By: Wonderr K. Freeman, Attorney, CFCS

In Africa, it is common practice to see a leader purposely trying to undo the legacy of his/her predecessor. Often, that happens when an opposition leader takes the helm of power. If anything spells the legacy of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s presidency, it is the plethora of government institutions whose officials were given fixed contractual terms (a.k.a. tenure). This was one of the practical ways in which Ellen Johnson sought to give effect to her governing philosophy – the dismantling of the “imperial presidency”. Recall that on her inauguration, January 16, 2006, Mrs. Sirleaf announced her governing philosophy when she said:

Ellen’s Defining Legacy: The Dismantling of the Imperial Presidency

True to her word, she began the gradual task of dismantling the “imperial presidency”, when she tasked the Governance Commission, then headed by the erudite ex-President, Professor Amos Sawyer, to work towards the realization of a systematic approach to decentralization and devolution of power. I know because I worked there at the time. And even more so, and in keeping with her promise of dismantling the “imperial presidency”, she introduced many institutions, whose officials, the Presidency could not remove at will. The logic was to attract technocrats who could deliver for the government, without having to worry about political machinations and maneuvering. If anything can be singled out as the defining legacy of Sirleaf’s presidency, I think it’s this! There is no way to think and talk about tenure positions with talking about the vision and governing philosophy of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Mr. Joseph Nyuma Boakai, the man who understudied Madam Sirleaf for twelve (12) years, is now at the pinnacle of power in Liberia. At this point, one would think Mrs. Sirleaf’s defining legacy would be proudly protected and extended, especially after the previous administration (i.e., CDC/George Weah) tried their best, howbeit unsuccessfully, to undo this legacy. For an opponent, that was expected – given the nature of African politics. What is untenable and unacceptable, even by African standards, is what President Boakai and his Unity Party (UP) are now doing to Sirleaf’s legacy. Instead of espousing his own governing philosophy, Mr. Boakai and the new UP are too busy and too eager to tear down the house that Ellen built. Is there any low this man will not go in his assault of the very person who brought him to prominence? As a new president, he needs to define his own vision, his governing philosophy, not tear down what others (before him) have labor so hard to build. “Rescue Mission” is a campaign slogan, not a governing philosophy. And, in fact, it originated with Henry Costa. Think Liberia, Love Liberia, Build Liberia is, again, a campaign slogan. It tells us nothing about your “ideological approach” to governance. ARREST is an acronym for your “priority projects”. It says nothing about your fundamental belief system about how a government should be run. What does Joseph Boakai believe in? Those who have built nothing are often the first ones to tear down. This systematic tearing down of Madame Sirleaf’s legacy should not be emanating from UP, and least of all, not from Joseph Boakai.

Boakai’s Long and Sordid History of Vilifying Madam Sirleaf for Political Ends

This is not the first time that Joseph Boakai has sought to malign and impugn Mrs. Sirleaf. Recall in the 2017 campaign, he infamously said Mrs., Sirleaf and the UP government (minus himself) “squandered opportunities”. He doubled down one his attack on his predecessor by comparing himself to being an “old car parked in a garage” (countering that he was, in fact, a “race car”). Again, during the 2023 campaign, he tripled down on his accusations against his former boss, claiming that she was the one who “squandered opportunities” but not him. His argument was that, as Vice President, he was “nothing”. Of course, we know he managed a budget of millions of US dollars per year, and he also did supervise about five to six ministries/agencies. For him, all this amounts to “nothing”. As illogical as it sounds, Liberians swallowed up his bare-faced lies, and went on to elect Mr. Boakai and his Unity Party.  Now, as President, it behooves him to commence the building of his own governing philosophy and implementation strategy. After winning the 2023 elections and now operating as “Rescue 1”, why doesn’t he just concentrate on building his own legacy? Why all this unsavory and vicious assault on Madam Sirleaf’s proudest legacy? Is the need give jobs to his kinsman, partisans, bootlickers, and hangers-on so important as to actively unravel the legacy of someone that he understudied for twelve years? This is incomprehensible ingratitude! You are now President, Mr. Boakai. Concentrate on your own legacy.

Tenure Positions are Legal, Logical and Global

Tenure positions governance logic is rock solid, legal, universal and must be protected, by all well-meaning Liberians. The “imperial presidency” is precisely the reason why there is so much sycophancy, cronyism, nepotism, bootlicking, underperformance, and corruption in government. For Liberia to improve, we must continue along the path laid down by President Sirleaf. We must continue to hire competent people, and free them from political pressure, so that they can have the intellectual space to run their assigned institutions in the best interest of the country – and not just sycophantically seeking the “will and pleasure” of the President. Without, adherence to this governance logic of tenure positions, Liberia will continue to be the place where misfits, dimwits, and sheer nincompoops are appointed to public office. These misfits and dimwits do maximum damage to the institutions they are appointed to. Sometimes these institutions never recovered from their onslaught. Also, often the unpalatable reverse occurs, where competent and effective managers are removed from positions simply because they are in the wrong political party or are in no political party. This is what is now playing out at NAFAA (Fisheries and Aquaculture Agency) – with the full knowledge and acquiescence of Mr. Boakai. This sounds more like bad governance than a “rescue from bad governance”. President Boakai must abandon his quixotic mission to return Liberia to the “imperial presidency” that his predecessor fought to hard to eradicate. It’s high time somebody lets the President know that this is 2023, and it does Liberia no good return to 1923, to 1963 or even 1983 – when the “imperial presidency” was in full swing. Mr. Boakai must espouse his own vision and build his own legacy (and leave Mrs. Sirleaf’s legacy alone).

Tenure Positions – The International Dimension

President Sirleaf announced her governing philosophy from the get-go (i.e., January 16, 2006) – that she was committed to dismantling the “imperial presidency” that Liberians were so accustomed to, but which was detrimental to the wellbeing and prosperity of the nation. However, in effectuating her strategy, she had to enact laws to operationalize her vision. And is so doing, she had to rely on more than just her governing philosophy. More often, she had to consult international conventions and protocols, to which Liberia was a state-party, to ensure that not only was her philosophy implementable, but that it was in consonance with both the Liberian constitution and more importantly with established international conventions and global good governance practices. In the anti-graft policy space, I know of at least two such conventions, to which Liberia is a party, and whose governing instrument calls for operational and functional independence of recommended state institutions. In fact, in most cases, these conventions have “model statutes” that states are encouraged to clone. This is the international backdrop against which some of the newer state institutions (eg LACC, FIA, Human Rights Commission etc) were given tenure. All these laws were passed, while Joseph Boakai represented the Executive Branch at the National Legislature, as “President” of the Liberian Senate. Here are a couple of conventions to which Liberia is a party, and which governing instruments called for tenure-styled independence.

The UN Convention on Corruption (2005) – international origin of the LACC’s independence & tenure

Article 6. Preventive anti-corruption body or bodies 1. Each State Party shall, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its legal system, ensure the existence of a body or bodies, as appropriate, that prevent corruption… Each State Party shall grant the body or bodies referred to in para-graph 1 of this article the necessary independence, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its legal system, to enable the body or bodies to carry out its or their functions effectively and free from any undue influence.

FATF [40] Recommendations (1990) [interpretative notes] – international origin of the Financial Intelligence Agency’s (formerly FIU) independence and tenure

E. Operational Independence (note 8). The FIU should be operationally independent and autonomous, meaning that the FIU should have the authority and capacity to carry out its functions freely, including the autonomous decision to analyse, request and/or disseminate specific information. In all cases, this means that the FIU has the independent right to forward or disseminate information to competent authorities. …(note 10)  The FIU should be provided with adequate financial, human and technical resources, in a manner that secures its autonomy and independence and allows it to conduct its mandate effectively… (note 11). The FIU should also be able to make arrangements or engage independently with other domestic competent authorities or foreign counterparts on the exchange of information.

F. Undue Influence or Interference

(Note 12) The FIU should be able to obtain and deploy the resources needed to carry out its functions, on an individual or routine basis, free from any undue political, government or industry influence or interference, which might compromise its operational independence.

The Paris Principles, 1993 – international origins of the National Human Rights Commission’s independence and tenure

Article (B). Composition and guarantees of independence and pluralism.

Subsection (3). In order to ensure a stable mandate for the members of the institution, without which there can be no real independence, their appointment shall be effected by an official act which shall establish the specific duration of the mandate. This mandate may be renewable, provided that the pluralism of the institution’s membership is ensured.

It’s clear to me that when these international conventions/recommendations/principles called for independence and autonomy (UNCAC, FATF [40], or Paris Principles etc), they surely are not referring to “officials serving at the will and pleasure of the Liberian president” – where officials, in fear of losing their jobs, will indulge all the “whims and caprices” of the President and/or the ruling party. It is against this backdrop that many of the officials who were to lead these new state institutions were given tenure – not just to realize Madam Sirleaf’s vision of dismantling the “imperial presidency”, but also to ensure that the modern Liberian state institutions were fully-compliant with all its international obligations. So, the granting of tenure to new state institutions did not occur in a [policy] vacuum. Mr. Boakai. as President of the Senate, and as Mrs. Sirleaf representative to the Legislature (at the time) cannot now feign amnesia. He must not take Liberia back to the “imperial presidency” of the 1940’s nor the 1970’s – simply because a few greedy politicians have captured the state and are treating it like “elephant meat”. Joseph Boakai must halt his retreat to the 1940’s. His current move to ingratiate a handful of greedy partisans at the expense of the state is utterly incompatible with his many lofty campaign promises and slogans. Is this the same Boakai that preached “Think Liberia; Love Liberia; Build Liberia? I am struggling to recognize which Boakai is now leading Liberia.

Concluding Comments

Having coveted the Presidency all the twelve years he served as VP under Ellen Johnson, Mr. Boakai now has the power he’s long coveted. Let him use it to espouse how own governing philosophy and implementation strategy. Dismantling legally established state institutions just to appease a few belly-driven politicians/partisans is neither a governing philosophy nor is it in consonance with his professed campaign slogan of “rescuing Liberia” from bad governance. Attacking tenure positions amounts to the same old (same old) bad governance that has kept Liberia in poverty and dysfunctional for ages. Sometimes, we do fault Ellen Sirleaf for many things – and for good reasons, especially her failure to fight corruption and for not effectively managing international goodwill and largess. But she did leave us with some very good institutions that we can improve upon to promote administrative competence, technical expertise, and public sector integrity. Mr. President, perhaps, you don’t’ fully understand or appreciate how important these institutions are for good governance. I “kind of” understand your situation. You are trying your best to re-enact the “good ole days” when “LAMCO was LAMCO”. But this is 2023, Mr. President. Uh-hmmm, 2023! In 2023, Mr. President, tenure positions represent the necessary limits on political interference in technical matters. In 2023, tenure positions represent the freedom (for officials) to do what is right and lawful, and to do what is effective and efficient – without having to worry about termination because the President is unhappy or top ruling party officials are unhappy. This is the defining legacy of Madam Sirleaf, and which legacy many Liberians cherish so much. So, to the ruling party, UP and to President Boakai, here is my parting message to you: just go ahead and build your own legacy. Leave Madam Sirleaf’s legacy alone. It is not in your way! There are at least one thousand and one (1,001) other issues that you can focus on now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• Wonderr K. Freeman is a Liberian Investment Attorney, Political Economist, Accountant, and Certified Financial Crimes Specialist (CFCS), currently based in Minneapolis, USA. Mr. Freeman professional interests spans the intersection of law and economics – including political economy of development, economic justice, international trade/investment law and financial crimes law. He can be reached at [email protected].