Liberia History & Information

Continued from Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Ellen Sirleaf

Palava Hut: You described recent polls in Liberia as “erroneous.” You were said to have been favored in the polls. Some Liberians say they would prefer a lady, not a man, to assume the chief magistracy of the country. Do you have any interest in the future to assume that role?

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: Let me respond to you in a different way. First of all, I think if one talks about a woman leading the country, we have the opportunity to support the one that is there right now. I hope that people will be giving her the support for whatever period she’s there so that she can make a bit of a difference.

Palava Hut: Her position is but transient.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: Yes. Secondly, let me correct that I did not say that the polls were erroneous. I don’t know the methodology that was used for the polls. I do know that I had no part to play in it. Nobody ever talked to me or contacted me. If the polls came out the way they did, I must say that there must be something to it that’s correct. What I said was not correct was the story that followed the polls.

Palava Hut: Which is?

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: That I was on my way home with the support of the United States. That part of it was not correct. In any case, I don’t know when is the righttime for some of us who are engaged in other activities right now to go and join the team at home concerned with the rebuilding of the country. I certainly have interest in that.

Palava Hut: The following has been attributed to you in a domestic publication, The Liberian Forum: “Many responded a best they could, providing moral and financial support, seeking and giving counsel about the war being waged…others retreating and distancing from the implied contrived societal degradation…” Implied, contrived, societal degradation? Please elucidate.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: Quite frankly, I am not familiar with that statement. It’s a very heavy statement.

Palava Hut: We read this in The Liberian Forum.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: And it’s attributed to me?

Palava Hut: Yes. We can get you a copy. However, siince you seem not to know about the mind-boggling statement, let us make progress by moving on to the next question. Nearly 300,000 innocent people have been killed with about a million others wasting away in squalid refugee camps. How do you feel about those truly disadvantaged, who have been displaced because of the senseless war perpetrated against them by “agents of death”?

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: I feel like most Liberians feels that these poor people have been victimized. I don’t think that was the whole purpose of the insurgency that was started in 1989–an insurgency that we all believed was a people’s popular movement to bring pressure on the government of Samuel Doe, and hopefully to ahve led to other places like in Ethiopia, where the president gave up and the political processes took place. To kill innocent people is unforgivable.

Palava Hut: This conversation has provided much insight on what’s obtaining in Liberia. Thank you and Godspeed.