Monrovia – President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf final annual message has not gone well with many Liberians, and some prominent figures have been weighing in and critiquing key points of the President’s speech.
Report by Kennedy L. Yangian [email protected]
A turbulent economy and a failing war against corruption have been two of Sirleaf’s main challenges, and when the president admitted on Monday that her government is struggling to grabble with these situations, her critics again lambasted her.
President Sirleaf admitted that her administration’s inability to fight corruption has not been met because of the lack of political will, but because of the intractability of dependency and dishonesty cultivated from years of deprivation and poor governance.
“We have not fully met the anti-corruption pledge that we made in 2006.
It is not because of the lack of political will to do so. But because of the intractability of dependency and dishonesty cultivated from years of deprivation and poor governance,” said President Sirleaf.
Following her speech, Liberians are expressing dismay over her 12-year rule, pointing out unemployment compounded by economic hardship which is strangulating ordinary Liberians.
One of those Liberians who have come out to openly criticize Liberia and Africa’s first female president is a vocal lawyer.
Cllr. Sylma Syrenius Cephas, critiquing the President’s annual message, told a group of judicial reporters on Tuesday, January 24 on the ground of the Temple of Justice that Liberians should considered the president’s speech as a ‘farewell message’.
Sarcastically, he called on every ordinary Liberian to tell the President “thank you for how she has governed our country”.
He claimed that in 2006 when Madam Sirleaf took power she put up the impression that she was going to do better than the other leaders that have ruled the country, “But today the story is quite different with Liberians living in an appalling condition with foreigners controlling the economy which should not be that way.”
The vocal legal expert claimed that all sector of the country’s economy has been occupied by foreigners, naming Indian and Lebanese nationals as the main beneficiaries of the economy while Liberians have no role to play which is described as ‘horrible’.
Cllr. Cephas also indicated that what Liberians need in the “Wake of this sad living condition is to create a sense of self –esteem that they too are capable to perform the jobs that other foreign nationals are doing in their country”.
He continued: “Let me say to you that Madam Sirleaf piloted a plane with some people on board eating, while others go hungry. When you also pilot a ship and it capsized who do you blame, the captain.”
Cllr. Cephas asserted that Sirleaf has developed ‘a divide and rule’ method in her government, while slamming the President for losing the fight against corruption and reconciling the county.
Responding to Sirleaf’s call for the establishment of another court to try economic sabotage cases in the country, Cephas termed the idea as belated, and said, “There is an exposit facto law on the book that everything that was done before the establishment of that court is null and void”.
“All is not about the establishment of a court. What matters is to have the competent personnel to manage the court, what time does Madam Sirleaf have now to establish court and recruit competent personnel,” Cllr. Cephas wondered.
President Sirleaf and her ruling Unity Party (UP) took the first mantle of authority to head the country in 2006 just after the end of over a decade of civil unrest, and were given the second mantle in 2011.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is expected to step down and hand over power to her successor who will be known in January 2018 after a third post-conflict Presidential and Legislative elections in October 2017.