By Ike Coleman
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
January 6, 2022
Some people live for fame and some people live for fortune; some people want it all and some want everything. These are lyrics from the music “I Ain’t Got You,” sung by the beautiful Alicia Keys, but which truly describe every contemporary Liberian leader, beginning with William Tubman, an opportunistic dictator, whose leadership as president crossed over from the 1940s into the early 1970s. He supposedly was Liberia’s 18th president, having ruled for 27-years as a dictator at the core, but did not clad himself in a military outfit, as did the majority of Africa’s coup leaders of the 1980s. There are a few that still do—Mali coup leader, for instance.
Taking it all together, Liberia remains an underdeveloped nation in areas that matter most—infrastructure, skilled human resources necessary to attract foreign investments, the standard of living condition, quality of education, healthcare, social welfare delivery, and poverty—the biggest Human Misery of them all. So much so, former President Johnson-Sirleaf, despite her educational credentials, over which the Liberian media salivated, proved incapable of seeing Liberia for what it was—a beaten-down country needing a jolt from a dogged, visionary leader. A leader not just eager to be president, but one that was capable of flagging national infrastructure dilapidation and transforming same, in ways to reflect an adjustment toward the 21st century.
A well-traveled individual, Ellen did not understand that the decent highways she traveled in the US, Europe, and parts of Africa had everything to do with creative, perceptive leaders, who understood that without a damn good national road network, moving consumer goods and services would be doomsday for their general population. Those leaders were provident, knowing that, unlike Liberia, the capital city wasn’t the only town on which to focus. The smartest political leaders in developed and developing countries also understood the importance of creating opportunities in other locales around their respective countries to diffuse congestion and stench, which Monrovia now represents.
They may not realize, much less admit it. But Liberians by nature are so impressed by educational credentials—purely “textbook education,” that the local media dismissed separating Ellen’s ability to perform and produce substantive outcomes, versus her education and international work history that shoved papers much more than making technical decisions. After her presidency, Liberians could hardly distinguish between her job performance related to national infrastructure development, compared to Charles Taylor’s, controlling for his war of personal convenience. A panoramic view of Liberia—considering the “jungle” it was when she was Finance Minister in the 1970s, suggested she hardly did any better than semi-literate Samuel Doe, for those that can use the 1980s as a benchmark for comparison.Liberians could rightly argue that Ellen's performance as president for twelve years, suggested she was a less than agile, "warm body President, whose lifelong dream was always to ascend to that position, regardless of what the results of her performance were. That is if you realized the condition in which she handed the country to George Weah.
For Christ's sake, it was as if she could not envision a different Liberia in the mid-2000s from the 1970s when she was Finance Minister, and infrastructure—mainly inter-and intra-county road conditions were a dud. In the 1970s, Ellen as Finance Minister, and then President in the mid-2000s could not drive around Liberia comfortably to admire the beauty of the country without getting brushed off with a reddish hue on dusty “superhighways” during the dry season and getting stuck due to the muddy mess during heavy rains? Now that it is George Weah's turn, he doesn't seem to be doing much better, given numerous complaints about the continued dire situation of destitution experienced by the majority of Liberians. Many that voted for Mr. Weah that has begun to sour him on him, foresaw a transformative leader that was prepared to forego the old ways of how best to take Liberia through a practical turnabout. They saw in him a young president who would decidedly, collaboratively rescue this generation from the burden inadvertently placed on it by what Ellen’s 1970s generation did not do as a foundational remedy.One such challenge was creating a new Business Renaissance after the Tubman era, whereby young Liberians could have begun to learn the value of hard work and self-reliance. Instead, by example, every social science college-educated individual—the likes of Amos Sawyer, Fahnbulleh, Baccus Matthew, Tipoteh...saw government as the go-to, to derive financial independence, without having to dirty their hands. Theirs was a concerted effort to agitate Tolbert, hoping to replace him. But last I checked, only one person at a time can occupy the presidency.
They weren’t leaders capable of training young Liberians at the time about the value of hard work. They were too busy trying to be political leaders without any previous work history at the time. They used their newfound advanced degrees to cynically orchestrate political movements whereby they would be the talking heads and the brain while using young, ill-informed students at the time as the “force” to disrupt government functions. To date, none of them can point to any indelible contributions that say, “we can draw a decent pension” because we helped build a robust working middle class. To that end, their advocacy for the government to be everything to everybody contributed to making the Liberian government the single biggest employer.Rather than creating jobs, a government’s priority is mainly to create a conducive environment that allows businesses to flourish, including preventing monopolistic controls. Businesses created by the working middle class—which Liberia lacks, collectively pay the bulk of tax revenue to churn economic activities. With so many Ministers, Deputy, Deputy-Assistance, Assistant-Assistant, Director…. you know where we are going with this, how could there be a functioning private sector when a much higher percentage of budgetary appropriations are slated for administrative costs, corruption and theft?
In Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Kenya, for example, international conferences are held from time to time in cities other than the capital because of adequate road, transportation, and housing investment. Like Ellen, President Weah cannot boast of transforming any other parts of the country where he or future presidents could take a vacation at a resort. Shall we call it a presidential retreat! Be it by lake Peso in Cape Mount, along the Farmington River in Marshall, et al, that does not exist. So, then, Liberian politicians take vacations with families in Philly, Staten Island, Cleveland…because they all lack the wherewithal to see the value in building and gentrifying new communities with basic utility services. Like Ellen, President Weah couldn’t dare invite foreign dignitaries to Liberia for a conference outside Monrovia. How would he house them for an overnight stay; what roads would they travel during the dry season, if their hair, clothing, and nose follicles do not change to a reddish hue from so much dust? Neither could they travel during the rainy season for fear they may never get there due to washed-up roads.
Whenever Ellen got sick of smelling the stench of Monrovia due to the lack of the necessary infrastructure for waste management—garbage disposal via incineration, landfill management, to say the least, she took time for a “rest” in the US. Many Liberian joked that her unwillingness to invest in the healthcare/medical industry, forced her to travel to the US for a minor toothache. Arguably taking as many vacations, especially in the US was not without their benefits. Aside from visiting her son—a doctor, in North Carolina as frequently as she did, it may have been an opportunity to do business as she did with Wachovia Bank. According to a leaked document, Ellen’s son—Rob, managed whatever account(s) she maintained with Wachovia—a subsidiary of Bank of America.
Given that no administration ever demonstrated the fortitude to build a productive economy, emphasizing private sector investment, which in turn helped to foster a robust pension regime, Liberian politicians closest to the seat of power have a penchant to die in office stealing because they cannot retire and draw a decent pension in their “golden” years. Hence, according to the leaked document, Ellen’s generosity—drawing on Wachovia Bank account(s), through her son Rob, was a goodwill financial gesture that helped a limited number of former public servants, who were broke, and had grown too old to serve.In the times preceding Ellen's participation as a Cabinet officer in the 1970s, William Tubman not only used government funding to create a private zoo in Totota, Bong County, but selfishly extended a two-lane paved road to this privately owned, but a government-funded zoo. It was done to accommodate his comfort whenever he left Monrovia to “rest,” as they used to say. Tolbert, in 1976-77 began a road-building project that further extended that so-called highway toward Ganta, Nimba, which was insufficient. Notwithstanding, kudos to him, because since his death in 1980 after nine years as president, no succeeding president has invested more in education than Tolbert—and that includes Ellen’s twelve years. As if young Liberians were on the precipice of a promising future based on what Tolbert called “Total involvement for higher heights,” in a “wholesome functioning society,” it was he that introduced the nation to the initiative of private fund-raising for charitable purposes. His Rally Time Project, whose efforts raised millions from businesses—foreign and domestic, and working people, provided funding for new dormitories at private schools like Cuttington, Lutheran Training Institute (LTI), Ricks Institute….
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