Her Excellency Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s performance as President has left an enduring legacy, both tangible and intangible. I set out to appreciate her contributions at the end of her presidency. Noteworthy, my goal is not to assess her performance.
What is an enduring legacy? It is the long lasting tangible and intangible contributions that a person makes, which have the potential to alter the foundations of society throughout its life cycle.
The Post-War State Inherited
The EJS administration inherited a collapsed socioeconomic and bureaucratic fabric. It was the most difficult economic situations the country has ever endured. The country had gone through massive deaths, physical destruction, and human displacement.
Brain drain had reached an unprecedented peak. Liberians had sacrificed and suffered extreme physical and psychological hardships. All that they wished for was to migrate to nearby and other nations for refuge.
Education, health, infrastructure, public safety, the rule of law and other institutions were functioning as the shell of themselves. Liberia was a pariah nation, made fragile by the presence of militants from the various warring factions that fought in the civil crisis.
These remnants of rebel armies had gotten absorbed in how to function within a criminal economy characterized by drug smuggling, drug abuse, armed robbery, coercion, blackmail, prostitution, etc.
The social problems created by prolonged war included pervasive unemployment, underemployment, reduced marketable skills, learned helplessness and the scarcity, even an absence of aspiration among the youth, many of whom had been armed participants in the war or grossly affected by it.
The demobilization and disarmament program administered by the Transitional Government and later by the new government and its International Partners had failed to rehabilitate the war-affected youth significantly. Most had no stake in society. Moreover, the bureaucratic culture that her government inherited was rooted in endemic corruption, and thus served as a major obstacle to good governance.
EJS Enduring Legacy
As President, EJS’ special ability as a person, which invited and attracted international attention and involvement in the recovery of the war-torn state stood out quite remarkably. No one can take this from her.
It played a major part in the nation’s recovery, especially the debt forgiveness of more than four billion US dollars, fulfilling the HIPPIC Completion Point, which made the nation creditworthy again after decades of instability.
The thousands of miles of paved roads in cities as well as the highways, (Buchanan – Ganta) and the Somalia Drive to Redlight projects, renovations of the RIA, JFK, the Monrovia Port, the hydro and many other tangible development impacts will be there for a long time requiring sporadic repairs in the future.
Now, it takes three hours from Monrovia to Ganta, which took nearly six hours previously and a little more than one hour from Monrovia to Buchanan, which also took four hours.
The introduction of the West African Power Pool, which has electrified Ganta-Harper and soon to reach Gbarnga are milestones worth touting as well. The anti-graft institutions, although faced with some challenges have given Liberians deep appreciation for transparency and accountability as anchors of good governance.
The most enduring of her legacies are the intangible ones: freedom of speech, the aspiration that she has baked into women and girls, which has now broken the proverbial glass ceiling, manifested so well by her election as the first female President and during her administration the election of the first female vice President of Liberia.
Add to this, the prospects of an enduring democracy, manifested by her willingness to serve her constitutional terms, the management of the transition, and the fact that she has given Liberians a democracy to look forward to.
Liberia is a country that was operated in grave uncertainty, and Mrs. Sirleaf has given Liberians hope that democracy will withstand the tests of time.
She also removed the moral stain on the character of Liberia as one firmly entrenched in dictatorial rule. EJS deserves special recognition for her impact on professionals like myself and other colleagues who had no political or familial ties to her, but provided an opportunity for us to partake in public service.
President Sirleaf addressed two critical crises in Liberia’s national life. She restored civil society, specifically multiparty democracy, even with its shortcomings, and led the national, even the international fight against an unknown enemy – Ebola and won. She also maintained a stellar foreign policy, winning the Nobel Peace Prize and other international awards.
The Future
Our newly elected leaders will inherit such challenges as maintaining an inclusive governing system and the difficult task of making sure that the country never retreats into its despotic past.
They will also encounter endemic corruption, high unemployment, fragile peace, as well as longstanding class, ethnic, and gender divides, coupled with a challenging education system, as well as still evolving law enforcement and healthcare systems. Rehabilitating public trust will require increased investment in accountability and transparency to change the dynamic.
The security infrastructure built by the UN and others are now left to be managed by Liberians. The new government will have to invest in making the security sector more effective and efficient.
Liberians now have very low tolerance for conflict assuring us that there will not be a recurrence of war to undermine the intangible contributions made to Liberia’s recovery by the EJS administration.
Hopefully, the Weah-Howard-Taylor administration will come up with innovative interventions that would build on EJS’ achievements and in the end, fundamentally change the nation’s socioeconomic foundations, thus having multiplier effects on livelihoods, peace, and stability.
Conclusions
It is customarily easy to judge from the outside without appreciating the nature of the country that the EJS administration inherited, mainly the difficulties associated with governing a failed state. It will be exceptionally heartwarming to witness the democratic transition of a lifetime, which as a young student activist joined my peers to advocate for.
Her Excellency, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, on this occasion of the end of your presidency, we owe you a massive debt of gratitude for dismantling some of the severe barriers that stood in the way of setting Liberia on a durable path to democracy. Farewell Madame President. Thank you. When our history books are written about this era and preceding ones, you will receive notable mention.
Emmanuel Dolo, Contributing Writer