It was not a sound-bite filled speech. There were moments when the audience busted out laughing. There were times when people couldn’t tell if they should applaud, laugh or remain quiet. At least on two occasions, she waited, just for a split seconds and people applauded. For any other occasions, with any other reader, the speech may have been a bit long. However, as the saying goes, it is not always about what is in the speech, but rather how it is rendered that makes a world of difference in how people react to it.

The atmosphere in the newly renovated Capitol Building, with its flush carpeting, new-locally made chairs, fresh paint and marble floor gave the tone of things to come. A new Liberia? Not yet. A new nation in the making? Definitely. Unlike last year, there was no controversy as to where the annual speech was to be delivered. The House of Representatives and The Senate convened their special session to go through a ceremonial event that went beyond pageantry and glamour: it was a State of the Nation speech, with numbers, programs and a few ideas on the way forward.

As it is customary, the President outlined the progress made by government in several areas. She went from one ministry to another, at times seamlessly, at times with some negotiations because she was visibly taking shortcuts. As usual, every department of government, from the ministry of state to that of public works, sent in their performance reports, incorporating the last and smallest achievement. The report card was positive on many aspects. Debt relief, roads, schools, health, foreign affairs, higher education, security sector reform, it was all on the menu.

Among the success stories of the past year, President Sirleaf highlighted the bureau of passport at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, once a corrupt and inefficient office that epitomized everything that was wrong with Liberia bureaucracy, has now become one of the great success stories of this administration, through the work of Ms. Mary Broh. Ms Broh, one of the people who followed Mrs. Sirleaf in her quest for reform, gave up her life in New York and moved back to Liberia two years ago. Mary Broh did well, the President said. People remember how she transformed Broad Street. Now she has applied the same creative leadership to the passport office: she cleaned it, made it efficient and streamlined the process. She received two ovations from the jam-packed room in less than two minutes when the President praised her. If the rumors of her being on the president’s short list of Mayor for Monrovia ever become reality, the Liberian capital could benefit from her creative energy.

Another area of satisfaction that President Sirleaf mentioned was LPRC, the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Corporation. She said the corporation had US $50,000 cash two years ago and now it has US $7 million in the bank. It provided severance pay to some 400 employees and gave government US $500, 000. LPRC has been in controversy for years, because of its potentials to generate cash and also because it served as cash cow to past regimes. The most recent manager, Edwin Snowe, also former Speaker of the House built mansions in a few years after assuming the position under Charles Taylor. So far, Harry Greaves has been battling every possible demon and ghost to show that he was doing business the right way, that he was serving his country well and that he was taking LPRC to a new dimension. The President gave him credit for his work it and the cash in the bank serves as proof. The Post and telecommunications sector has also known a boost. A friend in the US said he had tears in his eyes when he received a letter postmarked from Monrovia.

Everything was not rosy and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf cuts no corners when she has something on her mind. She said the price of commodities was going up simply because the National Port Authority and other ministries involved in the process of importing those commodities were corrupt. She did not mince her words and more than once, she said that corruption was well and alive in Liberia. How to combat this corruption poses new challenges. The President said she was sending to the House a bill that contains incentives for whistle blowers. This is an important step in fighting theft, waste and inefficiency. If passed into law, the bill will serve as an incentive for people come forward and report corrupt practices that they witness every day in every office around the nation. The President said on several occasions that she would dismiss people on rumors of corruption; hopefully, the whistle blower legislation will give ample proofs to work with.

Talking about the recently completed JallahTown road in Monrovia, she said it was part of the learning process. The entire audience burst out laughing, because, as a road and construction engineer put it, this road “is a shame for Liberian engineering.” The President did not elaborate and when the laugher quieted down, she simply moved to another area. She talked about the many roads that are now being repaired throughout the country. Hopefully, not by the same group that did the JallahTown road...

Education, the backbone of any society made great strides. There are now more than one million students in various schools, from the primary to the secondary. The Ministry of Education has started special accelerated programs for kids who missed out on school during the war years. Teacher training institutions now operate and many schools have been rebuilt, especially in the rural area.

She announced the end of prosecution of former Speaker George Koukou who has been on trial with Charles Julu for attempting to overthrow the government. The president however added that the rest of the group will be submitted to the entire judicial process.

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital was another success story. A team of dedicated Liberian doctors and administrators seconded by visiting staff from the People’s Republic of China, Egypt, the Clinton/Yale foundation and under the leadership of Dr. Wvannie Scott-McDonald are resurrecting an institution that, just a few years ago, was nicknamed “Just for Killing.” They are performing something close to a miracle.

Governance reform has been a key issue for the president and in her speech she gave Dr. Amos Sawyer and his team a two-year time frame to address some of the key constitutional and governance issues that have made the constitution almost an obsolete document. Land tenure, citizenship, decentralization with elections for mayors and superintends. She said these reforms cannot be done on an ad hoc basis and will be submitted to a national referendum. She mentioned the plight of the Diaspora regarding dual citizenship. In the early days, the writers of the constitution were dealing with a recent past in slavery and in the 1985 constitution, to urgency to return to civilian rule did not provide ample time and focus to deal with certain critical issues. For the second time in his lifetime, Dr. Amos Sawyer will again try to fix the Liberian constitution.

The President closed her speech by calling on all Liberians to join her in welcoming the President of the United States, George W. Bush, scheduled to visit Monrovia in February 2008. President Bush has played a key role in the Liberian peace process and its aftermath. His call on President Charles Taylor to step down and leave the country so that peace could take hold in 2003 was the first direct involvement of the US at that level in the Liberian civil war. The US also took the leadership in setting up the United Nations peace keeping force and later, showed the way in Liberia’s debt relief. Coming to Monrovia, President Bush will visit the only capital in the world without electricity and running water.

Fight against HIV/AIDS will be prominent on the US President Africa tour. But in as much as HIV/AIDS is a problem on the continent, its incidence in Liberia stands below 2 percent, much lower than Washington, DC. Therefore, it is not the most urgent issue in this country. What Liberia needs is a Marshall Plan of its own, to enter the 21st Century. Liberia needs a rescue program that would provide safe drinking water and electricity to every Liberian. President Bush’s visit will put Liberia on the radar in the US. It must serve to attract American investments and not charity. It must serve to showcase Liberia’s potentials. In the end, it must also be translated into a serious economic stimulus and not the occasion for hand-outs. Electricity remains the greatest economic challenge in the country. Usually, investors in the 21st don’t think about bringing their own source of power when they look for countries to expand their business..

Ultimately, as President Sirleaf put it, the reconstruction of Liberia lies squarely on the shoulders of Liberians but they will need help to jump start the process. That help must not be determined by the quantity of disposable charity that other nations want to give away but rather by the true developmental needs of the nation. The US can assist and can make a very low cost political success in Liberia that could serve it Africa political interest. And Liberia deserves it, for standing by US in times of need. Liberia paid a dear price for supporting US Cold War policies in the 1980s.

There is a new nation in the making. A friend who works at the United Nations office in Monrovia said these were exciting times to be in Liberia. The energy is almost palpable at street level. The biggest challenge remains changing people’s mentality, from one of welfare and dependent society with its attending complexes to a “can do it ourselves mentality.” This will take a strong leadership. Someone in attendance at the Capitol said that the reconstruction of Liberia will demand stubbornness and patience and added, “Ma Ellen has plenty of both.”

---

© 2008 by The Perspective
E-mail: editor@theperspective.org

To Submit article for publication, go to the following URL: http://www.theperspective.org/submittingarticles.html