29 October 2009
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, like any natal-day celebrant, clearly must be in exhilaratingly festive mood as she nets exactly 71today--an apparently zigzag and winding life journey on troubled Planet Earth.
Greenville, the remote Southeastern Port town, is reportedly afire with tumultuous celebrations amongst smarms of citizens who have been inundating the historic city and hauling eulogies on their kinswoman, the President, who is believed to draw her maternal genealogical link from that part of the country.
While the President and supporters within and without of Sinoe County are submerged in the frenzy of birthday ululation, The Analyst Staff Writer has been critically reflecting on the smiles as well as frowns which the chief celebrant's birth has ignited amongst her people.
Greenville Glitters
According to reports from Greenville, the President's maternal families in that part of the country have been converging in their multitudes to join in the celebration of her 71st birthday anniversary. Residents, including chiefs, youths, traditional dangers and culture troops from the seven statutory districts of Sinoe County have been storming their provincial capital city, with some arriving three days ahead of the President.
Newly nominated and confirmed Superintendent of the county, J. Milton Teahjay, along with the Sinoe Legislative Caucus and other local leaders, has given some aura of facelift to Greenville which has been quite dull for a long time. Makeshift electricity, generated from low level generators, has been put in place on a few streets and connecting the Greenville City Hall.
Lining up from the former timber camp of ITI on the Rivercess-Sinoe border to Greenville, remnants of residents of towns and villages along the route who are not in Greenville have been intermittently obstructing the free movement of the President's convoy, requesting time to mingle with Madam Sirleaf and present gifts and statements. Teahjay and local authorities reportedly slept deep inside the ITI-Greenville highway where they met the Presidential convoy before escorting it to Greenville.
Leaked protocols indicate that various districts and clans will be delivering special statements of eulogy and support to the President today on the celebration of her 71st Natal Day in Sinoe County. The overwhelming reception of the Sinoe people reportedly compelled the President to detour at the Nyenfueh Town intersection to Bilibokree City, Juarzon District, towards Grand Gedeh before veering to head back towards Greenville.
Various cultural troops have been keeping the formerly melancholy city lively since last weekend ahead of the President's visit.
Observers say the current assembly of Sinoe citizens in Greenville has no precedence since the end of the civil conflict. The President birthday celebration will be punctuated with the inauguration of Milton Teahjay as Superintendent of Sinoe County. The Positive Ratings
Even while she was yet the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's covert and overt celebration of her natal day--and whether in grand style or modesty--was still studded in controversy, with fans and supporters often clashing against critics and opponents over what she is and what is not. Those who have seen her rise on the horizon of public attention, and agreed in the last three days to speak on the precondition of anonymity about Ellen, as they simply called her, admitted that controversy is deeply rooted in the trait of the celebrant. From early childhood through secondary and advance studies, one aging lady who claimed she followed the rise of Madam Sirleaf, Ellen was always a subject of discussion.
This he credited to an inborn trait or to deliberate adventures which she said President Sirleaf consistently undertook. From the College of West Africa in Central Monrovia, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and to other prestigious schools and job experiences she navigated, the anonymous interviewee told Analyst, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's strong desire to excel and be in the first rank of every vocation has made her a source of delight and envy to many, defining while controversy has been a integral part of her life.
Even as she celebrates his 71st Birthday in the far corner of the country, members of the public are divided in their reactions and rating. Many persons who are fond of the celebrant, like 70 other birth anniversaries before, the current celebration has been drawing considerable eulogies by countless persons communicating their sentiments and pouring upon sincere blessings.
Political pundits who followed the President's political struggle that culminated into her ascendency to the Liberian leadership, the demonstrated support and delight amongst Sinoeans and other well-wishers for the "Iron Lady" at 71 is due to outstanding achievements made during the last four years of her leadership and general kindness to ordinary people.
From the days of the True Whig Party, when she began public life as a banker and economic and financial management expert, supporters say they admire Madam Sirleaf because she was not consumed by the elitist fervor blowing in those days, but worked as a freedom fighter and voice of the downtrodden.
Her passion for the weak and dispossessed majority won her acclamation amongst ordinary people, giving her the extraordinary courage to persistently companion the cause of the people. The struggle however left her severally bruised, spending time in jail and forcing her into exile. Even while in exile, the "Iron Lady" as she came to be known, did not abandon her pro-people advocacy; she partnered with national and international counterparts to confront despotism at home. She was detested by the ruling elites for her struggle to liberate the impoverished majority of Liberians from the claws of corrupt and totalitarian regimes.
At the elections of 2005, she was hailed and regarded the solution to the country's long problems of political failure, economic deprivation and underdevelopment. As she celebrates her 71st Birth Anniversary and nearly four years in her presidential tenure, Madam Sirleaf has proven critics wrong and supporters right: she has made Liberia an unprecedented attraction of international relations.
The former failed Liberian state is now a honorable member of the comity of nations. She is also highly credited for re-enlivening national hope having restored Liberia's international reputation and credibility. Through her leadership, the government has identified four pillars in support of its development agenda: Peace and Security, Economic Revitalization, Governance and the Rule of Law, and Basic Infrastructure and Services.
National peace has been consolidated by the strengthening of key institutions of national security and completing the process of demilitarization, demobilization, training and reintegration of ex-combatants. All defense security units now enjoy enhanced compensation and proper pensions for retired Armed Forces of Liberia personnel have been instituted.
In addition to leading the national effort for achieving development goals, she has used her diplomatic and negotiating skills to reactivate bilateral relations with several countries including France, Germany, Canada, Israel and Italy. Her leadership has resulted in the lifting of UN sanctions on the country's diamond and forestry sectors and the successful renegotiation of a $1 billion concession agreement with Arcelor Mittal. Efforts are underway that will lead to relief from a $3.7 billion external debt. Several other investment proposals for the reopening of traditional economic activities in the mining and agriculture sector are underway.
She has also been successful in attracting resources from private foundations and individuals in Europe, Canada and the United States thus supplementing Government's resources in support of activities in infrastructure, education, and health. After she delivered speeches, several universities have provided scholarships for the training of Liberians. Her strong support for private sector endeavor has resulted in a pledge of a $31 million facility by Robert L. Johnson at the Clinton Global Initiative in which she participated.
Her strong bipartisan support from the U.S. has resulted in Liberia's inclusion in two supplemental budgets and to her well recognized speech at a Joint Meeting of Congress. In recognition for her tireless efforts to make Liberia a post-conflict success story, Sirleaf was awarded in 2007 the coveted Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by an American president.
Sirleaf has served on many advisory boards and committees. Notably among these are: International Crisis Group (USA); Songhai Financial Holdings Ltd. (Ghana); Center for Africa's International Relations, University of Witwatersrand (South Africa); Women's World Banking (USA); Synergos (USA) and Women Waging Peace (USA). She was a founding member of the International Institute for Women in Political Leadership and has written widely on financial issues, development and human rights.
She is the recipient of several awards including the Civil Rights Museum Award (2007); the Africa Prize for the Sustainable End of Hunger (2006); the IRI Freedom Award (2006); the David Rockefeller Leadership Bridging Award (2006) and the Common Ground Award (2006). Special honors received include Commander de l'Ordre du Mono of Togo (1996); Ralph Bunche International Leadership Award (1995); Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom of Speech Award (1988) and the Grand Commander of the Star of Africa Redemption (1980).
She was one of the seven internationally eminent persons designated in 1999 by the OAU to investigate the Rwanda genocide, one of the five Commission Chairs for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and one of two international experts selected by UNIFEM to investigate and report on the effect of conflict on women and women's roles in peace building. She was the initial Chairperson of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), and a visiting Professor of Governance at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
In 2003 when Charles Taylor was exiled to Nigeria and the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was formed, Sirleaf was selected to serve as Chairperson of the Governance Reform Commission where she led the country's anti-corruption reform by changing the reporting mechanism of the General Auditing Commission from the Executive to the Legislature thereby strengthening and reinforcing its independence. She left this position to successfully contest the 2005 Presidential elections resulting in her historical inauguration on January 16, 2006, as President of Liberia.
Celebrants' Pitfalls
Despite the accolades and acclamations which President Sirleaf has won and enjoyed and which are being recharged as she celebrates today, there are a few others who are speaking in whispers and in their enclaves about things they considered her pitfalls not only a political activist, but as President of Liberia.There are those who believe the "political activist" actually carries in her head the burden of insatiable ambition which has no borders; relative to the successive agitation against every other political leadership, agitation which never ceased until she took the mantle of power.
From TWP's Tolbert, PRC and NDPL's Doe to NPP's Taylor, Madam Sirleaf did not rest in her subversion against constituted authority until she was elected President of Liberia, some critics say. Even as President, according to the critics, she still bears and carries hate and vindictiveness against some of her political opponents, past and current, and that her leadership is wanting of the virtues of reconciliation and harmony.
Still other critics point to what they consider the President's reinvention of political patronage system, which according to them underpins incessant and pervasive corruption in the public service. Even though the President takes some credit in establishing pro-transparency and accountability institutions, the critics say she has been wanting in the political and moral will to allow these institutions' mandates scrupulously fulfilled.
Truly as the President slashes her cake and quenches the 71 candlelight thereon, the emergent recipes would be a mixture of pitfalls and victories which has characterized her life journey for the last three scores eleven. Whichever recipe dominates her birthday cake however depends on the lens of the observer.
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