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Sirleaf:Thirty Minutes With Africa’s First Female President
By: Jim Pressman, Abuja-based Gender Reporter
Newsdiaryonline Sat Sep 10,2011
It is not often that a lucky reporter gets a one – on – one with
a busy President, even at home, let alone one who is on a
hectic, 2-day working visit to
Nigeria
as a Keynote Lecturer at an important seminar. This, however,
was what happened in
Abuja
September 6, 2011 at about 11 a.m. on the 7th Floor
of the Transcorp Hilton hotel President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia,Africa’s first Female President. The
following are excerpts from the conversation with a select
number of reporters …
Elections are up in October and you want another term in office,
why?
We inherited a broken country. Six years on however, we have
made significant progress, mobilized $16 billion in capital and
improved the economy; the education system, put a new army in
place and cleaned up our country’s image.
The basic freedoms have also been restored, such that people
have freedom of association, expression and worship in the way
of the religion s of their choices, etc… The things we have done
are there for everybody to see and we welcome you to come and
visit and make your own assessment.
There is a general impression that you have done quite a lot. Is
it that high profile that is making you want to run for another
term in office?
No, not just that profile. We have come a long way, and want to
move the country to the other level. Generational change will
come. I have many young people around me waiting on the
sidelines to take over…
Opposition appears to be getting stronger despite your
acknowledged
performance?
It is really the beauty of democracy, which allows for freedom
of expression and so on. But they are only just trying to band
together knowing that not any one of them, alone, can beat me.
At 72, Madam, are you still adequately mentally alert to cope
with another term in office?
Oh yes, I am mentally alert and, I daresay, physically fit too!
[General laughter] I cope pretty well and I get around
daily, without any problems…
So, are there some things you started which you would rather
finish and which you feel might suffer if you did not get
re-elected?
We have still, a large number of unskilled and illiterate
Liberians, mostly soldiers in the course of the Civil War, who
need to be educated and equipped with useful skills.
Liberia
still has a large member of young, able bodied persons with
little or no formal education, and no useful skills which can
get them meaningful employment.
We need therefore to open up the nation’s economy in the years
ahead, to create jobs and train people in vocations in large,
critical mass. That, is the biggest challenge we face now.
So, where are the resources for you to achieve at that?
Well, Liberia is small, but it is not a poor country. We are
only 3.8million people, but we have many other resources beside
the human resource, which was depleted by the war, so we need to
revamp that…
What are you doing on the issue of corruption on Liberia?
There is corruption in Liberia, systemic and
societal; so we have a two – pronged approach
to it prevention, and punishment, knowing it is pervasive,
taking place at high levels, internal and external; sadly also
goes beyond government, to the private sector, private
contractors, the Civil Society, the United Nations, diplomatic
missions as well as the Media and even in the churches…
In Liberia, before digitization, everything was in the books
before, whereby people could change things, make alterations.
People need to see that Liberian context, to really understand
the situation. The punishment side is not yet functioning as it
should the Judiciary is independent lent the effects of the war
and the need for survival which ruled people’s lives while the
war lasted and gave room for brazen acts corruption, are yet to
be conquered completely.
How have human rights issues helped or impeded your corruption
drive?
Those who say I am not had enough on alleged corruption in our
government do not get I they say a man is deem innocent, until
proved guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction! Yes there
are 3-year –old cases in court; people say we are not hard
enough on government officials “known” to be corrupt. We have to
follow the rule of law, but you wait until are of the relations
friends is involved, and they will besiege my residence begging
me to be gentle with them … [General laughter]
Nigeria has played and continues to play a major role in
Liberia: what is the level of the relations between the two
countries and what is in Liberia for Nigeria in the
reconstruction efforts and business investment, for instance?
Liberia is a small economy with per capita in come which is
minute. Nigerians are not yet able to go in there with the same
aggression they would go into somewhere bigger.
But then we are now opening up the economy and individual
Nigerians already in there doing business but we cannot yet
attract big Nigerian entities to come in.
You are a women in high office have you sensed on experience
only gender based discrimination among your peers?
No, I have not suffered any gender affront as president. Before
becoming president I had established myself as a woman, working
for and earning acceptance, the hard way I am a 40-year veteran
of African development, worked in the United Nations and the
World Bank and I have been a minister of finance…
You procured some dept relief; but we hear the debt profile is
on Liberian the rise again?
No, that is not true as we grow the economy and increase the
GDP, we enhance our capacity to borrow for development purposes;
if that is interpreted as growing debt profile, the view is
wrong.
What its Liberia’s position on the recognition for the National
Transition Council (NTC) in
Libya?
Liberia follows the African Union position which itself is not
always a consensus, but we are waiting for the appropriate
moment to make our stand known.
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