Monrovia – Successful transfer of power is the bar former Liberian President Ellen Johnson hoped to set when she took her bow from the presidency in January 2018.
Analysis by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Nearly a decade earlier, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, in May 2010, Sirleaf averred. “There may be pockets of regression, but generally democracy is on course. We had three democracies in Africa in the 1970s; we have over eighteen today. We have countries that have had three successive transfers of power through the democratic process.”
By the time Sirleaf ended her two-terms presidency and paved the way for her successor, George Manneh Weah to take over the helm, Mr. Weah’s inauguration was historic for Africa’s oldest republic, marking the first time since 1944, that the country had seen a peaceful transfer of power, renewing a sense of optimism after a peaceful transition of power marked a crowning moment for a country which had endured a rice riot, an army takeover and more than a decade of civil war.
In recent days, some Liberians have taken to social media to share trending developments out of The Gambia where protesters are demanding the resignation of recently-elected President Adama Barrow.
Barrow assumed the Presidency, the same year Weah was elected in Liberia, in 2017, taking over after defeating dictator Yahya Jammeh in a hotly-contested election and trumpeted as the savior of a nation, still reeling from Mr. Jammeh’s brutal 22-year rule.
“Presidency Barrow’s ascendancy came with a lot of hope and expectations. After 22 years of dictatorship during the Jammeh regime, most Gambians, especially the young people saw Barrow as the promised messiah. While space for political critique widens three years after he took over the presidency, discontent and frustration have been growing. There has been erosion of confidence in his administration. And his failure to fulfill his promise (with his coalition partners during the 1996 formation of the grand coalition) to serve just three years in office seems to be a major trigger as far as public anger is concerned,” Sheriff Bojang Jr., Editor-in-Chief, of The Chronicle and President of Gambia Press Union.
Weah vs. Barrow – Differentiating the Whys of Protests
Both Mr. Weah and Mr. Barrow rode on the vulnerabilities of a people in search of change and a break from the past.
Mr. Barrow promised to improve the living standards of Gambians, bring about democratic reform and set up a truth and reconciliation commission to heal a divided nation. Mr. Weah, on the other hand, rode on the backs of a grassroots mantra looking to end corruption, nepotism and greed under former President Sirleaf.
Two years later, both Presidents find themselves in similar positions mirroring contrasting political variables and antsy nations making demands and asking questions regarding unfulfilled promises.
In Banjul, Gambians are holding President Barrow to his own words, that he would step down after three years. Mr. Barrow, despite committing himself to three years, is now opting to stay in power and seeing a five-year term to its conclusion in 2021.
Angry Gambians have been taking to the streets to vent their anger at Barrow’s U-turn.
In Monrovia, President Weah has seen multiple protests since winning the protest last January.
Since the Revelations last year that $15.5bn Liberian dollars ($104m, £82m) of freshly minted currency had disappeared from Liberia’s ports and the mismanagement of a 25m US dollar cash injection into the economy last year, Liberians have been incensed and taken to the streets to send a clear message: Bring Back Our Money.
In recent weeks, students have also taken to the streets in protest over the lack of pay to their teachers while civil servants are threatening strike action against the government over lack of salary payments. On December, another protest is being planned, calling for the resignation of the president.
“Presidency Barrow’s ascendancy came with a lot of hope and expectations. After 22 years of dictatorship during the Jammeh regime, most Gambians, especially the young people saw Barrow as the promised messiah. While space for political critique widens three years after he took over the presidency, discontent and frustration have been growing. There has been erosion of confidence in his administration. And his failure to fulfill his promise (with his coalition partners during the 1996 formation of the grand coalition) to serve just three years in office seems to be a major trigger as far as public anger is concerned.”
– Sheriff Bojang Jr., Editor-in-Chief, of The Chronicle and President of Gambia Press Union.
Shared History of Upheavals
Both countries history has a familiar ring.
Prior to the 1980, political rule in Liberia was dominated by a one-party state as the Americo-Liberian dominated True Whig Party ruled for much of the country’s history. In fact, late President William V.S. Tubman holds the record as the longest-serving President after staying 27 years in office.
In The Gambia, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, served as Prime Minister from 1962 to 1970, and then as the first President from 1970 to 1994, when he was toppled by Jammeh.
Jammeh didn’t rule with an iron fist but hardly had anyone resisting his reign, except an attempted coup in 1981, headed by a disgruntled ex-politician turned Marxist, Kukoi Samba Sanyang of the National Revolutionary Council, on July 29, 1981.
Jawara requested military aid from next-door Senegal which deployed 400 troops to Gambia on July 31, and by August 6 2,700 Senegalese troops had been deployed and they had defeated the coup leaders’ forces. Between 500 and 800 people were killed during the coup and the resulting violence.
At the time, the attempted coup reflected the desire for change, at least on the part of some civilians and their allies in the Field Force. Despite Kukoi’s failure to assume power, the attempted coup revealed major weaknesses within the ruling PPP and society as a whole. The hegemony of the PPP, contraction of intra-party competition and growing social inequalities were factors that could not be discounted.
While successive transitions have been rare in Liberia, Dr. D. Elwood Dunn disagrees with the Sirleaf narrative on peaceful transfer of power from one democratically-elected government to another. “Often correctly cited, as the last time Liberia experienced a peaceful transfer of power is the Edwin Barclay to William V.S. Tubman transfer in January 1944. Tubman who served for 27 years died in office in July 1971 and was succeeded by his vice president, William R. Tolbert, Jr. After some nine years in office the deluge happened with his assassination and the bloody overthrow of Tolbert and with him the perennial True Whig Party hegemony. While President Samuel Doe and President Charles Taylor were each “democratically elected”, the 1980 political violence placed Liberia on a path of instability and war that effectively ended only with the 2005 election which brought to power President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.”
Citing two books, Tuan Wreh’s behind the scenes account, “The Love Of Liberty…The Rule Of President William V.S. Tubman In Liberia, (1976) and David Chieh Sr’s Needles, Bullets And Knives, The Assassination Of Three Liberian Presidents –Memoirs Of A Public Servant (2011), Dr. Dunn cleverly illustrates that all the men who ruled Liberia from 1847 State independence to 1944 exercised power, almost, were with restraint and a sense of proportion. “Presidents were seldom perceived as all-powerful, and as I narrate later some felt the pressure to resign the presidency, some were defeated in their quests and most left office in accordance with constitutional dictates.”
Debating Liberia’s Succession Myth
Dr. Dunn notes the Joseph Jenkins Roberts to Benson Succession; Stephen Allen Benson to Daniel B. Warner Succession, Warner to Payne Succession, Payne to Edward James Roye and , Roye to Smith Succession
In Roberts Case, Dr. Dunn says the first president was elected in 1847 and inaugurated the following year. “His vice president was Nathaniel Brander. The pair served a first two-year term when Brander was replaced in the second term by A.D. Williams as vice president. During his last term Roberts again changed his vice president, replacing Williams with Stephen Allen Benson. Roberts’ Republican or True Liberian Party government did not seek re-election after four two-year terms in office. It is remarkable that the peaceful transfer of power from Roberts to Benson was marked, at the inaugural ceremonies by a “valedictory” address by outgoing President Roberts, an address that preceded President Benson’s inaugural address.”
President Roberts’ VP, Benson won the presidency in the elections of 1855 with Benjamin Yates as his vice president. In his third term in 1860 Benson dropped Vice President Yates, replacing him with Daniel B. Warner. A Whig Party had emerged but did not then threaten the ruling Republicans.
The Republicans later nominated Vice President Warner as president at their convention in 1862. “James Priest was his vice president. Benson transferred power to Warner at the latter’s inauguration in 1864. The Warner-Priest team was re-elected in 1865 in a hotly contested election, which saw a growing strength of the Whig Party. James S. Payne defeated Warner in the election of 1867. Payne’s vice president was Joseph T. Gibson. The nomination and election of the pair incurred such political bitterness that it led to a weakening and eventual defeat of the Republican Party. The defeated Warner transferred power to Payne at the latter’s inauguration in 1868.”
The Republicans, according to Dr. Dunn, re-nominated Payne and Gibson in 1869. “Meanwhile the former Old Whigs had re-organized as the True Whig Party in Clay-Ashland under the leadership of John Good. Edward James Roye and James S. Smith were the presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the TWP. A bitter campaign ensued in part reportedly over the question of skin tone (mullato vs. ebony black), though some have suggested that President Benson was not mullato. Former President Warner joined forces with the Whigs having rankled over his party’s failure to give him a third term as they had done for Roberts and Benson. The True Whig Party candidates were elected in May 1869. Though Roye and Smith were inaugurated in January 1870, some suggest the Republican bitterness over their defeat engendered what is known as the Roye Episode in Liberian history which involved two issues instigated by his Republican opponents: the loan of 1870/71, and extension of presidential tenure from two to four years. Charged with misuse of loan funds and with unconstitutional action regarding extension of the presidential term, Roye was forcibly removed from office and assassinated. The atmosphere that prevailed in the aftermath of Roye’s overthrow was almost identical to what obtained in the aftermath of Tolbert’s overthrow 109 years later.”
Roye’s was not a smooth transfer of power as he was violently removed from office as result of the Republican Party revolt against his regime.
Contrary to The Gambia, Jawara led the country since independence, until his ouster in a coup d’etat on July 22nd, 1994.
Step-Down Chants Sign of Changing Times
Across West Africa, successful transfer of power is becoming a new phenomenon.
Liberia’s neighbors Ghana has been perfecting the trend.
When President John Atta Mills died unexpectedly of throat cancer in July 2012, his vice president John Mahama was sworn in to replace him only hours later without any issues.
Mills was only the third African president to die in office in 2012. Guinea-Bissau’s Malam Bacai Sanhá and Malawi’s Bingu wa Mutharika being the other two.
Unlikely Ghana, Malawi endured a somewhat difficult struggle amid confusion following Mutharika’s death, which was not confirmed until two days later. Vice President Joyce Banda eventually took power.
When the time arrived for him to take his bow after a bitter election loss, Mahama, like Sirleaf, trumpeted Ghana’s successful transfer of power, declaring at that the smooth transfer of power in Ghana had earned the respect and admiration of not only the rest of African but also the world.
In neighboring Sierra Leone, Retired Brig. Julius Maada Bio’s victory over Ernest Bai Koroma marked a defining moment in the peaceful transfer of power line.
Sierra Leone, like Liberia had been marred by ethnic and political violence until the elections in 2007 marked the peaceful transfer of power from the Sierra Leone People’s Party SLPP to the opposition All People’s Party.
Should protesters have their way in The Gambia and Liberia, political observers say, it could not just derail the successful transfer of power narrative but could serve as a wake-up call that a new generation of constituents in Africa are determined to change the norms of the past.
As Sirleaf, who herself became a victim of stepdown chants during her reign, acknowledged in her chat at the Council of Foreign Relations in DC. In 2010, times have certainly changed. “We’ve come a long way, and we have a civil society today that is so informed and so enlightened and so demanding that it’s going to be difficult to think that anybody can get away with the kind of things that we got away with before.”