Archive for October, 2014

Liberia’s sinking ‘devine’ leadership

By Siahyonkron Nyanseor

 

 

How do you prevent a ship from sinking, when the captain and the crews who were forewarned of impending DANGER refused to listen to the warning signs? Instead, they go about business as usual - engaging in practices that benefit their individual interests, and leave the people they are supposed to represent and protect, vulnerable?

 

This is the fate of the sinking Liberia’s divine leaders’ ship. And now that failed divine leadership is at the verge of drowning, and are running helter-skelter seeking welfare from the international community. The question then is what happened to the billions of dollars in investments and aids the country received in the nine years President Sirleaf and her Unity Party (UP) have been in office?

 

For example, a draft audit in May 2013 “…found that almost all of the $8-billion worth of resource contracts signed by Liberia since 2009 violated its laws, casting doubt on anti-graft and good governance efforts under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.” (International Monetary Fund, July 5, 2013 article titled: “Billions In Donor Money Very Little To Show: IMF Calls For Transparency In Liberia.”

 

The same article went on to say, “Liberia has attracted billions of dollars in resource investment since the end of a civil war in 2003, but remains one of the world’s least developed countries, with at least 64 percent of the population living in poverty.”

 

Drinking water that is essential for life; road network and electricity that facilitate development and commerce were never a priority for this government. Instead, the money has been used to pay high salaries to government officials and on wasteful spending. In order to make these things happen, the President and her ruling party along with the Legislature violate the laws; amended a version of the Constitution to suit their selfish purpose at the expense of the entire population.

 

Well, the Ebola virus has already sunk the ship, now the ‘Divine’ leaders are running scare going around in search of life support system to buy sufficient time to recover and cook-up another scheme to get back in the captain’s seat to steer the ship like they did in the Association for constitutional Democracy in Liberia (ACDL) - the sponsor of the Liberian civil (EVIL) war that brought to power, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) to destroy what little we had.

 

Dr. Joseph A. Verdier correctly diagnosed what is wrong with us as a people. He says, and I agree: “The problem is, for some time now it has been nearly impossible to find a compatriot with the fortitude to lead the nation on a path of creating an economically vibrant and politically stable society. In other words, our search for an effective and caring leader has been coming up short for several decades now. It has become almost impossible for Liberians to identify and elect a leader who is engaging enough to take the nation on a realistic path of national re-awakening and revival. That path has been awfully elusive. For the most part, it has been characterized by false starts and as well driven by a sort of caged cult mentality which almost predictably leads to dashed hopes and betrayed aspirations.”

 

To which I say we are responsible for the government and leaders we elect or select. In the past, be it in Banjul or Accra, we select our leaders either based on friendship/association or on the basis of ‘what is in it for me;’ and NOT what the person we select is capable of doing for the country. As the result, we lobbied, bribe money is exchanged and the one with the biggest purse is chosen; not necessarily the most qualified. It happened in Banjul and Accra!

 

After several years of failed leadership, we go back to the drawing board to repeat the same, without learning from the mistakes. When we are faced with new candidates; we do not factor in our decisions the new candidates’ work experience and history - like it is done in the business world; check with the candidates’ former employers and references before selecting the person or persons. In many cases, we based our selection on the person’s name, popularity, family and associates, the school they attended or graduated from. To me the school that one graduated from does not make who the person is, instead, it is what the individual made of themselves after they have graduated that makes a world of difference.

 

The Dunn Proposal

I respect but disagree with Dr. Dunn’s proposal that calls for massive international support to avert this public health crisis. In his Op-ed piece that appeared in the September 10, 2014 edition of The Perspective magazine, under the caption, “Ebola, A threat to International security and peace”. Dr. Dunn argued that this public health crisis has become an existential threat to Liberia and the West African sub-region and, therefore, should be treated not as a “public health emergency”, but rather as a “Chapter 7 Mandate to deliver as One.”

 

He argued further that the concept of “deliver as One” would enable the establishment of a framework for coordinating the response from “national, regional, and global levels” to address this crisis. While Dr. Dunn’s proposal provides a technical solution or technocratic approach to the crisis, it ignores a deeper underlying problem of a crisis of governance that confronts Liberia. A fundamental question not addressed by Dunn’s proposal is: What happens for example, when the international community or our so-called international partners are no longer around and the country has to fend for itself? How then do we address the question of bad governance, concentrated poverty, and ever-widening inequality? While Liberia needs international support to address many of its developmental needs, Liberians cannot continue to seek welfare assistance from the international community each time our leaders MESS UP.

 

President Sirleaf and her Unity Party government failed the Liberian people; she must face the consequences. She has failed to deliver the promises she made to the Liberian people for which they elected her. Even Doe and Taylor did better than her. With all the money that has been invested in the country – ‘growth without services’ is an understatement. In this day and age, we cannot continue to depend on ‘welfare’ from the international community for our life support system.

 

Many of us are very disappointed in President Sirleaf and her Unity Party leadership. What makes it so bad is, her misrule is being done with the assistance of the Progressives as technocrats and the educated indigenous elites as cheerleaders, and the resuscitated old guards of the defunct Grand Old True Whig Party partisans who came back in the name of Unity Party members; with vengeance to reclaim what they lost on April 12, 1980. They have since recovered more than their losses.

 

Moreover, these so-called Divine Leaders have recruited a new bunch of ‘spoon-fed’ loyalists with no credible work experience; they have replaced the relevance of the Progressives, and have relegated them to serve as mere service providers. Moreover, the TWP partisans are now posing as UP partisans, have taking charge of running the key ministries and serving on major commissions, and receiving the higher salaries in the country’s history – both in the government and with NGOs. And all we are concerned about are National Symbols and Dual Citizenship; while President Sirleaf is mortgaging our land and resources right under our noses.

 

Leadership

His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, once said: “…Leaders are people, who raise the standard by which they judge themselves-and by which they are judged. The goal chosen, the objective selected, the requirements imposed are not merely for their followers alone. They develop with consummate energy and devotion their own skill and knowledge in order to reach the standards they themselves have set. This whole-hearted acceptance of the demands imposed by ever-higher standards is the basis of all human progress. A love of high quality, we must remember, is essential in a leader.

 

“…A good leader is devoted to his work and will willingly forego even the demands of sleep to see its accomplishment. This does not mean that he is impetuous. On the other hand, he maintains a balance between emotional drive and sound thinking.”

 

In the Daily Observer article titled: “Ellen’s Gov’t Lacks Coordination,” Dr. Amos Sawyer, Governance Commission Chairman expressed concerns that the three branches of government are not communicating in the governance of the state. The article was dated April 24, 2014. In the article, he said, “…I am saying this from where we sit at the level of the Governance Commission. How to bring these various institutions together and how to transcend tough struggles are issues we are here to address.

 

“We need to see how we can get beyond these challenges and find common ground with mutuality of interest for a win-win situation. We need to find a solution where there is enough credit to go around the agencies involved for a common perspective. Above all, we must put our country above self interest…”

 

What an indictment coming from the Chairman of the Governance Commission of Liberia! The concern raised by the Chairman of the Governance Commission regarding the Government made me to take a look at The Peter Principle.

 

The Peter Principle

What is The Peter Principle? The Peter Principle concept was introduced by the Canadian sociologist Dr. Laurence Johnston Peter in his humoristic book of the same title. In his book, he described the pitfalls of the bureaucracy in organizations witnessed during his extensive research into business organization and its management.

 

The Peter Principle has attained such renown that The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as “The theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent… In a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence,” or, as Dr. Peter’s Principal explained more simply, “The cream rises until it sours.”

 

The same is applied in school. For example, if a student does not meet the course requirements, he either drop the course to receive an “I” for INCOMPLETE or is given an “F” grade for FAILURE. This is the same in the Business World and Government. In the Business World, when an employee cannot perform the responsibilities for which he was hired, he is warned or suspended for a period of time; if he is reinstated and still cannot perform the job, he either resign or get terminated. As it looks, President Sirleaf has but two choices; she either RESIGN voluntarily or the Liberian people will ask her to RESIGN on the grounds that she failed miserably in the performance of her duties, and let the Constitution do the rest. All the talk about receiving WELFARE from the International Community is a temporary solution – not the solution.

 

On the other hand, let me remind our readers that in 1962, the United Nations General Assembly resolution 1803 (XVII) gave the indigenous inhabitants (the people that were there first, who the ‘Love of Liberty did not bring) certain rights that must be respected and adhered to. The Assembly declared, inter alia:

 

The right of peoples and nations to permanent sovereignty over their natural wealth and resources must be exercised in the interest of their national development and of the well-being of the people of the State concerned.

 

The exploration, development and disposition of such resources, as well as the import of the foreign capital required for these purposes, should be in conformity with the rules and conditions which are consider to being necessary or desirable with regard to the authorization, restriction or prohibition of such activities.

 

The International Labor Organization Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169/1989, now ratified by several countries, contains important provisions for control over natural resources by Indigenous peoples in their collective capacity as peoples. In particular, article 15 provides for the rights of “peoples” to their natural resources. Paragraph 1 reads as follows:

 

1. The rights of the peoples concerned with the natural resources pertaining to their lands shall be specifically safeguarded. These rights include the right of these peoples to participate in the use, management and conservation of these resources.

 

This is not happening in Liberia with our resources. Those who violate these Conventions will be held responsible, if NOT now, tomorrow!

 

Conclusion

Finally, the practice known as corruption is as old as man, according to some people. Others have argued that corruption started with the first family in the Garden of Eden, and that it exists in all human societies - from Genesis to Exodus. Yet, in almost all societies, there are laws against corrupt practices of any kind. If corruption goes unchecked, it will flourish and collapse continents. Unlike a tip that is given as an expression of appreciation for services rendered; bribe, a form of corruption is given to prevent justice or for other dishonest purposes.

Dismayingly, however, apologists of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Unity Party government lacks intellectual honesty and is incapable of owning up to the mounting problems her administration has created either by its acts of omission or commission; have not only shamelessly but deceptively and has been engaged in a public relations war of words to deceive and make mockery of its real interests. Mouthing such phrase as “the Oldma is trying;” its vocal proponents are calling for cessation of criticisms against her dis-unity government in order that - we the ‘Troublemakers’ (*Portists – that is) would share in the spoils of the people’s wealth. However, this deception has only followed more deceptions, exposing its vulnerability and practice of corrupting the truth.

The fact of the matter is, since there is a total lack of honesty in the Sirleaf administration, certainly it will be difficult for the government’s policies to escape the attention of any concerned and caring person. In retrospect, it astonishes me; yet, I am not too surprised by the behaviors of some ‘former progressive elements’ and the President’s kitchen cabinet. My intent here is to remind them of a historical fact that even they cannot resist or escape from - the wrath of the people, and that “No condition is permanent.” Tolbert, Doe, Taylor as well as a host of African leaders are victims of this historical fact. Moreover, I am in agreement with what Charles Taylor said, “The ant on the treetop will always find water to survive.” But if the ant is not careful, the water could kill it because the water is contaminated due to neglect.

My people, here is where we find ourselves! If there is nothing else, NEGLECT of the Liberian people by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sufficient GROUND for her NOT to be allowed to continue leading a country whose people she cares NOTHING about - their HEALTH and WELFARE.

 

 

*Portists: Anyone regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, who has the guts to speak TRUTH to power regardless of the consequences. He/she WORKS to RIGHT the wrongs in society. That’s what a Liberian PORTIST is! This is a tradition we are prepared to continue. Portists are continuing the advocacy that was left VOID by the death of Mr. Constitution, the late Oldman Albert Porte.

 

Siahyonkron Nyanseor is the Chair of the ULAA Council of Eminent Persons (UCEP), Inc. He is a poet, Griot, journalist, and a cultural and political activist. In 2012, he Co-authored Djogbachiachuwa: The Liberian Literature Anthology; his book of poems: TIPOSAH: Message from the Palava Hut is now on the market. Nyanseor can be reached at: [email protected].

Ebola patient’s temperature spiked to 103 degrees

By EMILY SCHMALL and HOLBROOK MOHR and NOMAAN MERCHANT,

Associated Press

 

DALLAS (AP) — Thomas Eric Duncan’s temperature spiked to 103 degrees during the hours of his initial visit to an emergency room — a fever that was flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital’s record-keeping system, his medical records show.

Despite telling a nurse that he had recently been in Africa and displaying other symptoms that could indicate Ebola, the man who would become the only person to die from the disease in the U.S. underwent a battery of tests and was eventually sent home.

Duncan’s family provided his medical records to The Associated Press — more than 1,400 pages in all. They encompass his time in the ER, his urgent return to the hospital two days later and chronicle his steep decline as his organs began to fail.

Duncan carried the deadly virus with him from his home in Liberia, though he showed no symptoms when he left for the United States. He arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill several days later.

When he first showed up at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the man complained of abdominal pain, dizziness, a headache and decreased urination. He reported severe pain — rating it an eight on a scale of 10. Doctors gave him CT scans to rule out appendicitis, stroke and numerous other serious ailments. Ultimately, he was prescribed antibiotics and told to take Tylenol, then returned to the apartment where he was staying with a Dallas woman and three other people.

In spite of his fever, a physician’s note dated Sept. 26 said Duncan was “negative for fever and chills.”

“I have given patient instructions regarding their diagnosis, expectations for the next couple of days, and specific return precautions,” according to the emergency room physician’s note. “The condition of the patient at this time is stable.”

After Duncan’s condition worsened, someone in the apartment called 911, and paramedics took him back to the hospital on Sept. 28. That’s when he was admitted and swiftly put in isolation.

The documents also show that a nurse recorded early in Duncan’s first hospital visit that he recently came to the U.S. from Africa, though he denied having been in contact with anyone sick.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had alerted hospitals nationwide to take a travel history for patients with Ebola-like symptoms.

According to the records, Duncan was 45. Relatives said he was 42. The discrepancy could not be immediately resolved.

When reached by AP, hospital spokesman Wendell Watson did not offer any immediate comment but asked for questions to be sent in writing. Doctors who evaluated Duncan did not respond to a message left at their offices.

The hospital has repeatedly changed its account of what the medical team knew when it released Duncan from the emergency room early on Sept. 26.

A few days later, on Sept. 30, it initially said Duncan did not tell the staff he had been in Africa. On Oct. 1, it said Duncan’s nurse had been aware of the Africa connection but did not share that information with the rest of the medical team.

The next day, the hospital blamed a flaw in its electronic health-records systems for not making Duncan’s travel history directly accessible to his doctor.

A day later, on Oct. 3, the hospital issued a statement saying Duncan’s travel history had been available to all hospital workers, including doctors, who treated him during his initial visit.

___

Schmall reported from North Carolina

Pot calling tea kettle black

By Dennis Jah

 

 

First off, may I register my profound condolence to the family of Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan who lost his battle with the deadly Ebola virus in Texas today. I literally broke down in tears this morning when I heard that the brother didn’t make it. The CNN report breaking the tragic news did not “leave fear in my heart” as we would say in my hometown.

 

While on his sick bed, the Liberian government had planned to prosecute Mr. Duncan because he allegedly lied on his exit questionnaire at the Roberts International Airport that he had NOT been exposed to the often-fatal Ebola virus. When I heard that a possible prosecution for lying was the official position of the Government of Liberia, I only chuckled and said to myself “look at Pot calling tea kettle black.” For a country that institutionalizes lies and falsehood to conduct official business threatening to prosecute a dying man for telling lies really fits our Liberian sarcasm of “pot calling tea kettle black.” The first thing my mind ran on was the ghost names that dominate the payrolls of most government ministries in Liberia. By ghost payroll, employees that don’t exist appear on most payrolls so that corrupt officials can pocket the paychecks of those imaginary employees. That is a lie and so how can this government that institutes a ghost payroll system charges any of its citizens for lying? Wouldn’t the baby bird eat whatever the mother feeds it with? Had the Government of Liberia been truthful about EBOLA when it first hit the country at the beginning of the year, it would have not had the devastating effect it is having now.

 

I also think of the 66 out of 68 bogus concession agreements that the government has signed. By bogus, the government lied to the people it leads on top of stealing their money. So what moral grounds has this Pot got to accuse Tea Kettle of being black - their trade mark? The certificate of Immunization, the so-called Yellow Book that is issued by our health authorities is often fraudulently acquired as immunizations are often not given and that is an open secret. And so why is pot calling tea kettle black? Even birth certificate which is often obtained during the adult lives of many Liberians is filled out based on whatever information is provided as long as money talks. No doubt why the names of Liberians are not unique as anyone can make birth certificate at any point of their lives as long as money changes hands. Not only that, driver license can be acquired by anybody; auto insurance policies which often cover nothing are sold and bribes-seeking police officers are happy to make sure all motorists get those unscrupulous plans. All lies. Students who fail their classes in one school jump from class to class in other schools. Specific schools dubbed as “come let’s graduate” gladly take in those students as long as they pay the required fees to keep the registrars’ pot boiling.

 

Top officials lie about their academic and other credentials, yet they are hired. Even when they are rejected by the senate and not confirmed for providing fake papers, just allow few days to pass for the back door deals to be complete and the rejected ones are finally confirmed with a filibuster-proof majority. When the president’s son breaks the law, she bypasses the justice system and picks a university lecturer to investigate. When a newspaper reports the truth, it risks being closed or the publisher charged for contempt.

 

The system that the government of Liberia presides over is all soaked with lies, falsehood and deception. Government officially submits false reports to keep the door to donor funds open forever. When audit and special reports speak the truth, they are often rejected or dismissed. When little Shaky Kamara was shot and his legs broken by a government soldier using gun to fight Ebola, the official position of Government represented by the Defense Ministry was that it was the result of a barb wire. The president and Chief Executive will be heard off-record planning to set up fake investigations to cover the rear ends of her cronies. Government contractors set up fake companies to milk the government as the money recycles back in the accounts of those corrupt officials. The list is endless! And this same government wants to prosecute someone fighting for life for lying on an exit form? Look at “pot calling tea kettle black.”

 

http://dennisjah.blogspot.com
http://healthcaretechnocrat.blogspot.com/
http://allafricawrite.com/

“The butchering of a rat begins from the tail.” Grebo proverb

 

Ebola and the state of governance in Liberia

By Cecil Franweah Frank

 

 

This article examines the state of governance in Liberia in light of the Ebola crisis. Liberians are experiencing the worst public health safety crisis in living memory, and possibly since the country declared independence in 1847.

This crisis like the civil war before it has cast the issue of governance into the spotlight. Liberians are now asking: what went wrong? Why has Ebola been allowed to threaten public safety and grip the entire country in fear? Has Ebola shown that contrary to what we have been made to believe by “international experts,” post-conflict Liberia like pre-war Liberia is experiencing low quality governance?

This article will attempt to address these questions as it sheds light on the correlation between the Ebola epidemic and the state of governance in Liberia today.

BACKGROUND

Ebola virus disease (EVD) was first identified in 1976 in areas between the Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly known as Zaire. The World Health Organization (WHO) described the current Ebola outbreak in Liberia and other West African countries as the “largest and most complex.” (WHO fact sheet No.103). The average fatality rate is said to be around 50%. This means that if the current outbreak is not contained, half of Liberia’s population could be wiped out when all is said and done. This will be a national calamity.

In West Africa, EVD came to light in late December 2013 after the death of a 2-year old boy in the village of Meliandou, Gueckedou Prefecture in Guinea. Since that time, the disease rapidly spread first to Sierra Leone and then to Liberia. In Liberia, the first cases of EVD were reported late March in Lofa and Nimba counties. By mid-June, the disease had spread to Liberia’s capital Monrovia. The Liberian government undertook series of measures in respond to EVD once it appeared on Liberian territory.

The country’s borders on July 27 were ordered close and social activities that involve crowd-gathering was banned on July 30; and a state of emergency was declared on August 6. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Disaster Relief Commission are the primary organs of the government in charge of responding to the Ebola health emergency. The Ministry of Health is a long-standing statutory agency of government, but was never designed to handle health disasters of the nature and magnitude we are experiencing in Ebola.

The National Disaster Relief Commission (NDRC) does not have statutory standing in Liberian law. It was created in the late 1970s. While the ideas behind the creation of this organization are laudable and lofty, Liberian public policymakers did not implement these ideas fully as seen by the organization’s continual inactiveness. The NDRC, like many other commissions such as the Governance Commission, turned out to be talking shops used mostly within Liberia’s patronizing system of government to channel funds to pay President Sirleaf’s cronies and political ‘yes men.” The NDRC did little or no work on planning for disasters in Liberia. Notwithstanding, the government was caught flat-footed by Ebola.

THE LINK BETWEEN EBOLA AND GOVERNANCE

The success of the Sirleaf administration will ultimately be judged on the following eight key elements of good governance: Rule of law, Transparency, Participation, Responsiveness, Equity and Inclusiveness, Effectiveness and Efficiency, Consensus, and Accountability.

This article will focus on two of the 8 tenets to explain the relationship between Ebola and the state of governance in Liberia – responsiveness and accountability. The Liberian government under all circumstances and conditions is obligated to secure and protect the best interests of Liberians at all times.

Since the outbreak of EVD in December 2013 and its appearance in Liberia in late March, the Liberian authorities only began taking concrete actions in respond to EVD in late July. All of the measures undertaken appeared too little, too late and showed the sluggishness of the government’s response to the outbreak. Moreover, and perhaps most damaging was that the government’s response appeared uncoordinated and not organized. Since the government failed to build the required structures and processes for both the Ministry of Health and the NDRC to respond to disasters, both were not able to respond to the epidemic within a reasonable timeframe.

As such, both institutions not only became symbols of the monumental failures on the part of the Johnson-Sirleaf administration, but the interests of Liberians were not served well. Thus, the government’s half-hearted response left the impression that the Sirleaf administration had underestimated the scope and scale of EVD. President Sirleaf is yet to publicly acknowledge this. That such is the case shouldn’t come as a surprise because this is a continuation of the “done-care attitude” and shortsightedness exhibited by Liberian public policy officials in dealing with national issues. This attitude speaks to the second ingredient of good governance –accountability.

Accountability is a crucial element of good governance. One of the reasons the government has found it difficult to fight Ebola and get the cooperation of the general public is that there is a perception the government has not transparently utilized public and non-public resources earmarked for Ebola, and has not felt the need to provide accountable reports to the Liberian population.

Government officials in Liberia feel that they are doing the population a favor, and not the population doing them a favor. This explains why President Sirleaf is yet to publicly acknowledge the failings of her government in dealing with Ebola and apologize to the Liberian people for those failings. This is a reason there is a great trust gap between the government and the population, as well as between Liberians in the Diaspora and the government.

Confidence in the government by non-Liberian donors is also very low. Example of such is the recent U.S. government’s decision to send its own personnel and troops to Liberia to help tackle Ebola rather than provide resources to the Liberian government to do the job. The lack of trust in the Liberian government was a key factor for this decision followed by the lack of technical capacity.

Writing in the August 27 online edition of the Washington Post, an American student in Liberia Leah Breen, noted that the Liberian government’s “containment strategies were dubious and the impacts potentially harmful.”

Amid widespread allegations of pervasive corruption, including outright theft of Ebola funds, and suspicions by Liberians both within and outside the country that the government is making little effort to improve their quality of life, the actions by the Sirleaf administration have allowed Ebola to spread fear in the population and widen the gulf of distrust.

That Liberians do not view their government as accountable is no longer in doubt and this essential ingredient for post-conflict reconstruction continues to remain absent in Liberia’s political culture. This in turn has undermined the assessment by “international experts” that Liberia has turned the corner in bad governance and has become a great impediment in tackling the Ebola outbreak.

CONCLUSION

After almost eight years in office, Ebola has rudely unmasked the Johnson-Sirleaf administration’s failure to build working institutions to cope with extraordinary circumstances and national disasters, as well as to provide overall good governance and stability for Liberia. The Ebola outbreak while devastating to Liberia has offered its citizens another opportunity to examine the flaws in the current governance system and take corrective actions to address the situation.

The first such opportunity Liberians had was the 14-year civil war . However, judging from the Ebola epidemic and many other public policy mishaps, it seems the lessons of the root causes of the civil war were never learned. The idea that Liberia has turned the page on bad governance as widely promoted by international financial and governance institutions has turned out to be false thanks to the current Ebola crisis.

We should remember that any nation that doesn’t have a credible checks-and-balance system and functioning governing institutions, which are the missing links in post-conflict Liberia’s experience, cannot attain good governance that is responsive and accountable to the citizens’ needs and interests.

While the Sirleaf administration is hard pressed for time as its term of office is running out, there is still hope that the Ebola crisis can be turned into an opportunity. The first thing that needs to be done is to reform public institutions; that includes eliminating those that are not needed and creating those that are needed.

For example, the government needs to boost the capacity of the Health Ministry, reform the health system as a whole, and create the Ministry of National Emergencies to replace the National Disaster Commission. The Ministry of National Security should be converted to a national emergencies ministry.

Finally, in the mist of the health crisis, Liberians should be mindful of misguided politicians that are trying to sow the seeds of perpetual instability through agitating the population to engage in unlawful activities, or calling for regime change that is outside of the constitutional process.

 

Cecil Frank is a Law and Public Policy PhD candidate at Walden University, and a founding member of the Coalition of Concerned Liberians (CCL).