Will Johnson-Sirleaf deliver to Liberians?
ON January 15, Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was sworn in as the 29th President of the Republic of Liberia, Africa’s oldest modern republican state, founded by freed slaves largely from the USA in 1847.
A PAN-AFRICANIST VIEW - Dr. Tajudeen
ON January 15, Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was sworn in as the 29th President of the Republic of Liberia, Africa’s oldest modern republican state, founded by freed slaves largely from the USA in 1847.
Her election and assumption of office has been rightly celebrated both for its historic significance and symbolic resonance for the continuing struggle for democracy and fullest participation of African women in the affairs of this continent. Her election has lifted the spirits of all those who believe in gender equality and full recognition of Africa’s majority who are women.
It is also another slap in the face of all those Afro- pessimists both African and non-Africans who profit from bad-mouthing Africa and seeing only doomsday scenarios and catastrophe coming out of Africa.
But as we enjoy these positive feelings we should also balance them up with the enormous challenges that Mama Ellen is going to face. How many of those heads of state, prominent politicians, assorted state officials from across the world who were there to shine in the glow of celebrations will still be there for her in a few months’ time?
Would those regional and international leaders who obviously preferred her candidature now be willing to travel the long journey ahead? She will sooner than later discover that she needs more than election war chest pledges to realize the hopes and ambitions of millions of war-ravaged and traumatised Liberians who will be expecting her to be “mama fix it’ of their misruled and abused country.
Her inauguration speech was uplifting, understandably emotional but also highly measured in a way as not to raise too many hopes. She is too much of a seasoned politician and has too long varied experience as a banker, donor dispenser and NGO activist at national and international levels to be that extravagant with her promises.
But her cautious disposition will not stop millions of Liberians from looking up to ‘Mama Ellen’ to fix all the various challenges that have confronted them. She is also not coming in with a clean pair of hands having been part of a previous regime and collaborated with other regimes including that of the pariah of the moment, disgraced and indicted former dictator, Charles Taylor.
While many may see her as a saviour, others will be suspicious and say ‘wait and see’. In a continent that has seen too many false prophets before, it is not an unreasonable attitude. Many of the sit-tight leaders we are moaning about today were once promised messiahs and heroes!
Some of the issues that were raised during the campaigns that may have contributed to her winning the run-off against ‘The Footballer’, George Weah, may actually come back to haunt her. One, the fact of being a woman was an empowering position to be in an election in which women really mattered, not as victims of the wars but also as a agents of change through the transformations that sometimes come with dislocations brought about by prolonged conflicts.
Old barriers break down and sometimes oppressed groups break out and kick up the ceiling. But would Mama Ellen be able to deliver to the women of Liberia? She has been approvingly called ‘The Iron Lady’ comparing her to Britain’s former hardline right wing Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
I am not sure if many British women and men who were victims of Thatcher’s ‘greed is good’ politics and policies that made the rich richer and pauperised the poor even more and women more than men. No doubt there will be more Boubous and Head Gears to compete with the Business Suites around the tables of power. Would this mean prosperity for poor women beyond gender symbolism? Or will it just be a better era for ruling women?
Two, her Harvard University education versus the ‘Street University’ of her main challenger gave the battle a ring of the educated against the illiterate. It is a very dubious issue across Africa. When it comes to the right to vote, we do not have any qualifications but when it comes to being voted for we demand ‘minimum’ qualifications. Does that mean that so-called illiterates have no any other right than to be voting for those who are educated?
In the case of Liberia, Ellen and her generation of politicians share the responsibility for the mass illiteracy in the country. How then can they double- punish the victims of their irresponsible rule as a class?
It is also very strange that George Weah was cleared to contest the election despite being illiterate. If he was cleared to stand, surely he must have passed some ‘education threshold’. Or was he cleared with the hope that he would not win?
Three, a lot was made of her experience as a World Bank staffer and UN bureaucrat.
It is very strange that a continent that was destroyed by following the prescriptions of the Washington twin vultures of IMF/WB through successive failed experiments is suddenly being asked to trust the judgement a former employee of the same institutions! Is Africa now effectively a UN mandate territory that previous experience of the UN is now a prequisite for aspiring to public office?
There were many good reasons why Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf won but the ones stated above are at best very dubious but time will tell.
Congratulations Mama Ellen.
ON January 15, Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, was sworn in as the 29th President of the Republic of Liberia, Africa’s oldest modern republican state, founded by freed slaves largely from the USA in 1847.
Her election and assumption of office has been rightly celebrated both for its historic significance and symbolic resonance for the continuing struggle for democracy and fullest participation of African women in the affairs of this continent. Her election has lifted the spirits of all those who believe in gender equality and full recognition of Africa’s majority who are women.
It is also another slap in the face of all those Afro- pessimists both African and non-Africans who profit from bad-mouthing Africa and seeing only doomsday scenarios and catastrophe coming out of Africa.
But as we enjoy these positive feelings we should also balance them up with the enormous challenges that Mama Ellen is going to face. How many of those heads of state, prominent politicians, assorted state officials from across the world who were there to shine in the glow of celebrations will still be there for her in a few months’ time?
Would those regional and international leaders who obviously preferred her candidature now be willing to travel the long journey ahead? She will sooner than later discover that she needs more than election war chest pledges to realize the hopes and ambitions of millions of war-ravaged and traumatised Liberians who will be expecting her to be “mama fix it’ of their misruled and abused country.
Her inauguration speech was uplifting, understandably emotional but also highly measured in a way as not to raise too many hopes. She is too much of a seasoned politician and has too long varied experience as a banker, donor dispenser and NGO activist at national and international levels to be that extravagant with her promises.
But her cautious disposition will not stop millions of Liberians from looking up to ‘Mama Ellen’ to fix all the various challenges that have confronted them. She is also not coming in with a clean pair of hands having been part of a previous regime and collaborated with other regimes including that of the pariah of the moment, disgraced and indicted former dictator, Charles Taylor.
While many may see her as a saviour, others will be suspicious and say ‘wait and see’. In a continent that has seen too many false prophets before, it is not an unreasonable attitude. Many of the sit-tight leaders we are moaning about today were once promised messiahs and heroes!
Some of the issues that were raised during the campaigns that may have contributed to her winning the run-off against ‘The Footballer’, George Weah, may actually come back to haunt her. One, the fact of being a woman was an empowering position to be in an election in which women really mattered, not as victims of the wars but also as a agents of change through the transformations that sometimes come with dislocations brought about by prolonged conflicts.
Old barriers break down and sometimes oppressed groups break out and kick up the ceiling. But would Mama Ellen be able to deliver to the women of Liberia? She has been approvingly called ‘The Iron Lady’ comparing her to Britain’s former hardline right wing Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.
I am not sure if many British women and men who were victims of Thatcher’s ‘greed is good’ politics and policies that made the rich richer and pauperised the poor even more and women more than men. No doubt there will be more Boubous and Head Gears to compete with the Business Suites around the tables of power. Would this mean prosperity for poor women beyond gender symbolism? Or will it just be a better era for ruling women?
Two, her Harvard University education versus the ‘Street University’ of her main challenger gave the battle a ring of the educated against the illiterate. It is a very dubious issue across Africa. When it comes to the right to vote, we do not have any qualifications but when it comes to being voted for we demand ‘minimum’ qualifications. Does that mean that so-called illiterates have no any other right than to be voting for those who are educated?
In the case of Liberia, Ellen and her generation of politicians share the responsibility for the mass illiteracy in the country. How then can they double- punish the victims of their irresponsible rule as a class?
It is also very strange that George Weah was cleared to contest the election despite being illiterate. If he was cleared to stand, surely he must have passed some ‘education threshold’. Or was he cleared with the hope that he would not win?
Three, a lot was made of her experience as a World Bank staffer and UN bureaucrat.
It is very strange that a continent that was destroyed by following the prescriptions of the Washington twin vultures of IMF/WB through successive failed experiments is suddenly being asked to trust the judgement a former employee of the same institutions! Is Africa now effectively a UN mandate territory that previous experience of the UN is now a prequisite for aspiring to public office?
There were many good reasons why Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf won but the ones stated above are at best very dubious but time will tell.
Congratulations Mama Ellen.