George Weah Taking on 170-Year Challenges of Liberia by Moses Kulo

Author:Moses Kulo [Kulo, Moses]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642982374
Google: hsUxuQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 40832147
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
Published: 2018-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 2. Executive Mansion in Monrovia, 2009

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s Agenda

Every leader who occupied the Executive Mansion and led Liberia in the past 170 years had an agenda that focused on many of the problems in the country. Unfortunately, no leader was successful in addressing a single critical issue mainly due to at least one or more of the following reasons: the leader’s poor judgment, incompetent staff, corruption, and inability to follow established protocols by the people in each administration. Many international experts on Africa thought Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female democratically elected president in Africa, could be the first to provide solutions to the nation’s social, economic, education, infrastructure, and healthcare challenges. Those experts were wrong. President Johnson holds a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University. She worked at the World Bank in Washington DC. Later, she returned to Liberia and served as deputy minister of finance and minister of finance in the Tolbert’s administration from 1977 to 1980. President Johnson made the worst strategic blunder in history after the civil war when she approved exorbitant salaries and benefits for ministers, directors, legislators, and other top employees in her government.

After the civil war, mostly Liberian government depends on donors to provide essential services in the country since the war destroyed many sources of national revenues. Limited revenues forced her to divert the funds received from donors for national development to pay salaries. Also, her government was paralyzed by corruption. The most important responsibility of the president is to make sure that the key government officials honestly and fairly perform their official duties in the interest of the state and people. Many of her government officials accepted bribes and made decisions, not in the interest of the state and people. For example, the Sable Mining Company bribed some of her officials with $950,000 (US dollars) for a favorable contract. Lack of drastic penalties for public officials who committed crimes contributed to rampant corruption in Africa (Okekeocha, 2013). Limited fund and corruption in government ended President Sirleaf’s dream of laying the foundation to turn Liberia into a middle-class nation by 2030.

Liberia’s future leaders need to learn a valuable lesson here. Corruption is the threat to prosperity in Liberia. Your determination to bring social and economic well-being, rebuild Liberia’s infrastructure, education, healthcare system, and agricultural industry will fail if you surround yourself with dishonest and corrupt officials. Leading in Liberia is a daunting task that requires more robust and aggressive approach to stop corruption, which is the real threat any modern president faces.

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