Archive for October, 2012

Leymah Gbowee’s complicated relationships with Sirleaf and the Liberian people

By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee made history in 2011 when she and Tawakkal Karman of Yemen shared the coveted prize with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for empowering women and advocating peace and stability in their respective countries.

It was a personal victory for Gbowee, and another achievement for Sirleaf who continues to receive awards from friends and admirers across the globe that believes her ascendancy to the Liberian presidency is the best thing that ever happened in that country since its founding over a century ago.

The Liberian people needed a break from the daily news of suffering they are encountering on Sirleaf’s watch, and always looked up to embracing any good news that will get their collective minds off their problems at any moment.

The Nobel triumphs of Sirleaf and Gbowee temporarily filled that void and suddenly changed the storyline to pride and patriotism for their own kind, which got their minds off their problems for a moment and unified a broken nation and people at the right time.

Liberians did not expect Gbowee to win such award; let alone expect any Liberian or even Sirleaf for that matter to win a Nobel Peace Prize in this post-war era.

That’s because the President actually has been tied directly to funding the deadly civil war in her previous life and is barred by her own commissioned Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) from participating actively in politics for 30 years, which should have disqualified her for a peace prize in the first place.

Gbowee’s selection also was a surprise because prior to her selection for a Nobel Peace Prize, she was an unknown quantity whose role in any form of political or community activism was zero and unheard of in the contemporary annals of Liberian politics.

So for Gbowee to suddenly be chosen for a Nobel Peace Prize for political and community activism over lifelong activists who advocated for peace, prosperity and security for women, children and the Liberian people, continues to generate debate and admiration for her individual achievement.

However, being plucked out of relative obscurity to national and international prominence can be weighty, especially when you are seen as a Nobel Peace Prize recipient who won that particular award in the name of your people, and is expected to rise to the challenge at any moment of the day to carryout that role.

And when you are Leymah Gbowee, your people expect you to be with them not half way and in name only, but physically and all the way as a responsible and fearless peace advocate who shares their pain and suffering, and is willing to lend your incredible name and time to fight injustice and corruption in your homeland.

Gbowee came out of hiding or out of her own shadow and publicly criticized Sirleaf for her inability to promote peace and reconciliation, then resigned her post in the Sirleaf administration as head of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission.

Gbowee also came down hard on Sirleaf when she reechoed the scathing editorial of this website, and the damning sentiments of other organizations and individuals regarding the blatant practice of nepotism and rampant corruption in the Sirleaf administration.

“Her sons are on the board of oil companies and one is the deputy governor of the central bank. The gap between the rich and poor is growing. You are either rich or dirt poor, there’s no middle class,” Gbowee said.

“I feel I have been a disappointment to myself and Liberia. Not speaking is as bad as being part of the system. Some may say I am a coward but the opportunity to speak out has come here” Gbowee reportedly said again.

Even though her criticism of Sirleaf is long overdue, credit has to be given to Gbowee for finally standing up and speaking ‘truth to power’ like my friend, the late political activist Bodioh Wisseh Siapoe used to say, which isn’t an easy task to carryout in Liberia these days.

That’s because the political activism of the late 1970s and early 1980s that agitated change in Liberia is no more. And those that led it including (Ellen Johnson Sirleaf) and called for change against similar abuse of power and other forms of human rights abuse in past governments, now found themselves conveniently aligned with the current Sirleaf administration to survive.

Even though Gbowee is now a Nobel laureate, many Liberian activists and organizations still are not really sure of her commitment to fighting injustice and corruption in Liberia, and are also ambivalent as to whether she will continue to steadfastly advocate for equality and the rule of law in Liberia.

Why? Because Leymah Gbowee won a Nobel Peace Prize for the Liberian people, but lives in Ghana – a far cry from the Liberian nation and people that made her what she is today. Gbowee does not even have an office in Liberia to do peace and advocacy work.

Like other opportunistic Liberian activists who once capitalized on the suffering of the Liberian people only to later shy away from activism after a sitting President offered them a job and a better living standard, Leymah Gbowee seemed to have repeated the same offense after she won the Nobel Prize, and after she was offered a job by the Sirleaf administration.

What really caused the rift that led Gbowee to publicly lecture and chastise Sirleaf about nepotism and corruption in her administration is still not known.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, however, has been able to successfully skirt any criticisms of her administration by playing the gender card to her advantage, which has made it difficult to mobilize public support to effect change in Liberia.

Because she is not Presidents Tolbert, Doe and Taylor, whom are mostly blamed for some of the country’s problems, Sirleaf has also cleverly cajoled some in Liberia and the international community to continue to give her time to make the major change her administration supposedly has embarked upon.

The Liberian legislature, as usual are of no help to make Liberia a better place to live and do business; and continues to be incompetent and spineless, by allowing Sirleaf to have her way in running the country like an inheritance from a Grandparent.

By speaking out, Leymah Gbowee was able to successfully rally the progressive anti-Sirleaf crowd that sincerely wants genuine political change and prosperity in Liberia. By coming out this late to speak out against the Sirleaf administration, however, sends a mixed message to those that are unsure of her commitment to political, economic and social justice in Liberia.

Calling Ellen Johnson Sirleaf out publicly for naked corruption and shameless nepotism in her administration is long overdue. And as the saying goes, however, it is “better late than never.”

With a Nobel Peace Prize under her belt, Leymah Gbowee is in a better position to influence policies and make a difference in Liberia. But can she?

AU's Somalia effort deserves plaudit

By Ralph Geeplay
The African Union’s recent military offensive in Somalia, if anything, which saw troops taking full control of the Somali port city of Kismayo must be applauded. By capturing an iron grip on the al-Shabaab Islamist group, and virtually beating them on the battlefield in Somalia put a feather in the cap.

It is a significant achievement for a continent that is always looking for international mediation and foreign boots to solve its problems. It is now known that the group is no longer formidable as they once were because of the extra ordinary military cooperation between the AU and Somali troops.

It is moments like these that should make all Africans proud. But thanks must also go to the United States for providing training and military support to the African-led effort.

Somalia in a sense is a difficult region to understand. Though not as large as the Congo, the battle there has been hot, if not the fiercest on the continent. After the US-led failed mission in the 1990s, the country suddenly became a no man’s land. It can be recalled that in 1992, US Marines landed in Mogadishu to bring order to the unruly place and safeguard relief supplies.

The United States was humiliated a year after it landed in Somalia, and US Army Rangers were killed when Somali militias shot down two US helicopters. The television images that were beamed back to the states were horrific and shocking to American audience and US policy makers. The US finally withdrew in 1994, and washed its hands out of African conflicts.

Though Mohamed Siad Barre was long rooted out of power in 1991, clan wars ensued with warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed gunning for supremacy. Caught in the midst of the chaos were civilians, as armed gangs competed for power.

As Somalia descended into chaos with rival clans and tribes carving the country for supremacy in the absence of a central government to police the state and provide order, Somalia stop being just an internal or regional problem. Somalia also became an international snag with piracy and an Islamic faction terrorizing the people with their main objectives to make profits.

The failed US efforts in the 1990s to bring order to Somalia, analysts say, further hardened armed gangs, which led to this question, ‘If the great United States could not defeat the militias in Somalia, who would…’? And so the Somalia conflict dragged on for years with competing clans vying for control until al Shabaab came alone and international piracy threatened not only Somalia’s neighbors, but also the international community.

That is why the recent successful military offensive this month against the Islamic militant group especially in Kismayo must be applauded. A city of 180,000 people, African Union troops have done a great job by protecting civilian lives and driving away the al Qaeda linked al-Shabaab hardliners, whose motive to introduce Sharia Islamic law has all but suffered Africans in Somalia.

Kismayo was a profitable bastion for the group, as they exploited the seaside city and its port to solidify its financial base by taxing commerce. Al Shabaab’s five years campaign of war and terrorism saw it controlling a large swath of the country at one point, but its presence in Somalia was not enough, but was determined to export terrorism also.

For example in 2010, the militant group was credited for the bomb assaults on Kampala, Uganda, which killed 89 people, including an American, and also carried out kidnappings inside Kenya. The Associated Press reported that Kenyan security forces suspected the group carried out attacks on the Kenyan capital, with a blast targeting a school and killing one child and wounding three.

Africa becomes the latest hotspot for al-Qaeda, and its influence is expanding on the continent. Not only is Nigeria tormented by Boko Haram, an al Qaeda linked group, Mali has also seen the militant sect seizing half of the country in the north. Pundits say the recent AU effort if completed wholly in Somalia would be one less headache as conflict resolution becomes a main agenda of the union in a new era of African solidarity.

However, incoming African Union chair Dlamini Zuma is aware that ‘peace and security’ on the continent must be an African-led effort that must be pursued gravely. She must also be applauded for recognizing that the issue deserves urgency.
African governments, say observers, have too much say on how the AU is run, which often time affects progress. “In a sense the AU Commission has even got [far] less powers than the European Union Commission, the policies of the AU don’t derive from the AU Commission…you have to be able to intervene with the governments in a manner that encourages them,” says former South African president Tambo Mbeki.

Mbeki also warned that Zuma was set up for failure, given that that the AU was a complicated place from which to operate. It is this kind of inefficiency that has incapacitated the AU as it strives to make manifold policy changes and impacts on the continent in behalf of its peoples during these past years, many have said.

But as the Somalia effort shows, to solve African conflicts across the continent means it would require a unique African solution. Too often African governments would have to relied on western governments to solved their internal problems, which are often times ignored. It helps though, that regional groupings on the continent are also taking the lead to solving African conflicts.

The Liberian, Sierra Leonean and Ivorian crisis would not have been resolved had Ecowas, led by Nigeria not provided bold leadership to see that the suffering peoples of those West Africa states saw relief. Other African regions, say an analyst are learning from the West African experience.

Analysts also say the East African community, and especially the countries of Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya were determined that the Islamic group’s exportation of terrorism was eminent as it grew in strength and needed to be curbed. The camaraderie between the AU troops seen recently should herald a new paradigm on the continent to resolving African wars.

The African Union after a lackluster 10 years must show a determination especially with a new leadership in place with the former South African home affairs minister at the helm.

“I think as Africans we have to have solutions to our problems, they may not be easy solutions but we have to find those solutions,” Zuma remarked recently. She also said “The AU believes that the issue of development cannot be addressed when there is war.”

The AU must be encouraged to initiate a continent-wide tax policy in the coming years, if it is serious about carrying out the many projects it has earmarked, say experts.

Nonetheless, the many constraints faced by the AU and African govenemnts, and the recent Somalia peacekeeping efforts, which are currently being resolved by the union must be commended. It was an exceptional African effort that must not go unnoticed.