We are still going through Mr. Rodney Sieh’s one hour interview he had with the Liberian President Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in late March with great interest analyzing her comments. She sounded so exuberant in her narration about herself, family, government and achievements and was very mince on her critics. We are not quite sure how thick her “Presidential Skin” is these days to be telling her critics to shut up. Now this is the focus of our writing, President Sirleaf’s desire to be remembered by history as a nation builder.
These are her very direct words: “History will remember that I met Liberia, a broken nation, a pariah state and I put it on the track for sustainable development. There is no escaping that; nobody will deny me that because it is true.” You kidding us? She met Liberia a broken nation? A pariah state? And she put it on the track for sustainable development? Nobody will deny her that because it is true? The President must have been having a pretty good time during her approach with Mr. Sieh making sure that all prepared thoughts flow to her greatest pleasure and delight.
Going further, we hasten to state that our ardent desire to continue our analysis of Rodney’s interview with the Liberian Leader is for no ulterior motive. We are just very keen on extending the coverage of the interview but from a critical analytical point of view. A point of view that will get readers “out of the box” expounding on their intellectual comprehension. Encouraging readers to not just read at face value, but go deeper in getting several first hand and clear understand of what is written or said.
So we thought to state this disclaimer as we proceed. Because we were part of the group of Liberians who affixed our signatures through the electoral box to ensure a democratic society, we are making all efforts to dodge the wrath of posterity for our perceived silence and allowing things to go as usual. Moreover, because of our esteemed appreciation and gratitude to the Omnipotent for our intellectual state, we feel very obliged to contribute to the growth and development of Mankind in the humblest of our quota; especially or beloved country Liberia.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wants History to remember her for rebuilding a nation that she allegedly contributed to its destruction? Wasn’t she reportedly quoted in the early 80’s as being prepared to financially contribute to the breaking down of the official seat of the Liberian Presidency the Executive Mansion?
The Mansion she hasn’t sat in or officially worked from since almost ten years ago when fire gutted it when an official banquet was taking place after Liberia’s 159th Independence Anniversary Program in July 2006. Update or news about the renovation of the Mansion is very “secretive” to the public. Her government doesn’t really care if the mansion is renovated time enough for her Successor in 2017. Our President is having a comfortable time squeezing herself at the Country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs when she could have all the space and Presidential luxury at the Executive Mansion.
Our very out-spoken President has been heard again boasting of being one of Liberia’s astute Presidents downplaying the works of her predecessors…the likes of Presidents Samuel Kayon, Charles Ghankay Taylor and even the late interim leader Charles Gyude Bryant. How can she want to claim all the glory when in fact she was a well-known key architect of criticisms of past governments? Ellen Eugenia Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s first female Finance Minister wants to Liberia’s very revered Nation Builder?
Courtesy of Academy of Achievement, we want to retrospect a bit to highlight Madam Sirleaf’s political posture in past Liberian Administrations so that you can read through the lines to understand our dismissal stance of the President’s “boastful” attitude in the line of Liberian Presidents. This is just an excerpt of President Sirleaf’s biography as written by Academy of Achievement.:
“The pressure of two careers placed a strain on the Sirleafs’ marriage. When her husband became violent and abusive, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf filed for divorce. After the dissolution of her marriage, she continued her education in the United States, earning an economics degree from the University of Colorado. In 1971, she completed a Master’s in Public Administration at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The following year, Sirleaf became Assistant Finance Minister in the administration of Liberian President William Tolbert. Her public criticism of administration policy, on occasions such as a commencement address at the College of West Africa, attracted national attention and created friction between Sirleaf and her superiors. In the mid-1970s Sirleaf left the Ministry to work for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., but she returned to Liberia in 1977 to serve as Deputy Finance Minister.
In 1979 a rice shortage provoked riots in the streets of Monrovia. Repressive measures on the part of the government, intended to quell the violence, further inflamed public opinion, and antagonized educated members of the country’s indigenous population. President Tolbert fired his Finance Minister and appointed Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to take his place; she was the first woman to hold this position in Liberia. As Finance Minister, she attempted a much-needed reform of the country’s finances, but long-simmering tensions soon boiled over.
On April 12, 1980, a cadre of non-commissioned officers, led by Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, staged a coup d’état. President Tolbert and 26 of his followers were killed on the day of the coup. Ten days later, 13 members of Tolbert’s cabinet were executed in public. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and three other ministers were spared, but life in Liberia would soon become dangerous for anyone who opposed Doe and his allies. Sirleaf served briefly as President of the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI), but her situation soon became impossible and she fled the country. For a brief time, she again worked as Senior Loan Officer for the World Bank in the United States, but was soon back in Africa, as Vice President of Citicorp’s Africa Office in Nairobi, Kenya.
Seeking international legitimacy for his regime, Samuel Doe scheduled elections in 1985. Sirleaf returned to Liberia to run for the vice presidency, but was soon arrested for criticizing Doe’s corrupt regime. She was sentenced to ten years in prison, but international pressure forced Doe to pardon her shortly into her sentence. Although her name was removed from the vice Presidential ballot, Sirleaf was permitted to run for the Senate. The subsequent election was widely viewed as fraudulent, and although Sirleaf won a seat in the Senate she refused to accept it. In November of 1985 she was arrested again and held until July of the following year, after which she left the country in secret and took a job as a Vice President of HSBC Equator Bank in Washington.
Sirleaf had made a new life for herself in the world outside Liberia, but she closely followed developments in her homeland. After repeated coup attempts against the Doe regime, and extrajudicial killings of opposition leaders, the country descended into inter-tribal violence and civil war. In 1989 a former Doe ally, Charles Taylor, led an armed uprising against the regime. Initially, Sirleaf supported Taylor’s insurgency, but the rebels’ violent methods soon alienated Sirleaf and many other Liberians. In 1990, Samuel Doe was captured, in Monrovia, by a group of rebels who recorded and broadcast his torture and execution. Although Taylor emerged as the most powerful of the rebel commanders, he was unable to consolidate his rule, and fighting between rival factions continued for many years.
In 1992, Sirleaf joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The first woman to run the UN’s development program for Africa, she served for five years as Assistant Administrator and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau of Africa, holding the title of Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. By 1996 a coalition of neighboring African countries had forced the warring Liberian factions to agree to a ceasefire, and national elections were scheduled for the following year.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf returned to Liberia to run for President, but in an atmosphere still haunted by the violence of the preceding decade, she was decisively defeated by Charles Taylor. The regime of President Taylor proved to be a corrupt and repressive one, and Sirleaf became its most outspoken critic and her country’s most visible advocate for reform. When President Taylor threatened to have her killed for her opposition to his administration, she moved to the neighboring country of Côte d’Ivoire, where she established a venture capital firm, the Kormah Development and Investment Corporation, as well as Measuagoon, a community development NGO for Liberia.
Meanwhile, General Taylor plunged Liberia into war with its neighbors. Insurgencies and counter-insurgencies recruited children to fight and commit atrocities, and the country teetered on the brink of dissolution. Attacks by armed resistance groups, pressure from the international community — and the courageous nonviolent resistance of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace — eventually led to Taylor’s resignation. In 2003, the disgraced President fled to Nigeria. He was later arrested for aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court sentenced Taylor, age 64, to 50 years in prison.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf returned to Liberia in 2003 to chair the Governance Reform Commission of the Transitional Government. In this capacity she successfully transferred the reporting mechanism of the General Auditing Commission from the control of executive branch to the legislature, enabling more democratic oversight of the nation’s finances.
In 2005, Sirleaf resigned from the Commission to accept the nomination of the Unity Party as its candidate for President of Liberia in the country’s first truly free election. Sirleaf placed second in the first round of voting, but won the runoff decisively, with 59 percent of the vote. On January 16, 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as the 24th President of Liberia. She is the first elected female head of state in African history.”
Given this record of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is she the one now telling the world that she wants to be remembered as a nation builder? Whether it was an initial support to the civil war of Liberia…support is support. You consciously supported the destruction of a country; you “chickened” out when your opposition was battled by your predecessors and you are today heard telling critics to “shut up”? We seriously cannot fathom this attitude Madam President!
There is no way you can tell critics or opposition to “shut up” in criticizing your government when you were not told. You were very good at sneaking, escaping or “chickening” out because you wanted to have the opportunity to create a platform that you were denied. This is one thing we can credit you for Madam President…creating a free space for people to speak their minds. So then why are you now telling your critics to “shut up”? They should continue to talk and help you in your building process that you are being so boastful about.
Madam President we humbly appeal to you to quiet down on your public comments that are trying to “muddy” some of the good things you have done. We think you are trying to be both referee and player at the same time. Please stop making comments that will indict you after your presidency. You are much respected nationally and globally to start losing your Presidential grip. We are very concerned, that is why we have taken this posture to continuously give you a quiet reminder lest you forget.
Again Madam President, you don’t have to speak at all public functions in an elaborate fashion. Your erudite diplomats around you should be allowed to give you guidance in this respect. So what goes wrong with this government and country, will not only affect you but every Liberian including us. Madam President, this a classic show of our Patriotism, please take heed!!!