My Christmas gift to the George Weah Administration
I am not an insider. I am not within the deep concentric circle of President Weah. In fact I am an outsider. But I support the President's re-election in 2023 because he represents the under class and income strata I fought for all my life. As a progressive, scholar and Liberian nationalist.
Indeed the administration is deeply flawed just as all throughout our history but with one nagging difference. The inability to construct a positive model of engagement with the US Government despite efforts and payment of hefty sums to lobbyists on K Street. By some unverified account 3 million dollars a year. Monies not well spent and thrown into the wind. Not good for us.
Despite these travails the Weah Administration has made some reforms with positive quantitfiable indicators in the macro economy. Fiscal. Monetary. Financial inclusion. And improvements in human development and decrease in multi dimensional poverty!
I have advised three presidents on economic and foreign policy matters. Doe. Taylor. Ellen. One did exceptionally well with US relations. One did until he was found to be expendable and the other had cobwebs that prevented him from listening to any sage advice. One, Taylor is in jail and the other Doe was dismembered live on video tape. While Ellen traverses the planet as the darling of the West despite a hugely flawed and dishonest domestic governance style.
Ellen knows Washington. She understands the American psyche. She penetrated the highest echelon of American society. Academia. Industry. Intelligentsia. African American public opinion. And finally she knows Liberian professionals in the Diaspora are the country's greatest ally in forging a strategic alliance with the US. And she had champions to promote Liberia. Steve Radelet. George Soros. Eric Werker. And American philanthropists.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
George Weah has none of these. His support base among Liberians in the US are partisans abd party apparatchiks representing a small slice of Liberian demography and geography. He has no champions despite being an Espey Award Recipient. He has no friends with the titans of American industry.
His relations with Washington is polite but deeply contorted. We did not get compact despite the magnificent efforts of Tweah and company to pass the MCC Scorecard. Our president hasn't spoken from the Rose Garden. No national security briefing at the highest level. We can change these troubling circumstances.
Next week I begin a series by speaking publicly to the president with the goal that he reads it. No filtration by his officials. No embellishments by my detractors. Nothing but the truth. The harsh truth but a proposal that can improve US Liberia relations. In short order. Facts. Diplomacy. A new strategic thrust!!!
And so it goes.
