A vanguard Liberian advocate and founder of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), Dr. Togba Nah Tipoteh turned 78 years on July 17, 2019. In his initial Birthday’s message yesterday, Dr. Tipoteh said: “As I become 78 years of age on July 17th through the Grace of God, I am sharing my gifts with our people by supporting the Miss Liberia, Wokie Dolo, Garbage Disease Prevention Project and calling on Liberians and Friends of Liberia to support the Project because it is Saving Lives,”
Born 1941 in Monrovia onto the union of Rev. and Mrs. Samuel Togba Roberts of Grand Kru County, Dr. Tipoteh who is also an economist, educator and politician was educated at the College of West Africa (high school) and at the University of Liberia.
He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Ohio University (Athens) and Ohio State University in Columbus, USA in June 1963 and 1964 respectively.
In 1969, Dr. Tipoteh earned a doctorate degree in economics while studying as a Harvard University/United Nations Special Fund Fellow in Economic Development at the University of Nebraska. In the early 1970s, Dr. Tipoteh was Associate Professor of Economics, Chair of the Economics Department and Director of the Management Research Institute at the University of Liberia (1971-1974).
For more than three decades, Dr. has been actively involved with democratic activities in promotion of human rights, liberties, constitutional rule and growth with development in Liberia and throughout Africa.
He served as President of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA); was founding Chairman of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), an alliance of Liberian political parties; was founder and Director-General of Susukuu Incorporated (1971- ), Liberia’s oldest non-governmental development organization, which was credited by the West Africa Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) as helping to disarm over 10,000 combatants and child soldiers in Liberia during the 1997 disarmament program through a school for gun program.
Besides, Dr. Tipoteh was former Chairman of the Interest Groups of Liberia, a consortium of 32 national organizations with a collective membership of well over one million persons. He has worked in international development in the United States, the Netherlands, Mozambique, Ghana, South Africa and other countries, as well as for the United Nations system: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Economic Community (ECA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), among others.
For more than three decades, Dr. Tipoteh has been actively involved with democratic activities in promotion of human rights, liberties, constitutional rule and growth with development in Liberia and throughout Africa.
Dr. Tipoteh is President of the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA); was founding Chairman of the Collaborating Political Parties (CPP), an alliance of Liberian political parties; and was founder and Director-General of Susukuu Incorporated (1971), Liberia’s oldest non-governmental development organization.
Susukuu Incorporated was credited by the West Africa Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) as helping to disarm over 10,000 combatants and child soldiers in Liberia during the 1997 disarmament program through a school for gun program. The political economist was former Chairman of the Interest Groups of Liberia, a consortium of 32 national organizations with a collective membership of well over one million persons.
The celebrant He has worked in international development in the United States, the Netherlands, Mozambique, Ghana, South Africa and other countries, as well as for the United Nations system: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Economic Community (ECA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), among others.
Regarding his political activities Dr. Tipoteh in 1973 founded the Movement for Justice in Africa (MOJA), a leftist pan-African political organization which played a pivotal role in the struggle for social justice and democracy in Liberia in the 1970s. He served as a Budget Advisor to Liberian President William R. Tolbert, in which position he expressed concerns about government waste and advocated public management reforms.
10 years later 1983 after the founding of MOJA, the Liberian People’s Party (LPP) was formed as the electoral wing of MOJA. In Liberia’s 1997 elections Tipoteh, ran as the presidential candidate of the LPP, winning 1.61% of the vote. In Liberia’s 2005 elections, Tipoteh was the candidate for the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, an alliance of the LPP and another veteran opposition movement, the United People’s Party (UPP), winning 2.3%. In Liberia’s 2011 elections, he was the candidate of the Freedom Alliance Party of Liberia (FAPL).
Dr. Tipoteh is also a businessman, and serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Kukatornon Reconstruction Corporation. Through his scholarship program, he mentors and sends hundreds of students (mainly children) from all counties of Liberia to schools and colleges in Liberia.
He married the former Ms. Fatu Kanneh of Lofa County and they have an adopted son, a former child soldier from war lord Charles Taylor’s NPFL.
To his admirers he is known as “the only man on the ground” – the only presidential candidate to remain in Liberia after the 1997. Tipoteh, wearing an Obama T-shirt the last weekend of the US Presidential election, endorsed Barack Obama of the Democratic Party, predicting that Obama would win the election.
He won several awards, including an Award for Courage conferred upon him by the National Internally Displaced People Association (NIDPA) – a Liberian Civil society organization with membership from nine displaced camps; d for work on Justice, Democracy and Peace, he received the Golden Image Award of Liberia; Member, Omicron Delta Epsilon, Economics Honor Society of the United States of America; Inaugural Lecturer of the African Academy of Sciences Lecture Series; Inducted into the Order of African Redemption with the Rank of Grand Band; Man of the Year, as selected by media entities; Politician of the Year, as selected by media entities; Honored as Undefeated Retired Tennis Champion of Liberia for thirty consecutive years (1964-1994) amongst others.
The acclaimed Liberian politician, academician, advocate, social worker and a distinguished economist and is grateful to the almighty God whose manifold blessings have reached him thus far.
The Management and Staff of the Liberian Analyst Corporation, Publisher of The Analyst Newspaper join Dr. Tipoteh’s family, friends and well-wishers to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY Doc, our ONLY MAN WHO WAS ON THE GROUND during Liberia’s turbulent time (the civil conflict). We wish you good health and long life.
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