MONROVIA – Call her Matriarch of the Sirleaf Clan. Or say she is the Matriarch of the Republic of Liberia. But others are calling her African or Continental Matriarch. In fact, there are those who are saying she is an Intercontinental Matriarch. It is not a mistake to call her so. All will be correct. It won’t be flattery to do. It won’t be hyperbolical. The Gola-Kru progeny in the last 86 years has walked laboriously to the global mountaintop of leadership, advocacy and charity, a major ray of light that gives her motherland Liberia – and Africa at large – enormous international traction and attention. Even as celebrates four-score-six in age—obviously a huge feat to behold by African standard—she is hosting over a hundred prominent young people, mainly women, and dozens of feminist leaders in her lifelong pursuit to water the seed of gender equality, freedom and good governance. This year’s celebration of the birth anniversary of the former Liberian president not only coincides with an ongoing retreat of the famous African Women Leaders Network but is also expected to be swarmed on the sideline by distinguished world personalities, mainly of the African Continent, including former Nigerian President, Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo. The Analyst presents why all the clamor for the former President’s 86th Birth Anniversary.
Liberia and Africa’s first democratically elected woman president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is 86 today. Though official protocol of the celebration is not available to this paper, those close to the inner circle of the former President divulged that dozens of international guests and Liberians drawn from other parts of the country are already in Monrovia attending the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) which venue was intentionally selected for Liberia as to coincide with the her 86th birth anniversary.
One source hinted that this year’s AWLN Retreat was initially scheduled to be held in the east African nation of Zimbabwe but organizers requested the Monrovia venue apparently to afford them the opportunity to join one of the Network’s Chief Ideologues, Madam Sirleaf.
“Instead of the Farmington Hotel venue, where the retreat is officially being held in the last three days,” another source told The Analyst, “the October 29 deliberations will be in Monrovia, specifically for the afternoon and evening hours – all decided to join the former president and guests celebrate with her.”
There will be what is called “Fireside chat” today, Tuesday, on theme, “Bridging Generations gaps through collaborative Leadership for a Future of Opportunity for young women: Conversation with Inspiring Change-makers.” Tipped as the moderator is Ms. Jocelyne Machevo, a Mozambican energy executive who became most known for her work in the first ever liquefied natural gas project for her, the Coral South FLNG Project.
Also expected to speak at the October 29 deliberations on “Engaging Discussions on Personal Leadership Journeys – Challenges, and strategies for Creating Impactful, Future-ready Leadership Frameworks” will be former Nigeria head of state, Olusegun Matthew Obasanjo.
All these deliberations will later get dovetailed into a “Private Ceremony” that will witness the congregation of scores of national and international guests paying tributing to the international civil servant, global leader and feminist icon, Madam Sirleaf.
Understandably Festive Day
The maxim, ‘age is just a number’, finds fitting expression in the likes of Liberia’s former President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. At the ripe age of 86, when others a crawling in the name of walking, Ma Ellen is visibly firm in her act—lavishly giving back to her country, her continent and the global community.
At 86, 16 years above the Biblical age of three-scores-and-ten, which God desires a member of the human race to sojourn on Planet Earth except under special conditions, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf must be blessed and happy. The world she has impacted must be glad.
Like any natal-day celebrant, she must by now be feeling extremely festive today, needing all the appreciation mankind owes her, first for her advent on Planet Earth and second for her quota to humanity.
For most part of her 12-year presidency, she usually kept the celebration of her birthday deliberately low-keyed, perhaps as a demonstration of empathy for a population largely recovering from the stings of war and to see how her people would respond to the doses of remedies her administration was providing.
Since she voluntarily parted company with the Executive Mansion seven years ago, today’s celebration is, and should be, more than acknowledging Providence’s wonders that got her be a blessing of the world; it is also about celebrating momentous breakthroughs in national and international affairs, bringing inspiration to a once uninspired people, and rescuing a once ruined and estranged nation into an oasis of hope for a better future.
But Ellen, as Liberians commonly like to call her, was and is never a blessing only to Liberia. She walked the fields of global advocacy and charity, going all out to the corners of Africa, the developing world, and bringing for attention and intervention those conditions that have afflicted the unfortunate people.
It is not a mistake that many world bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), have made her their Ambassador at Large, making her travel – practically living in airplanes – in service to the humanity.
Tracing the roots
Ellen was always a subject of discussion from early childhood through secondary and advance studies,” said one aging lady who claimed she followed the rise of Madam Sirleaf but doesn’t want to be named by The Analyst.
She credited this view to what she called an inborn trait and/or to deliberate adventures which she said Mrs. Sirleaf consistently undertook from her adolescent years.
From the College of West Africa in Central Monrovia, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and to other prestigious schools and job experiences she navigated, the anonymous interviewee told Analyst, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s strong desire to excel and be in the first rank of every vocation has made her a source of delight and envy to many, defining while controversy has been an integral part of her life.
Even as she celebrates her 86th birthday, members of the public are divided in their reactions and rating. Many persons who are fond of the celebrant, like the last 85 other birth anniversaries before today, the current celebration is expected to draw considerable eulogies by countless persons communicating their sentiments and pouring upon sincere blessings.
Political pundits who followed the former President’s political struggle that culminated into her ascendency to the Liberian leadership in 2006 and later in 2012, the demonstrated support and delight amongst Sinoeans and other well-wishers for the “Iron Lady” at 86 is due to outstanding achievements made during the 12 years of her leadership and general kindness to ordinary people.
From the days of the True Whig Party, when she began public life as a banker and an economic and financial management expert, supporters say they have since admired Madam Sirleaf because she was not consumed by the elitist fervor that was blowing in those days, but she worked as a freedom fighter and a voice of the downtrodden.
Her passion for the weak and dispossessed majority won her acclamation amongst ordinary people, giving her the extraordinary courage to persistently companion the cause of the people.
The struggle however left her severally bruised, spending times in jail and forcing her into exile.
Even while in exile, the “Iron Lady” as she came to be known, did not abandon her pro-people advocacy; she partnered with national and international counterparts to confront despotism at home.
She was detested by the ruling elites for her struggle to liberate the impoverished majority of Liberians from the claws of corrupt and totalitarian regimes.
The former Liberian President though mistaken for an Americo-Liberian is actually a progeny of Gola descent. Those older in the family of the President say her father was a Gola tribesman who married Ellen’s mother that had a German father and Kru mother.
According to elders, Ellen’s father was Jahmale Carney Johnson, a son of a low-level Gola chief called Jahmale who as was sent to Monrovia where his last name was changed to Johnson because of his father’s loyalty to President Hilary R. W. Johnson.
Providence found Madam Sirleaf’s mother hailing 180 degree away from Sinoe County. Her grandmother, Juah Sarwee, according to elders sent Sirleaf’s mother to Monrovia when Madam Sirleaf’s German grandfather had to flee the country after Liberia declared war on Germany during World War I.
Some people think the former Liberian President is of the Americo-Liberian stock because her mother was adopted by a prominent Americo-Liberian family member, Cecilia Dunbar. Ellen became a center attention of friends and family member as they watched her excelled academically and professionally with the pace of lightning.
Thought she married James Sirleaf at the tender age of 17, the entrapping temptation of romance and family life, which clawed many youth away, failed to impact Ellen who left the country to the United States in 1961 to continue her studies and earned an accounting degree at Madison Business College, in Madison, Wisconsin. That was after her studies of at the College of West Africa in Monrovia.
Senior family members recall that Madam Sirleaf returned to Liberia to work in the administration of slain President William Tolbert. She was Assistant Minister of Finance. But her innate nature of activism and pro-people advocacy kept her on edge with the Tolbert administration.
She, in 1973, resigned over government spending disagreement with the administration and left the country. Six years later, she was encouraged to take another job in the administration, this time Minister of Finance in 1979 until the bloody coup that toppled the True Whig Party regime in 1980.
Ellen was the only Liberian women that remained persistently engaged with the struggle both at home and abroad, earning her “The Iron Lady” appellation.
It is even said amongst “progressives” that while serving in the True Whig Party Government, she was not oblivious of the excesses of the oligarchy; she maintained comradely relations the progressive forces of the 1970s.
When the Towel of Babel fell and progressives and militarists who assumed power following the overthrow of the oligarchy, Madam Sirleaf joined forces and the nation will recall the robust role she played during that period.
She abandoned her prestigious position at Citibank, USA, and returned to Liberia in 1985 to run for Vice President on the ticket of the Liberian Action Party in the 1985 elections but was placed under house arrest in August of that year and soon after sentenced to ten years in prison for sedition as a consequence of a speech in which she insulted the members of the Doe regime.
International condemnation of the action and pressure from world leaders forced President Doe to release the “Iron Lady”. As a result of government manipulation and pressure on opposition elements, Ellen settled on foregoing the vice presidential ticket and instead ran for a Senate seat in Montserrado County.
The 1985 elections were reported widely rigged by the National Democratic Party and the resultant tensions forced many politicians, include Madam Sirleaf to flee Liberia.
Like other activists and politicians, former President Sirleaf’s exit from Liberia did not disengage her from the struggle. As despotism reigned ferociously in Liberia, Ellen made the Liberian case for the attention of international actors who tightened screws on the Doe regime as a result.
Even while the war raged at home, she remained a key contact of international stakeholders on issues relative to the country and the peace process. Along with other prominent Liberians, Ellen shuttled between and among nations drumming up support for the peace process.
Where She Took Liberia from
At the elections of 2005, the former Liberian president was hailed and regarded the solution to the country’s long problems of political failure, economic deprivation and underdevelopment.
As she celebrates her 86th birth anniversary and after the double terms as President, Madam Sirleaf has proven critics wrong and supporters right when she made Liberia an unprecedented attraction of international relations.
The then failed Liberian state is now an honorable member of the comity of nations. She is also highly credited for re-enlivening national hope having restored Liberia’s international reputation and credibility.
Macroeconomic magic wand
Following 16 years of destruction, Liberia’s national wealth as reflected by government budget stood at $80m when Ellen took over, thus giving her and supporters the reason to boast that that figure quadrupled, hit some US$600m.
That momentous achievement did not, and could not come, as a sheer luck, but a result of discipline, hardship and ingenuity.
Identifying a country’s revenue streams and letting all them enter in the national treasury without incident is a rare deportment in Liberia’s economic history.
While there were some challenges here and there, government workers who were used to taking pay every four months began checking their accounts at most seven days before each month ended.
Economic experts also contend that Liberia’s GDP grew by 6.9% in 2011, up from 5.6% in 2010 and 4.6% in 2009 respectively under the Sirleaf regime.
According to the experts, in 2008, annual rate of inflation averaged 17.5%, in 2009 it dropped to 7.4%, in 2010 and 2011 inflation averaged 7.3% and 7.5% respectively.
In 2006, income per capita rose by approximately one third. The Johnson Sirleaf administration is anticipating a double-digit growth over the next five years, due to its sound fiscal policy.
The underpinnings of such economic magic wand owed largely to Madam Sirleaf capacity to woo major investment agreements totaling over US$16 billion in foreign investment and the successful completion of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative.
Throughout her leadership, the government identified four pillars in support of its development agenda: Peace and Security, Economic Revitalization, Governance and the Rule of Law, and Basic Infrastructure and Services.
National peace has been consolidated by the strengthening of key institutions of national security and completing the process of demilitarization, demobilization, training and reintegration of ex-combatants. As a result of 12 years of transformative security sector reform, all defense security units now enjoy enhanced compensation, and proper pensions for retired Armed Forces of Liberia personnel have been instituted.
In addition to leading the national effort for achieving development goals, she used her diplomatic and negotiating skills to reactivate bilateral relations with several countries including France, Germany, Canada, Israel and Italy. Nearly 30 years before her leadership, Liberia was isolated from the global community, and 14 years before her presidency, the country was facing serious economic and political sanctions from world powers and even neighbors.
As a result of her leadership, the UN lifted sanctions on the country’s diamond and forestry sectors and the successful renegotiation of a $1 billion concession agreement with Arcelor Mittal and many other concessionaries was put in place.
Her international approval and lobby prowess led to Liberia’s relief from a $3.7 billion external debt. Several other investment proposals for the reopening of traditional economic activities in the mining and agriculture sector were instituted.
As a superb international player, she and her government were successful in attracting resources from private foundations and individuals in Europe, Canada and the United States thus supplementing Government’s resources in support of activities in infrastructure, education, and health.
After she delivered speeches, several universities provided scholarships for the training of Liberians. Her strong support for private sector endeavor resulted in a pledge and delivery into the Liberian economy of a $31 million facility by Robert L. Johnson at the Clinton Global Initiative in which she participated.
The former Liberian President and her government enjoyed a strong bipartisan support from the U.S. resulting into Liberia’s inclusion in two supplemental budgets and to her well recognized speech at a Joint Meeting of Congress.
In recognition for her tireless efforts to make Liberia a post-conflict success story, Sirleaf was awarded in 2007 the coveted Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by an American president. She also won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
The credibility she brought to national leadership in Liberia made her to serve on many advisory boards and committees. Notably among these are: International Crisis Group (USA); Songhai Financial Holdings Ltd. (Ghana); Center for Africa’s International Relations, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Women’s World Banking (USA); Synergos (USA) and Women Waging Peace (USA). She was a founding member of the International Institute for Women in Political Leadership and has written widely on financial issues, development and human rights.
Several other awards she received from international organizations included the Civil Rights Museum Award (2007); the Africa Prize for the Sustainable End of Hunger (2006); the IRI Freedom Award (2006); the David Rockefeller Leadership Bridging Award (2006) and the Common Ground Award (2006). Special honors received include Commander de l’Ordre du Mono of Togo (1996); Ralph Bunche International Leadership Award (1995); Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom of Speech Award (1988) and the Grand Commander of the Star of Africa Redemption (1980). All these were crowned by the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.
She was one of the seven internationally eminent persons designated in 1999 by the OAU to investigate the Rwanda genocide, one of the five Commission Chairs for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and one of two international experts selected by UNIFEM to investigate and report on the effect of conflict on women and women’s roles in peace building. She was the initial Chairperson of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), and a visiting Professor of Governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
In 2003 when Charles Taylor was exiled to Nigeria and the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was formed, Sirleaf was selected to serve as Chairperson of the Governance Reform Commission where she led the country’s anti-corruption reform by changing the reporting mechanism of the General Auditing Commission from the Executive to the Legislature thereby strengthening and reinforcing its independence. She left this position to successfully contest the 2005 Presidential elections resulting in her historical inauguration on January 16, 2006, as President of Liberia.
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