Much shock and sorrow have followed the passing of Charles E. Sirleaf, 68, the son of former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, in Ghana on Sunday. Condolences have been pouring in on social media and other avenues, notably including a phone call from H.E. President Joseph N. Boakai, currently in Seoul, Korea, for the African Development Bank’s inaugural Korea-Africa Summit. The details surrounding his death have yet to be fully disclosed, although sources close to the family have indicated that it followed a brief illness. The family has requested privacy during this trying time.
Sirleaf followed his mother into finance, becoming a banker as she had. He would later serve at the Ministry of Finance, where he had done his homework as a boy in the 1970s, while she served as Assistant Minister, then Minister proper. He then settled at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), in 2004, becoming in his own right a towering figure in Liberia’s financial landscape.
A product of the College of West Africa (CWA), Sirleaf went on to earn a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He remained in Atlanta, spending his early career holding various managerial banking roles at Citizens and Southern Bank (C&S) and Citicorp Credit Corporation (1987-1992), before returning to Liberia to lead business development and trade at Meridien BIAO Bank, Liberia Ltd until 1993.
Sirleaf then transitioned into public service, taking on the Vice Presidency of the now-defunct National Housing and Savings Bank (NHSB) (1993-1996). He left that post for a two-year stint as Special Assistant to the Resident Representative at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Namibia (1996-1998), then returned to take the presidency of the NHSB, which he held until 2003. He also served a brief stint as Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance during the early 2000s.
In 2004, Sirleaf joined the CBL, where he would spend the remainder of his career. His first role was as Manager for Banking and Debt Management, until he became Director of Finance in 2006. Six years later, during President Sirleaf’s second term, she appointed him Deputy Governor for Operations, under then Executive Governor J. Mills Jones. In that role, he went on to serve Jones’ successors, Milton A. Weeks and Nathaniel R. Patray, III, and act as Executive Governor during the transition periods preceding their respective tenures. Sirleaf held that position until his dismissal by President George M. Weah in 2018.
That Sirleaf dedicated much of his career in Liberia - indeed, until his political appointment in 2012 - to molding young professionals as an instructor of Economics at the University of Liberia, illustrates the mixed legacy he leaves behind.
His longstanding public service proved pivotal to the arduous task of maintaining Liberia’s macroeconomic stability, throughout numerous economic crises. His longstanding responsibility over banking and currency management was especially critical in light of the country’s unique dual currency regime, which required deft coordination between the CBL and the Finance Ministry to ensure price stability.
Sirleaf was also a lion in the boardroom. He took government colleagues and development partners to task, alongside the successive Executive Governors he served. Often volatile and abrasive, and never one to let the other side have the last word, he defended the CBL’s strategic approaches to monetary policy, which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other partners often opposed as unorthodox. For this, he was feared and respected.
However, his service was marred, first by accusations of nepotism and then by allegations of malfeasance. While few inside the CBL - and indeed, in the financial sector - would deny his qualification as Deputy Governor, his appointment by his mother cast a shadow on her domestic and international credibility as well as his. President Sirleaf, in an apparent effort to reassure the public of her impartiality towards her son, suspended Sirleaf for failing to declare his assets, shortly after his appointment. He was one of nearly 50 officials to receive this lashing. Nonetheless the shadow darkened further over the Sirleaf name, as President Sirleaf went on to appoint her other son, Robert, as Chairman of the Board of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL). Not to mention the longstanding tenure of step-son Fombah Sirleaf as head of the National Security Agency, from early in Madam Sirleaf’s first term.
But it was the onset of the George Weah’s presidency that rang the death knell over Sirleaf’s career, long before he knew it would. Less than five months after Weah’s January 2018 inauguration, allegations surfaced that the CBL had illegally printed L$16 billion (the equivalent of US$10 million at the time) with American banknote printer, Crane, and that one container of those new banknotes had gone missing. The story made international news, and Sirleaf’s direct responsibility over the Banking and Finance Departments put his in focus for public scrutiny and legal repercussions.
In light of those allegations, the Weah administration launched an extensive investigation, for the duration of which the CBL Board voted to suspend Sirleaf. He was later indicted on charges of criminal conspiracy and economic sabotage, arrested, and jailed, along with then Executive Governor Weeks, Finance Director Dorbor M. Hagba, Director of Operations and former Director of Banking Richard H. Walker, and Director of Internal Audit Joseph Dennis.
The five were later acquitted, due to the prosecutor’s inability to prove malfeasance beyond a reasonable doubt. While the expired class of CBL Board Members that had presided over the printing process - Mr. David Farhat, Mrs. Melisa Emeh, Mrs. Elsie Dossen Badio, and Mr. Kolli S. Tamba - had not been detained, all had been indicted with the same charges. They were also acquitted.
Helpful to the defense’s case was the report by Kroll and Associates, a United States-based firm, whose services the U.S. Embassy had procured in October 2018 to conduct a forensic audit of the CBL’s printing process. The report confirmed that all the banknotes procured had been delivered, and that there was no evidence of a container of banknotes having gone missing. But it did point to discrepancies in the CBL’s internal records and weaknesses in its internal systems and procedures relating to fiscal and monetary policy management, which the report said were longstanding.
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Having won his prolonged legal battle, Sirleaf briefly dabbled in politics. He was seen occasionally speaking on behalf of Richard Fallah, former Representative of Montserrado’s Distric 5, during the latter’s campaign events. Sirleaf’s latter years have, however been quiet and uneventful.
He leaves to mourn his mother who, in him, has lost her second son. Charles’ brother James Sirleaf, died in December 2021. Also in mourning are Charles’ wife, Mrs. Fatta Sirleaf, his daughter, Janelle, his brothers Adama and Robert, and a host of family members in Liberia and abroad. Joining them in sorrow are the hundreds of colleagues and friends across the Liberian government and society, who will long lament the loss of his laughter, vitality, down-to-earth nature, and abiding generosity.
The Sirleaf family has not yet released a statement on the cause of death, and the funeral arrangements are pending. Meanwhile, President Boakai urges “Liberians and friends to offer prayers for consolation and peace of mind for the former president and her family in this moment of grief and sorrow.”
