With regard to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s appointment of two of her four sons to senior level managerial positions in her second term; one has to look at the context of those appointments. The word “nepotism” is defined as “favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit”. Some critics have assumed that the very act of appointing them by itself constitutes an act of corruption. If we go by the definition stated earlier, there would be certain qualifying attributes that makes an appointment of a relative nepotistic. These appointments would’ve had to be made “regardless of merit” meaning that one has to look at specific qualifications and overall considerations.

Let’s take each case step-by-step. Mr. Charles Sirleaf had been in the employed of the Central Bank of Liberia long before his mother became president of the country and had held senior level posts in the bank prior to his most recent appointment. Realistically, Charles had been promoted as one of the two Deputies at the central bank after several years in top level management within the banking sector. Most particularly, Mr. Sirleaf had previously served as Director of Finance of the central bank for several years. Thus, one can argue that his appointment as one of the two Deputy Governors at the CBL would not qualify has being one without merit. In order for it to qualify as a nepotistic appointment; it most likely would have to establish that Charles Sirleaf is not only undeserving of this appointment but that it occurred only because of his relationship to the president and not based on his education and professional experience.

On the issue of another appointed son of the president, Robert Sirleaf; critics have been arguing that as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), Robert would need to have prior expert knowledge of the oil industry. However, quite to the contrary, board chairmen are rarely ever persons who possess vast technical expertise in their assigned industry. Rather, most board chairmen in the United States and within the western world have had an astute track record and successful managerial experience at very high levels within well known institutions. What qualifies them for their roles are they having had previous experience in closely similar type managerial environment that requires making complex and strategic corporate decisions. Others are sought after for their skills in managing large systems change during periods of mergers and acquisitions or business expansion. Therefore, my view of Mr. Robert Sirleaf’s qualification is more convincing than just his Wall Street-type business acumen. As Managing Director at the now defunct Wachovia Bank in the United States which was acquired by Wells Fargo a few years ago, Mr. Sirleaf was involved in managing the growth of sales and research in the highly capital yielding market for fixed income securities . Wachovia Bank was at the time considered one of the top brokerage firms in the United States. There is no question in my mind that Robert Sirleaf has got the requisite experience and qualification to serve as NOCAL’s board chairman after managing trillions of dollars worth of investments in the capital markets of the United States and the Western world. After such a depth of experience, it would be foolhardy to question Mr. Sirleaf’s ability of managing an upstart oil corporate regulating agency in Liberia which doesn’t yet have net asset position of $100 million dollars. Sirleaf is a corporate executive who has had the experience of managing the balance sheets of trillion dollars of assets. On top of that, he was involved in the pre-arrangement of Wells Fargo’s acquisition of Wachovia Bank which means he has got very strong intra-institutional negotiation and contracting skills---those type of skills are much needed by NOCAL as it oversees due diligence of companies applying to explore oil in Liberia. Therefore, Liberians who are only looking at the relationship between the president and her son Robert Sirleaf and calling his appointment nepotistic are missing the point that he has an exemplary level of professional experience for his role.

Mr. Fumba Sirleaf, is the unassuming step son of the president who has served as Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) since her election in 2005. Fumba’s appointment had managed to escape the glare of public criticism. Fumba has worked in the security sector of Liberia for several years beginning in the early 1990s and played a key role in maintaining law and order for the Interim Government of Dr. Amos Sawyer in Monrovia during the early years of Liberian civil war. Fumba is a graduate of the renowned WestPoint Military Academy (the Harvard of the US military) plus has a graduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania also in the United States, making his expertise in any national security capacity in the country as highly needed at this time whether his mother was president or not.

The other two sons of the president work out of government. Mr. James Sirleaf is a private banker and long tenured Citibank corporate executive having worked with the bank in Liberia and the United Kingdom. Today, he serves on the board of a private banking institution which has operations in Liberia. The last son, Dr. Adama Sirleaf, is a medical doctor practicing in the State of Connecticut in the United States and is a graduate of the Yale University Medical School. Besides his official duties at the university hospital’s ER practice, Adama is the founder of Health Education and Relief through Teaching (HEARTT), his own non-profit organization which has been involved in providing needy healthcare assistance to Liberia. HEARTT is based in the United States and has been engaged with the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Hospital in Liberia since 2003, providing overall health care and health training. Again, this is another of Madam Sirleaf’s sons who was involved in assisting his country long before she ever became president of the country. Today, with the help of HEARTT, there's a functional trauma unit, Orthopedic and Pediatrics sections at the JFK, all staffed with volunteer doctors and contractors brought in by the non-profit organization meanly from the United States to serve on a pro bono basis. Currently, the group has several medical practitioners at the JFK. These and other specialists come on a rotational basis, offering surgeries to patients and teaching medical school graduates, residents, nurses and other practitioners how to ably deliver health care. He is not employed by the government but is assisting his country without much politicization.

The above analysis shows that the Sirleaf family is diversely educated and experience enough to provide a wide range of service to the country in the public, private, and non-for-profit sectors. It also shows that they are not necessarily after government jobs as is being politically portrayed by critics of the president. Most criticism tends to zero-in on her appointment of one son---Robert Sirleaf, as board chairman of the oil regulator, NOCAL. However, what we as Liberians should be concerned with is that each appointee serves the country honestly and performs his duties in the national interest. If we can remove our mindset from the natural relationship and view the aspect of service, Liberians would be less cynical of these appointments. In fact, it is because of their relationship to the president that I personally hold them to a higher level of performance expectation than probably I would a non-relative. I believe that they have much to proof in not only letting down the country but most especially in letting down their mother.

The functional phrase of assigning an accusation of nepotism should be that these appointments were made without any respect for “merit standards”. The issue of equating these appointments with corruption is also jumping to the conclusion that the sons of the president are or would be corrupt. So far, none of them have had their characters tainted by accusations of corruption. Whereas nepotism could lead to corruption it doesn’t necessarily have to lead to corruption if the intend of the appointments are made in good faith taking into account what each of these three professional Sirleafs bring to their respective jobs. They are all amongst the best in their respective fields in a country where finding qualify professionals with international experience is difficult and also finding them to be honest and loyal to the country and not their personal bank accounts is even more difficult. Liberia is currently experiencing a shortage of highly trained professionals. Therefore, in playing the devil’s advocate, I would say if the president wants to make sure that competent performance matches with sincerity and decides to appoint these three sons to positions where they offer the country both attributes; I would argue that it does more good for Liberia than the other way around.

I welcome a hearty debate on this matter shying away from the politicization of the issue and exhibiting our right to free expression.

Mrs. President, please take a look at your hiring pratices. You have a son, Fumba, heading the National Security Agency, another son, Charles, who is Deputy Governor of the Central Bank, while a third son, Robert, who is a Senior Adviser and Chairman of the Board of the state-owned National Oil Company of Liberia. If you do not see NEPOTISM in this picture, then, there is something wrong intellectually on your part. All of these men are related to you, whether they are your step-sons, or biological sons, they are still related to you. It is an ethical and perception problem, please fix it.

new democrat newspaper, is MERE 23.6 percent a land slide, even with the boycotting of the opposition the percent above is actually UP portion of the Liberian populace. Get it right even the American are aware of massive cheating only because they want to get our oil at 10% ROYALTY. YOU "KATO JOURNALISTS" needs to report facts and not to harm Liberia as you did in the past.

Mr. Truthtelller, that the portion of the people who still decided to vote, although it wasn't necessary to vote at all.