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 In 2005
as part of the Accra agreement to end the war, national elections were
held to usher in a new democratic government to steer the country
towards reconciliation, sustainable peace and development. For the
presidency, almost two dozens people expressed interest. And at the end
of the process, few individuals were left standing after the others
were eliminated. Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf stood out as one of the
viable people left standing. Her supporters including yours truly,
highlighted her as the most qualified to lead the country.
She is a woman first of all and it is a universal notion that women are always well suited to get into confused situations and steer things correctly because of their high ability to be compassionate and nurturing. So, a nation just getting out of a brutal war needs a woman to reconcile the people and as a representative show a human face of Liberia to the curious world community.
In addition and more importantly, she is a trained national and international civil servant. She holds a Harvard Master and has worked with such institutions as the United Nations, African Development Bank, City Bank etc. She was also Liberia’s finance minister. Liberia therefore, the argument goes, will be well served after the civil war, with a government headed by a Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. A lot of Liberians bought that argument and elected madam president in the run-off election. Since her election, a lot of good things have been happening in Liberia. She restored our national sovereignty and international standing as a nation-state. The international community has shown 100 percent support to Liberia’s reconstruction efforts. In fact a lot of progress have been made in terms of the infrastructure of the country.
But the only problem that has the potential to impede the progress, taint her legacy and perhaps set Liberia back in chaos is Corruption. The type of grafts and public stealing that was responsible for Liberia’s violent upheavals and civil wars. It is like Liberians have no conscience. Here is a nation which was in a brutal civil war for over fourteen odd years with over three hundred thousands of its men, women and children dead, all infrastructure destroyed, thousands and thousands of its citizens displaced, some in refugee camps throughout the world and all over the country. Yet, we are still doing business as usual. I want to believe that the level of corruption in Sirleaf-Johnson government is as high as the Charles Taylor, Samuel Doe and William Tolbert administrations. But perhaps the level of corruption in Sirleaf-Johnson government is so pronounced because of the availability of information through the internet and I guess also because of the vigilance of the Liberian public. Credit should be given to madam president for allowing so much press freedom and public scrutiny that comes with this freedom. The international community should also be commended for providing this oversight.
But there is so much our stomach can take as to how much of this corruption madam president can tolerate. If you can keep count, there is scandal in virtually every ministry and public corporation in Monrovia. As Liberians, a lot of us are not surprise considering the influx of money from the international community whose conscience was touched by the inhumanity and brutality of the civil war, and the tendency of Liberians to steal public money they have access to. But madam president has a moral responsibility to reign in public corruption. She campaigned on the pledge to do just that. We believe her because she has experience working with international institutions which have institutional mechanisms to detect and prevent public corruption. We believed in her because we see her as someone who has compassion and love her country and its citizens. And considering the price of corruption, any leader will appreciate the connection between public corruption and impoverishment of the population. If money is made available to build a school or a clinic and some official embezzle the money, the people who were intended to get services form the school and a clinic are sore losers. Thus the multiplication of poverty and material deprivation throughout the country. That has been Liberia’s history.
Recently though, madam president has taking steps to reclaim her legacy. She is seeing as no longer protecting some of her allies who are caught in financial scandals. Take Harry Greaves, former managing director of the Liberian petroleum Refinery Corporation. This is a very trained Liberian, who is also very good at manipulation and is upright corrupt. This man’s name has been connected to a lot of financial scandals but always, he talks himself out of everything with his smooth manipulative skills. But recently, the president has had enough and dismissed him from his position as md of LPRC. She should go further than that. Greaves should be investigated and prosecuted.
Then there is information minister, Laurence Bropleh. This is a man who gives bad name to patriotism. He speaks like the greatest patriot there ever was. But according to allegations against him, he is involved in a lot of fraudulent acts, padding payroll with people who do not know that they are budgeted to get salaries from the Liberian government. Our so-called educated elites recruited from abroad to give their expertise to the reconstruction efforts are the most corrupt. I learned that some people are paid more money for performing jobs that others are performing at lesser salaries. The Liberian government is paying some people twelve thousand US dollars per month because these people allegedly were earning huge salaries in America when they were recruited to go to Liberia. I wonder what kind of jobs some of these people were doing that were paying them such salaries. Even medical doctors don’t earn such huge salaries. Does the government consider the cost of living in Liberia as compare to the United States before giving these salaries?
Madam president must continue to clean house. I believe that the new Justice Minister who seems to be thorough, will help the president to identify those Liberians who don’t have conscience and don’t take the peculiar condition of the country and its people into consideration and want to enrich themselves at the expense of poverty stricken and helpless Liberians, to book and prosecuted. Set the example madam president and deal with them according to the law. Your legacy will be reclaimed.
Joseph Kweedy Solo,
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remember cause and effect your cousin M/sgt. Doe is responsible for the effect... 
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