liberians and African American Companies.

The conference is also expected to create sister city and county relationships between Detroit, Wayne County and Liberian Cities and Counties. "Detroit being the Largest African American Community in the U.S will be an ideal place to host an investment conference bringing together Liberians and African Americans," Morton says.

The Gideon Group, headed by Morton has presented a proposal to Ambassador Minor for the conference.

The conference - Liberia and African American Investment Conference - is a private sector conference design to encourage African American participation in the reconstruction and development of Liberia and help raise money for her Excellency Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's Educational Fund," Morton says.

Morton says his interest in Liberia is to help encourage African-America investors to explore business and investment opportunities.

"Quite recently we took a trip to Washington DC and met with Ambassador Minor and a group of us from Detroit and we talked about some opportunities and expectations and he asked if we were interested and the Detroit delegation gladly accepted," Morton says.

Morton's efforts come on the heels of a commitment made by American billionaire and Black Entertainment Television founder, Robert Johnson, at the Clinton Global Initiative Forum in New York, to raise US $30M for investment in Liberia.

Mr. Johnson, who visited Liberia this week, has announced a fulfillment of the commitment at the Liberia Partnership Forum this year when he announced that US$30M had been raised in conjunction with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the African Development Fund.

Recently Morton's group, The Gideon Group International shouldered the responsibility of renovating the Liberian consulate residence, the Colorado Property in Detroit, which has been laying in ruin for almost 17 years.

For the last seventeen years, the Colorado property like Liberia has been laying in ruin to the disgrace of the government and its people. The property located at 5303 Colorado is one of Liberia's premier properties in the United States which has been laying in ruin since the beginning of the civil war in Liberia.

"We happened to notice that some property owned by Liberia, the consulate on Colorado Avenue was in need of some repairs, we also formed a committee at that time to coordinate the embassy property on Colorado Avenue in a bid to resuscitate the building.

Morton says during a recent visit with Minor to discuss hosting of an investment conference in Detroit, he expressed his desire to create a platform that will enable African Americans the opportunity to explore business and investment opportunities in the new Liberia.

It was during this visit, led by businessman Emmanuel Toe, to start the renewal of Liberia's image by renovating the Colorado Property.

Ambassador Minor has formed a committee to be headed by Mr. Morton and co-chair by Emmanuel Toe and Monroe Weeks. The committee has been empowered by the ambassador to raise the necessary funds to finance the renovation of the consulate.

The committee is anticipating the renovation to be completed in time for 2007 July 26 Independence Day celebration.

The Liberian and African American Partnership Forum agenda will focus primarily on the following areas: 1) creating awareness of the common bond between Liberians and African Americans; 2) economic and social development issues; 3) priorities for reconstruction and development; and 4) humanitarian assistance.

This Forum is meant to provide African Americans the platform where they can explore business and investment opportunities in the new Liberia. In addition, the forum will afford African American the opportunity to reestablish social, cultural and economic ties with their brethren in Liberia and be a pivotal part of the reconstruction of Liberia.

"Following the last partnership forum in Washington, DC, we felt that it would be very important to have a similar conference in Detroit, the largest African-American community in the United States. So we felt that it is extremely important for African-Americans to invest in the needs and opportunities in Liberia," Morton says.

A big challenge for Morton and the Gideon group is creating awareness among African Americans about the potential for business opportunities in Liberia.

"First of all, a lot of people are not quite aware of what is taking place in Liberia in terms of development and reconstruction and investment opportunities. Number one, we want to create awareness.

Particularly to the African-American community to let them know that there are opportunities for investment in Liberia. Also, we want to talk about creating some kind of humanitarian assistance to see how they can raise some funds and help rebuild Liberia.

The bottom line is we want to get African-American businesses to go to Liberia and get involve in business." Morton and his group will be visiting Liberia in June of this year at which time he hopes to get some investors to go Liberia and see what is needed and see how they can help.

Morton most recently served as the Executive Director of Community and governmental Affairs for the Detroit Medical Center, which operates 10 hospitals. He also served as Associate General Counsel, where he reviews legal matters for the DMC.

Prior to joining the DMC in 2004, he served as Chief of Special Operations for the Wayne County Prosecutors Office, where he was involved in a number of initiatives, including:

Starting and Supervising the Wayne County Community Prosecution Program. Under this bold initiative, prosecutors are placed in the Detroit Police Department precincts and work directly with the police on investigating shootings, major crime, and gangs. This program has resulted in a reduction of 40% in all shooting incidents.

He has also served as Chief of the Wayne County Juvenile unit, which handles all cases involving juveniles. The unit has become much more community based and has started a number of programs to address truancy among students in the Detroit Public Schools and child delinquency.

Morton's initiative in the Detroit area as supervisor of the Drug House and Abandoned Properties units, where lawsuits are filed against owners of houses where drugs are sold, and houses that are left abandoned, has been successful.

The programs have resulted in over 2000 lawsuits filed, 1000 houses shut down and renovated, and over 300 houses possessed.

In 1999, Morton served as the lead Attorney on a number of high profile Homicide cases including the Easter Massacre case and the Lord and Taylor Case which involved the death of a customer by use of a choke hold by one of their security guards.

Prior to joining the Wayne County Prosecutors Office, Maurice Morton worked as a tax attorney for General Motors. He also worked as a special legal liaison to the Wayne County Commission.

Morton is a graduate of Cass Technical High School in Detroit, a graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A., and a graduate of Wayne State University Law School.

He is also a member of numerous organizations including: Board Member of Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, Board Member of the Downtown YMCA, Trustee of Think Detroit, member of 100 Black Men, life member of the NAACP, life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc., and Trustee and Chair of the Scholarship Foundation at the Historic Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church.

Morton hopes his initiative will foster greater interest in Liberia by African Americans.

"One thing we are really excited about is the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf which presents a whole different dichotomy for African-Americans and Liberians and we can form a synergy and try to create opportunities for black people if we Africans can pull ourselves together."

"We decided to hold it in the largest African-American community which is Detroit where we will try to encourage joint partnerships between African-Americans and Liberians in essence to help our country which is Liberia," says Morton.