ANALYSIS By: Harris Kerkula
FLASHBACK: Photo from the UNMIL days in Liberia
History tells us that the United State of America (the US) was founded in 1776. So was Liberia – in 1847. By simple arithmetic, the US was founded about seventy-one years before Liberia.
This makes the US 244 years old and Liberia 173 years old. Now, one may say the US is quite an old nation; however, the same could very well be said of Liberia- at 173. For persons from much younger countries, say Nigeria (@60), or Senegal (@60) or Singapore (@55), it would seem unfathomable that a 173 nation would repeatedly be calling upon a 244 year-old nation for help in achieving even the most mundane aspects of statehood.
Certainly, they would wonder that, as a nation, what have we been up to all these 173 years – that our institutions either lack the capacity, or the integrity and credibility to manage our own affairs. Why are we so resigned to calling upon the US to come and save us from self-inflicted calamities?
Let me be clear from the onset, that even though the most recent calls for intervention from the US is from President George Weah, this article is not a pro-CDC analysis nor an anti-CDC analysis. It is neither a pro-UP/CPP analysis nor an anti-UP/CPP analysis. This is simply an objective analysis of our current reality, which, sadly, is as old as the Republic itself. The repeated calls for the US to come and save us is disheartening, to say the least. Sadly, this has been the default position of the Liberian state, whenever it is faced with a national challenge.
In 1990, as Liberians were killing Liberians, other Liberians thought it expedient to protest in front of the gates of the US embassy in Liberia (Mamba Point). Ultimately, it simmered down to West Africa/ECOWAS and more particularly Nigeria to take the decisive step to slow the tide of the self-annihilation. But, even before then, ex-President Samuel K. Doe had been calling on the US government for nearly a decade – and was pretty adept at it too. At the time, Liberia was reputed to be the “largest per-capita recipient” of US largess in Africa[1].
It is estimate that nothing less than USD500m came to Liberia in economic and military aid[2]. With an ingrained culture of corruption – the bulk of this US government money was simply swindled, without much thought or fear of consequences, and same was much to the knowledge of the US[3]. So as it turned out notwithstanding the military aid by the US government in the 1980s, the Liberian army (the AFL), as an institution, and not surprisingly, was without capacity, without patriotism and without morale to stop the rag-tag NPFL rebels. Our experience with the dismal failure of the AFL to halt the NPFL progress shows that no amount of aid, assistance or foreign intervention can replace relevant and necessary national institutions. This fact, notwithstanding, Liberians, whatever their stripes, are never wary of crying out for US intervention. Sometimes, it feels quite like a 45 year-old grown man, who is always crying out on his aged 75 year old parent(s) to rescue him, because, ostensibly he’s simply never learned the art of thinking for himself or of being independent.
If you thing I’m speaking of the past, think again. More recently, under the regime of Madame Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, instead of building up our nations’ institutions, Mrs. Sirleaf spent the better part of her twelve years globetrotting and perpetually begging for interventions – from the US government primarily, but also for the European Union, China, Japan, and whoever was willing to lend an ear. The Americans, in particular, had legions of advisors in Liberia dictating policy at virtually every level and in virtually every sector. They were involved in the army, police, anti-graft institutions, health institutions – you name it, they were there. Every aspect of Liberian life was being “rebuilt and rebranded”, so to speak, by the Americans.
Now, the stark irony is that a mere three years after all the “rebuilding and rebranding” of the Sirleaf’s years, where are our institutions now? How strong are they to meet the challenges facing Liberia? Take the health sector for example. After years of advice from US experts and hundreds of millions poured into Liberia’s health sector, our health sector was still in shambles, by the time EBOLA hit. It was reported that at least $1.0 billion US dollars came to Liberia, specifically, in aid to fight EBOLA, and to strengthen our health systems[4]. Yet today, Liberia is no closer to a resilient health sector, as in any other time in our nation’s 173-year history. Where has all this intervention left us? Where?
If anything, we may very well be worse of. With the EBOLA aid, Liberia made a few health-sector millionaires, on the back of a badly run-down and corrupt health sector. By the time COVID-19 came around, not surprisingly, we were still begging the US to intervene. Contrary to expectation, COVID-19, did not wreak similar havoc as it did to other western countries, or as EBOLA did.
However, our escaping the worst of the COVID-19 can best be put at either some natural immunity common to Africans or maybe via sheer luck, because if the preparedness of our health sector is anything to go by, it would have certainly been just another disaster. Looks to me like God almighty himself decided that he wanted to keeping company with a different set of nationalities, the one he sees less often – like the Chinese, the Europeans and the Americans. The Oldman had been keeping company with far too many Africans (and of course fare too many Liberians), that he just sought some new faces for company. In this light, we were spared the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic! But for how long? Will the next epidemic/pandemic meet a prepared, equipped and resilient Liberian health sector or will we resort to the same strategy of asking the US for intervention? What do our current leaders think of the bleak scenario?
After the Sirleaf’s years, did we learn anything? Not much, if you ask me. The first challenge was the reported missing $16-billion (LD) saga and the USD25 million mop-up exercise. When the controversy came to a head, Liberians again went protesting to not to their police department (LNP) or their auditor general (GAC), or to their premier anti-graft investigator (LACC). Liberians, from all walks of life, sought, as usual, the intervention of the US to find out what happened. This is notwithstanding the fact that the government of Liberia has multiple investigative institutions, including GAC, LACC, FIU, NSA etc.
This begs the question: what is it about our state institutions that exudes such distrust that neither the people nor the government finds it worthwhile to resort to them for answers? As the public clamor of the apparent crimes came to a head, the current government of President George Weah didn’t disappoint – it did the quintessential Liberian thing by asking the US government for intervention. Of, course it is now history that the US only partially assisted by paying a “scoping study” as opposed to a forensic audit. Subsequently, the Liberian government conducted a slew of other “investigations” of the same missing funds and faux fiscal policy, without bothering to implement an ounce of the outcome. For example, the Kroll report was inundated with instances where the report stated ….” Kroll therefore recommends that this matter merits further understanding” – a clear reference to detail [forensic] audit/investigation. But, this was not to be. The powers that be were simply not interested in that “further understanding” that Kroll recommended. So, what did they do? Well, they took the incomplete Kroll report as a basis to do a sham/show trial, which, not surprisingly, came to naught. Of course, the outcome of the prosecution did not matter to the government, as conviction of responsible persons was never its intent anyway.
Fast forward to today, we are at the crossroads of another national tragedy. Four auditors and/or tax professionals [have your take] are dead under suspicious circumstances. Do we have the relevant national institutions to respond to this tragedy? Professional police force? Forensic scientists? Forensic crime labs? Where is that competent and professional police force that the UN spend millions of dollars training? Even the LNP Director was constrained to note that the initial LNP investigators botched the crime scene, in the Albert and Gifty deaths. Worst than even the screwing up of the crime scene is the issue of institutional capacity – is the issue of whether or not the Police is neutral and has integrity? These attributes are simply not in the current LNP, and probably never was. From top down, the LNP does not operate by the merit system.
Top police officers are handpicked by the President, often without reference to any merit-based system for deciding who gets on the shortlist. Middle-level police commanders (zonal commanders) also get appointed and/or removed in much the same manner as their senior counterparts. Worst still, the majority of these higher-rank police officers serve at the “will and pleasure” of the President. Not surprisingly, from time in memorial, our national Police had always been controlled by whatever government was in power and by extension the ruling party. Under the current CDC government, this unfortunate state of affairs has led to some very frequent unsavory rule-of-law breaches and unpalatable violence. Very often the Police has been filmed standing by and doing absolutely nothing as violence was being unleashed upon ordinary citizens who were simply going about their constitutionally-approved activities.
To date, we have lost count of the sheer number of violent incidents in which the Police were on hand to witness and/or would do nothing about unprovoked violence against peaceful citizens , because arresting the culprits, it appears, would offend the sensibilities of their political principal(s). What magic wand does the Americans have for this ostensible regime violence?
So the question becomes: what do we want as a nation? We have a police department that either lacks the capacity to investigate crimes and/or lacks the credibility and professional integrity. Maybe the President and his ruling pal really do trust the Police. But for the rest of us, the LNP in its current form is a waste of time and surely a waste of taxpayers’ dollars. The same can be said of other investigative and prosecutorial agencies. Whereas, in other countries, these institutions (such as the Police or the Public Prosecutor department) are some of the most trusted public service institutions. In Liberia, and sadly too, these institutions are simply an appendage of the ruling party and whatever regime is in existence at the time. There is no sense of institutional mission, purpose, higher calling and patriotism. It is simply and matter of pleasing the President! There is no merit system for the recruitment of professionals, nor is there an objective system for security of tenure (job security). Everybody serves at the “will and pleasure” of the President, and ostensibly kowtows to every presidential whim and caprice. This is how our system has always been! Probably the system is a little worse-off now, because the CDC government revels in ignorance and has no sense of purpose or direction whatsoever. Led by a playboy President, Liberia’s imperial presidency is no doubt an albatross, dragging the nation down into the abyss. Under the CDC government, the center cannot no longer hold and mere anarchy is been unleashed upon the ordinary citizens and residents alike.
I have my doubts, that even if you change the actors, say you remove the CDC people, and bring in the CPP/UP “agents of change”, if anything revolutionary is going to happen. I mean what significant reforms can come out of the likes of Urey, Yekeh or Boakai. Looks to me likes it’s going to be just another musical chairs game about whose turn it is to “eat”. At least Veep Jewel Taylor was honest enough to admit it! This system must be changed; we simply can’t afford to rely on the “good intentions” of individuals. Our laws must change. Our institutions must be staffed differently – via the merit system only. This I get the job because “the-President-knows-me” system must be swapped for the merit system.
The only reason why we always call on the US government for intervention is that we believe (and for good reasons too) that persons who work for US institutions have the requisite competence and professional integrity. But what stops us from staffing our own institutions with persons who possess the necessary competence and professional integrity? What stops us from developing our systems, so that it is substantially free of political manipulations, bootlicking and tribalism? Why should technocrats and seasoned professionals (and virtually everyone else in Liberia) serve at the “will and pleasure” of the President? Under such a system as we have, the President becomes a demigod to be worshipped, and never ever to be contradicted, even when the facts are glaring. We have seen on countless occasions, how the LNP and the MOJ authorities dare not act in glaring observation of the facts, because acting in favor of the rule of law would offend the sensibilities of President, his party, his concubines or just anyone who has the ears of the President.
I do not believe that the Americans have any more brains than we have. But, unlike us, they have a fundamental distrust of the federal government vast powers that veer more closely towards the powers of a king. So, as a safety measure, they crank-up their systems with sufficient checks and balances – including checks on Presidential Power, on Judicial Power, on Congressional Power, and on every other power that is capable of being abused. They rely very heavily on the merit system in recruiting professionals. They rely in very heavily on the tenure system for job security for professionals hired via the merit system. The rely very heavily on independent panels to prevent professionals from being summarily dismissed for political reasons or for other irrelevant or trivial reasons. So understandably, when a US investigator or Prosecutor approaches her work, getting to the truth is all that matters. On the contrary, and sadly too in our system, since everyone serves at the “will and pleasure” of the President, when a Liberian investigator or prosecutor approaches his or her work, the sole concern is “what the President would like to see” or alternatively, “what the President will definitely not like to see”. Base on what we perceived the President response would be to our work, we adjust our conduct accordingly, often at the expense of the rule of law or the merit system. In this kind of environment, getting to the truth is not even a factor for consideration. In the end, the public will distrust any system that is not designed to get to the truth. Without trusted institutions, we are doomed to a repeated cycle of calling on the US government to come to our aid, whenever we face challenges as a nation. Which sovereign nation hasn’t got challenges? Which one? Today, we call on the US to investigate mysterious deaths in Liberia. Since this won’t be that last time mysterious death occurs in Liberia, what will we do the next time there is a mysterious death in our country? Call on the US government again to investigate? When will this dependency end? When?
About the Author:
Harris Kerkula is a citizen of Liberia and a resident of Monrovia. He is married and has 5 kids. He considers himself a perennial student of history and has taught social studies and literature to high school students for 15 years running. Mr. Harris can be reached via email: harriskerku@gmail.com
[1] Harden, Blaine, 1988, Liberia in grip of graft, puts Americans at Treasury’s Helm, Washington Post
[2] Ibid, page 1
[3] Gifford, Paul, 1993, Christianity and Politics in Doe’s Liberia
[4] OSIWA, 2015, EBOLA FUND WATCH, Tracking funds for EBOLA crisis in West Africa.