EDITORIAL: Our Heartfelt Felicitations, Ma Ellen, On Your 86th Natal Feat

IT HAS GOT to be God. Only God. Reflecting on what the number 86 is, particularly in these domains of ours, and not forgetting the clearly grueling paths the Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has threaded in terms of struggles and battles she fought, survived and won, we can only thank God for her. And, very passionately, we join all other well-meaning Liberians, her families and international friends, to say, “All Hail Ma Ellen, Happy Birthday!”

INDEED, WE SALUTE her most profoundly on the occasion of her 86th birth anniversary which we have no doubt she is, and must be, celebrating with the hugest of fanfares and deep reflections ever. We think it would be a great fanfare for many reasons: firstly, not only because this is her seven years of celebration of this very important day after your 12-year leadership, but also because she continues to remain engaged, active and relevant in national and international affairs that help humanity.

IN THIS COUNTRY where people look for the faintest error to criticize and demonize, and where the smile of the President is mistaken for teasing a suffering people and a frown is misread as a worry for incapacity of the President to lead well, it was difficult for the former president to celebrate while in office with all delight and satisfaction. She kept her personal joy and celebrations low-keyed, reflecting her humility, empathy and support to the rest of the citizens.

WE ALSO THINK today should and must be a huge celebration because when she looks back to the last 12 years when Liberia was under her leadership, the success stories will be found enormous and diverse for this long backward country which she once upon the time inherited when everything was dire. Madam Sirleaf took over this country when oil lamps were the order of the day in homes, even of urban citizens, and when light-driven bulbs were scarce if not nonexistent in nearly all homes. But then she brought in small light which was followed by big light for several homes and places. She laid a strong cornerstone of governance which her successors now and in the future would have difficulties to undo.

LIBERIANS WOULD RECALL that prior to 2006 before she took the mantle of power, Liberia’s external debt stood at $4.9 billion dollars. By 2014, she made it nonexistent. This huge financial debt had not been serviced for over 20 years. Millions of Liberians were scattered around the world, many of them vowing never to return because to Liberia due the bad living conditions at home.

IN A FEW years, nearly all displaced Liberians returned to their original towns and cities, and exiled citizens returned home. In 2006, the reserves of the Central Bank were a mere US$5 million but over a hundred million was left upon her departure.

BEFORE HER ADVENT in 2006 as President, bad laws were on the book restraining freedom of the person and discriminatory to children and women, and supportive of corruption and graft. But she led a government that successfully scrapped those draconian laws and replaced them with ones that increased the democratic space, rescued freedom of speech and of the press and brought women and children in the center stage of national participation and equity.

INDEED, LIBERIA WAS a pariah in the global community before she took over in 2006 but when she exited in 2018, our country had taken its rightful place in the comity of nation; all kings and queens and powerful nations dined with her, right here on the ground in Liberia. Before her tenure began in 2006, there was no history of this country telling that a democratically elected president ever turned over political power successfully particularly in the 73 years preceding her.

Indeed, the transformation in human conditions and in national revival achieved under Madam Sirleaf’s leadership (2006 – 2018) is deep and wide to be recounted in a single write-up of this nature. All we can say as a nation and people is to pay her lavish tributes on this 86th birthday of yours, and to make her see and know that we are a grateful people, appreciative of all her redemptive strides that brought us hope socially, economically and politically.

AT THE GLOBAL level, the former Liberian president remain a firm pathfinding czar for global pandemic and intractable social and political crises. Africa relies her as all other developing countries for whom she has joined forces to find solutions to problems afflicting their peoples. She is indeed a pride not only of Liberia but the global community.

MAY WE THEREFORE hail and salute her fervently and heartedly on this glorious day of hers which brought pride and honor not only to her family but also to this nation and Africa.

On this very important day, here is our last words to the celebrate: Madam Sirleaf, we call upon you not to give up but to continue to remain engaged with Liberians as well as their new government as we all strive to pick up where you left it.

LET IT BE known that one of your greatest achievements in life would be the success of your successor. It is only when your successor succeeds that history will treat you kindly. This is how it will be etched in the hearts of Liberians that you actually succeeded as the 23rd President of Liberia. When this successor government fails, history will not be kind to you. It would be recorded that you also failed.

DON’T TURN YOUR back on the new Government nor on the people of Liberia. You are as relevant towards continued national stability and transformation as you were as President. The world trusts your wisdom and their counsel. Liberians depend on your natural gift as an industrious and farsighted person. You still possess these qualities even out of the presidency and at 86 years. And the world knows how you are leveraging your Kru-Gola gene and acumen for the good of all humanity.

HATS UP, MADAM Sirleaf. Happy Birthday, Ma Ellen. God Bless!!

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