Monrovia – Former Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT) Minister, Reverend J. Emmanuel Z. Bowier, has got some pieces of advice for President Mr. George Manneh Weah, who took the oath of office on Monday, January 22, becoming Liberia’s 24th President.
Report by Mae Azango – [email protected]
Rev. Bowier said if Mr. Weah is to succeed as President of Liberia, he must follow the pieces of advices he (Bowier) has got to offer.
Rev. Bowier’s profound knowledge of government spans his over 26 years (since 1976) of working in the inner circles of past Liberian administrations, including that of former Presidents William R. Tolbert and Samuel Kanyon Doe.
“The people have already expressed their confidence in President Weah. All he needs to do now is to urgently address one of the most important problems affecting them — mass public transportation.
Why should we have of the National Transport Authority (NTA) buses parked idle, while the majority of our people walk long distances to work, school and home late night hours after work?”
In his first few days in office, he should consider putting together a committee with a mandate to urgently repair NTA buses in 90 days. This would remove the public frustration linked to the lack of buses for inter-county transport by putting them back on the road.
By the people shouting ‘George Weah, George Weah,’ is not all to it; those few days would be the time for the people to feel the weight of their ‘Country Giant.’
Speaking in an exclusive interview at his Garden of Peace Residence in Sinkor last Friday, January 12, the former Information Minister stressed: “According to the old people, we have to sit on the old mat to plait the new mat.”
This means one has to use some of the old ideas to form the new ones. Therefore, President Weah’s many advisors would do well to take advantage of the wisdom of the ages (past officials).”
“President George Weah has the charisma that attracts people to follow him and become willing to do anything for him. Therefore, to develop this country, he would have to institute measures where we will have to eat small and keep some, according to the Bassa people.
Mr. Weah said he won’t be talking much but he will be making decisions, as it is reported he did in reducing the budget for the inauguration and had some individuals, who were extorting money from people in the name of giving out jobs, arrested.”
Well, the budget was later increased from US$700,000 to US$900.000. We don’t know who did that increment, whether the former or this new administration.
Answering to what people usually say about Weah having the same old, corrupt officials from past administration floating around him, Bowier said; “If these people are corrupt as many are saying, let it be proven in black and white and in court.”
President Having Too Much Power
According to Bowier, “The only way to be powerful is not to exercise power by creating fear in the people, but by making people willing to do things and go an extra mile for you—that is power and influence. Therefore, both President Weah and Veep Jewel Howard-Taylor can be powerful if they can be humble. That will influence the people to believe in their leadership.”
Religious Divide
One of the main areas he advised that the President should never just sweep under the carpet is promoting one religion over the other.
At most national functions, usually for invocation, a Christian prelate is invited to perform such and a Muslim cleric is also invited to perform the benediction.
But at the recent National Elections Commission’s (NEC) certification ceremony of those who won the elections, a Christian was allowed to do his part and there was no time for the Muslim to play their part, too.
“As for the National Elections Commission (NEC), I can forgive them because they were traumatized from the past electoral pressures they underwent.
Further backing his statement, he said Liberia was organized on “spiritual principles,” therefore Christians alone did lay out Liberia, but three religions: African Traditional Religion, Islam and the last group, Christianity.
“Christians are on top because they were the most educated ones to sign the Declaration of Independence and other documents at the time.
Anybody who knows this country should know that God put these three religions together for a reason to work together. We do not hear much about the African Traditional Region but we know about Islam, which was here over 100 years before Christianity came.”
Blame the System Not the President
Responding to question about a memorable interaction between him and then opposition leader President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Rev. Bowier said in October 1986, he and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had a debate on Howard University Television, Evening Exchange Program.
According to him Madam Sirleaf represented Liberian opposition groups against President Samuel K. Doe, while he represented the government, as Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, Liberian Embassy Washington, D.C.
He narrated that Madam Sirleaf’s main contention was that then President Doe was Liberia’s problem and as soon as he was out of the way, the country’s problems would be solved.
“I told my friend, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, that Liberia’s problem was not the President but a failed system.
“She disagreed. I then asked Madam Sirleaf that when Head of State Doe took over, didn’t he appoint her as a Special Envoy along with Chea Cheapo to go around Europe, and other countries to justify the coup?
She said “Yes.”
I asked her again, upon your arrival back to the country, Doe being satisfied with your, performance, didn’t he appoint you as an Economic Advisor to the Head of State? She also responded ‘Yes.’
I asked her further that didn’t Doe appoint you as the first female president of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI), when she had agreed to all my questions, I than said, if you say ‘Doe is the problem’ and you were there with him from the beginning, then you are part of the ‘problem’ as well.”
“I told her that Liberia’s problem is never the President, but the system, which is made out of a twisted galvanized steel container, and the leaders we choose are like liquid, which we usually pour into that twisted container and when he/she takes the shape of the twisted container, we come up to accuse them of being corrupt.
When we remove him/her and put in another person, he/she takes the shape of the failed system, we complain again. Our problems are not the Presidents but the system. I told her that if you want to change Liberia, we should change the system and not just remove the President.
Madam Sirleaf responded by saying that because I was working for Doe, so I was defending him.”
According to Bowier, five years into Ellen’s presidency, he heard her with his own two ears, saying on radio, “When you are outside of government, it looks different from when you are inside.”
Bowier, then said that by that time, Madam Sirleaf had learned the lesson of the twisted container system.
Why He Stopped His Radio Show and Lost His Government Jobs?
Responding to why he stopped his educative radio show on past happenings in Liberia and why he is not working in the government again, Rev. Bowier recounted: “I left the radio because as I talked about all the things going on around here, talks began going around that I was inciting people. I had been accused before of the same thing.
A little over six years ago, when I said that nobody was in charge, and that the government was like a six-headed dragon speaking with different tones, President Sirleaf’s friend Adeline Gardner told me, Madam Sirleaf was in charge and would be in charge for another sixth years, so I should get used to it.
The next week, I was dismissed from the board of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC). I was later appointed to the Board of National Port Authority, (NPA) and again when I questioned on the radio why were there two Italian flags posted on the front of the Executive Mansion, I got fired again.
When I publicly called on radio and told former President Sirleaf to have the Italian flags removed from the face of the Executive Mansion because our people pledge allegiance to the Liberian flag and not the Italian flag, the next day I was promptly dismissed from the board of NPA.
Bowier reminisced that as a little boy in the early 1960s when that Mansion was being constructed by the Israelites, not one day did the Israelites put up their flag on the building. “When the Chinese were renovating the Mansion, they never put up their flag there, too. But soon as they contracted the Italians, they put up their flags.”