PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON Sirleaf in her Annual Message to the Legislature rolled over several national issues confronting the nation.
THE LIBERIAN LEADER FOR the first time in 11 years agreed with critics that corruption and reconciliation are major challenges confronting her administration.
“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. We could not reap – you cannot reap – in government what has not been instilled in families, schools, churches, mosques and society in general,” she said in her Message.
SHE PRAISED THE MEDIA FOR unearthing corruption related stories, some of which are being investigated.
THE PRESIDENT HAS FROM year to year coined different nomenclatures for corruption which has actually remained the same in nature since she took over the governance of the country. Perhaps her terminologies for corruption which ranged from public enemy #1, vampire to cancer only reflected the enormity of the menace which probably scared her away from fighting.
OPENLY DECLARING THE inability of the government to fight corruption is not new message to Liberians as many had already expressed their disappointments through various forms.
WHAT IS SURPRISING IS WHY did it have to take the President this long to realize this? Your officials have thrown jabs and even insulted members of the civil society and opposition for saying what you have just admitted to.
THE PRESIDENT IS ON RECORD for putting her neck on the chopping board for ministers caught in audit reports and taken responsible for the financial breakdown of the National Oil Company once chaired by her son Robert A. Sirleaf.
IN WHAT IS CONSIDERED an effort by President Sirleaf to curb corruption, she proposed to the Legislature the establishment of specialized court to handle corruption cases.
HOWEVER, NOT MUCH political will has been attached to this request. It is easy for one to surmise that the absence of a corruption court today in the midst of rampant corruption that has so much engulfed the government like an anaconda swallowing its prey, is calculated.
THE CONTINUOUS CALL for the establishment of such court has now become a cliché to the Liberian people and has no magnitude of seriousness.
THE LEGISLATURE TO MANY IS a rubber stamp legislature because of the speedy manner in which some bills are passed, that is why it beats the imagination of many Liberians why the establishment of corruption court has always been an issue of contention.
IT IS MORE INTERESTING that the Nobel Peace Laureate in the 11th year of her reign as President is still grappling with reconciliation. The question is “What tangible did she do to reconcile Liberians after taking over a country torn apart by a war that was so entrenched in ethnic divide?”
WHEN CO-NOBEL LAUREATE Lymah Gbowee upon her resignation as Peace Ambassador said in an interview in Paris that President Sirleaf was not serious to reconcile Liberia, many politicized her statement – ignoring the truth – however, now that it has come out of the horse’s mouth, it is our hope that all Liberians would make it a priority to foster reconciliation which our President has failed to deliver to the fullest.