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Written by Our Senior Staff
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Tuesday, 10 July 2012 03:35 |
“Vested interest which national leaders of Liberia- past and present have been fond of keeps Liberia’s governance unreliable. Of course, this is part of human nature and the legacy our system of government has developed for decades”
An observer of Liberian governance system claiming to have lived in the main stream of politics for fifty years made the above comment, emphasizing that Liberian presidents always have vested interest in people, suitably cronies whose connections are unbeatable no matter the consequences.
The observer, a highly placed government official who spoke off record for fear of reprisal noted that just as past presidents held onto the belief that they would make certain elements in society to be the best public servants over others; President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is no exception.
“What this kind of tendency does is that those preferred feel indispensable thereby sowing the seeds of bad governance’ and it seems regrettable that after Liberians had died and the country ruined to change our governance system, the perception that government is continuity is no illusion,” the observer told the In Profile Day Monday afternoon in Monrovia.
These comments have come in the wake of seeming preferential treatments the Executive Mansion is allegedly favoring for some senior and junior officials of government over others, the scenario past regimes were criticized for, including that of Madam Sirleaf’s reported criticism of the Tolbert regime .
Critics of the Unity Party-led government have usually claimed that there are officials President Sirleaf has invested interest in just as Tolbert had in Frank Tolbert and other hand- picked affiliates as well as relatives, who were untouchable yet they helped to run a dictatorial government.
Critics have also hastened to mention part of the charisma of former President Charles Taylor resembling that of Madam Sirleaf, especially that which has to do with setting the stage for power greed politicians to tussle over positions.
“President Sirleaf is now noted for backing some of her appointees to profess that they are the best public servants and that what they do, other government officials are unable to do,” a disappointed critic alleged.
“At the moment, the Ministry of Finance seems to considered in the view of pundit, as a ministry misdirected in the hands of an unduly suitable financier only because the President is clothed with the appointment power to decide who goes where in government,” an observer said.
Another area of apparent embarrassment appears to be the Monrovia City Corporation, which is in the tight hands of Acting City Mayor Mary Broh, whose power plug can strike anywhere at any given time and is in endowed with millions of donors’ dollars.
Analysts say the biological son of President Sirleaf, Robert Sirleaf, remains a unique or classical example of a well-defined ‘vested interest’ claiming that he seems to be in the swing of positions at the will and pleasure of the President including a purported new assignment as “Commercial Counselor and Commercial Attaché to UNESCO” .
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