9 May 2008
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President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf arrived in the country from the U.S., Monday this week, where she underwent medical check-ups, held talks with U.S. business executives, and picked up a number of university degrees and laurels for her work.
Upon touchdown, she addressed the media on major issues facing the country, amongst them the high prices of consumer commodities and the involvement of the political opposition in seeking solutions to problems facing the nation.
Transcription Of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Press Conference At The Roberts International Airport In Margibi County, Following Her Arrival From Visits To Denmark And The United States Of America On Monday, May 5, 2008. Transcript provided by the Office of the Press Secretary to the President.
Prez. Sirleaf: Joe and my very close entrusted colleague, Mr. Pro Temp, President Pro Temp of the Senate, and all the Honorable members from the Senate here from the Senate, Representatives, Ministers, Officials of government, Unity Party partisans, Superintendents, friends, as well as well wishers. Thank you for the warm welcome, I am back! (Applause)....
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrived home Monday evening to a rousing welcome, following a visit abroad which took her to Denmark and the United States.
... Let me just a make a few comments on some of the topical issues that have been under discussion during my absence. Armed robbery: Let me commend the Minister of Justice, the Liberia National Police, UNMIL and all those who have worked collaboratively to be able to bring this situation under control.
I have monitored it from were I was and I know that the incidences have reduced sharply. The program for the protection of our citizens will continue, and I believe all citizens now embrace what may be called tough actions, but actions that needed to be taken to bring that situation to what it is; so we will continue to do that. (Applause...)
...And to give the ministers and security services all the support that they need to enable them to protect our citizens; that's one of the first responsibilities of any government.
Eh...what has happened with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is indeed unfortunate.
Eh, just before I left, I did get a letter about the suspension of Commissioner Pearl Brown Bull, and I was advised by our lawyer that for an officer or for an official appointed by the President and commissioned by the Honorable Liberian Senate, that the head of the Commission could only suspend or fire someone by going the same route, upon recommendation to the President and the President's approval; and I have brought this to the attention of the Chairman, Commissioner Verdier's attention; eh.. while I was away, I think he met with the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and said that the Legislation authorized him; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) did give him, indeed, those powers. I don't know.
I only asked Minister McClain to say, let the lawyers look at it, and what ever is the law, there is a constitutional thing about the appointment of officials. If a law says something that is different from the constitution, and the lawyer will tell us that, that takes precedence. I will abide by whatever is the legal opinion that's given me. But I said, in the meanwhile, the work of the Commission should not stop; I was very clear about that; that there should be no interruption in the work of the commission, because we consider the work of the commission very important, and we don't want to send signal outside of the country that there is a problem in the commission that will cause us to loose support, the support which we need for the Commissions.
There are certain commissions and the General Auditing Commission is just one of them (I think I saw the Auditor-general around here)...so those are the commissions whose work we value, and we all must do everything we can as a government; myself as the President, the people of the country, must give those Commissions all the support they need, so they can carry out their work effectively.
So, I'm just sorry you have all this wrangling, but I hope that we can set it back on course; we'll respect the law of course, and follow what the law says, but we hope that their work will continue, and we'll continue to give them the fullest of support.
Eh...When it comes to the price of rice, that big issue; well...it is not only rice, let's call it the increases in commodities prices, something that is global, but yet we must all deal with it on a national basis and find national solutions to global problems.
"Eh...we know when it comes to petroleum price increases, those who follow the prices and those who follow the internet and all of that, know that prices have just been going up, and recently, they've just been changing down, out, no clear pattern. Eh... the LPRC made a recommendation to increase petroleum prices. We took a decision, because they were in touch with me, and I was still in control, but I wasn't here. And so, I insisted that they should make certain adjustments so that they would not increase it by the amount they had requested, but some increase was necessary to avoid shortages, because if we had not done something, and the shortages had occurred, then the situation would have been even worst, because then people will be holding up the product and the prices would have increased even more.
But what we have done, and I think we announced that before we left, that we would continue to give subsidy to the Monrovia Transit Authority, so that public Transport cost, could be contained, to enable the public to get by without going through any heavy increases. ...I am sure all of that has been done; and while I was away, we were still working on getting some more buses for the M T A. to enable them meet the public transport needs. We will continue to monitor that".
On the rice situation, eh...while there of course, I have been talking to different bodies that import, Firestone and some of the other importers that have been long time importers of rice to Liberia. They're all looking into what they can do. I have been in been in touch with the World Bank, because the World Bank has the facility to support countries that have these increases in grain. I have been in touch with the IMF, they also have a facility and with the U. S. Government. Many of you know that President Bush just announced 770-million dollars facility to help countries. My task was to ensure that Liberia gets on that list of countries that will benefit (applause).
".... And so, just tonight, I got an update on the situation that requires me sending a letter which I will fix tomorrow and sent it off through the Ambassador, but I know that we've got some good friends there, because I had informal discussions with people in the State Department that make these decisions, people in the National Security Council that work on these decisions, and so we are sure that they're working to try to...it's an FY-09 appropriation, but we've been trying to get them to bring it forward on an emergency basis. Whatever happens, eh, indeed Liberia will be on the list of those countries that will benefit. We have to work out the details of this in communication with the U.S. Embassy here, and others to see exactly what they mean.
At the same time, I was in touch with Minister Toe, and Minister Sayeh, for them to follow up with the Bank and IMF, and Minster Sayeh with the other importers to make sure that he stayed in touch with them. So if we got quotations for rice, he would work with these importers. I have a series of meetings scheduled this week with rice importers; with political party leaders. This time, we asked them to come and give us their ideas. We want to know what and how they can help us, so we can find the right solution to the problem.
So we hope they will respond to that call, and we'll all sit for an exchange of views - importers and the ministries concerned - Agriculture, commerce, finance, the
National Investment Commission, along with those and we'll see how we can try to advert. Of course, the real solution to food problem, our rice problem is for us to grow more rice. There is no other way out of that. (applause...) so, I made that statement before I left, encouraging everybody to go and do a little bit of farm in your back yard, or whatever land you may have in your county or in your community; put it in production.
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