In President Sirleaf’s 2014 address: Hope rode on the Ebb of Mixed Emotions and Missed Opportunities

On January 27, 2014, for the ninth time, President Sirleaf briefed the joint chambers of the Legislature on the state of the republic. The consistence of this obligation unfailingly fulfilled is a manifest success. The Constitution of Liberia requires, on a specific date, at a specific place, for this to be done.

In the President’s words, she inherited ‘a broken, destroyed and nearly incapacitated country’ (Annual Address, 2014). This refrain thus provides the yardstick from which progress has been measured for an anxious nation where expectations are high.

In this piece, I focus on the emotional energies that interlaced the addresses over the 9 years in an attempt to glean into the mind of the President as she waded through tons of challenges in the midst of heightened expectations.

During this period, the country witnessed ten years since the end of its brutal civil war. A female twice elected as President. Two females from Liberia jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize. A former President was indicted and convicted for aiding and abetting war crimes in a neighboring country. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission successfully completed its work and handed in its report.

The Mixed Emotions

In 2006, it was easier to find euphoria in an upbeat tone nine days into her Presidency. The need to tackle corruption, as public enemy number one was underlined as a necessary condition for development and for sustaining the peace and stability. The civil service was in dire need of reform. In the President’s words, ‘the workforce in our Ministries and agencies is heavily bloated and ever expanding.’ The President was clear about her aim ‘to make them lean, efficient and responsive to public service delivery’. (Annual Address, 2006)

In 2014 the President exuded a sense of frustration on the lack of progress in the civil service. In her words, ‘the current system simply does not attract or retain talent, nor does it reward performance. ….the civil service’s wage bill, which includes thousands of ghosts, is still bloated….every day, we waste precious resources to maintain a broken system.’  The President further reaffirmed the need to improve financial management. In her words ‘self-serving Boards on State-Owned Enterprises no longer allowed to make discretionary disbursements outside priorities and goals’. (Annual Address, 2014)

Many in Liberia believes Freire’s assertion in his ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’  that ‘trust is contingent on the evidence which one party provides the other….it cannot exist if the party’s words do not coincide with actions’.

In 2011, an upbeat President set a number of clear and actionable targets, helping people across Liberia to see a possible alternative to the poverty surrounding them. In ten years, we can double the size of the economy.  In the same time period, all of our children will be reading and writing. In this same time period, all major cities will be connected by paved roads and a network of all-weather secondary and feeder roads. In 2011, five of Liberia’s 15  county capitals were accessible by paved roads; this number remained unchanged in 2014.

The slow progress in the well-articulated agenda cannot lie only on the shoulders of the President. Leadership across broad layers of society could have exerted much more to achieve goals important to improve the quality of life of people, while securing the basis for a sustained democratic future. A critical mass of leaders in civil society, legislature, religious institutions, judiciary, trade unions and associations, professional association (teachers, health workers etc), political parties, communities, has important role.

Eric Liu, a civics educator speaking at a Ted Conference under the topic ‘Why Ordinary people need to understand power’ provides further reasons why lack of progress must be a collective responsibility. He defined the notion of civics as ‘the act of being a pro-social contributor in a self-governing community’. This puts the onus on citizens where the interplay of three elements was important: foundations of values, an understanding of systems and a set of skills that allow people to pursue goals and to have others to join them. The President has set a clear agenda to tackle corruption, and optimize service delivery to improve the quality of life of people in Liberia. Broad layers of citizens can and must use this as a catalyst for more strategic engaging and influencing.

The Missed Opportunities

The TRC recommendations remain largely unfulfilled. Impunity and lack of accountability for war related violations continues to cast a dark shadow on a country that must shed itself from a tragic past. The state and its institutions were used and misused to commit crimes against its citizens. Trust building is therefore enhanced when a clear message is sent for a new start.

The space for inclusive participation and empowerment at local level could have been enhanced much more through the introduction of the elections for City Mayors and members of the City Councils. By continuing to appoint Mayors and members of City Council, mechanisms for accountability has been weakened at the risk of reinforcing the notion of an 'imperial Presidency'.

Charles Lawrence lives and works in Liberia and writes in his personal capacity.