Ellen Retaliatory Outrage

Introduction: In this piece Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh chides president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for firing John Morlu, who as head of the auditing commission was vocal about corruption in Liberia. 

John Morlu

John S. Morlu II is no longer Auditor General of the Republic of Liberia. A president who was never a fan in the first place officially terminated the much-hated auditor general, who in the eyes of most Liberians caused the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration much headache after the president nominated him in 2007.

According to supporters of the president, Morlu was never fired. However, a statement read by President Sirleaf on the expiration of the employment contract added that the “European Union concluded an agreement with the Auditor-General to pay the salary for the first four years of the contract with the understanding that the Liberian Government will assume this responsibility thereafter.”

So after the end of the European Union’s sanctioned four years, President Sirleaf, who couldn’t hide her disdain for the outspoken auditor general who brought so much grief to her administration, and perhaps to her personally with his public indictment of her administration as being “three times more corrupt than its predecessor,” could no longer swallow the bitter pill named Morlu.

Who is this Jeffersonian John Morlu?

By: ralph geeplay

By the time this commentary is up John Morlu will deny that he wrote a despicable letter to the President of the Republic of Liberia

“The Letter,” as it is now being referred to in many circles is probably the most interesting piece of blue notes I have read these past two years. What motivated John Morlu to write that letter says a lot about what is wrong with Liberia, where tolerance and civility are vices that will continue to hold back our country.

However, if there is one lesson that Liberians have learned over the years, it is that there is a need for a civilized public discourse where arguments and disagreements exist, and where they must go hand in hand while counting the responsibilities and costs. An example was Tiawon Gongloe’s disagreement few months ago with President Sirleaf and her government, when he refused to re-join her government after he and his colleagues were dismissed by the president. It is this paradigm of courteousness that Liberia needs in the halls of its civic dialogue

Who says politics is not dirty, or that individuals are not bound to attack their opponents in the most colorful of language reserved for their anger? But the fashion in which this self-described Jeffersonian, John Morlu chose to address the president of the republic have me still scratching my head.

I will give Mr. Morlu credit for building an impeccable institution in the name of the General Auditing Commission (GAC). “He led the GAC, at a time when public financial management in the country needed a push and a brush to sweep the dirt that had gathered on the carpet for so long, as Liberia had just emerged from over a decade and half of civil strife, electing in the process a democratic government,” says a Liberian news web based editor. He continued, “Morlu, was probably the most powerful man in Liberia until the president, last week said no to re-nominating him." Sirleaf, in refusing to have him again in her government said, ‘while there must be differences in the way we practice politics and disagree,’ she intended to uphold "the integrity of the office" of the presidency by denying Morlu a second chance at the position of AG.

Public opinion has been against Morlue since his sordid letter arrived on the scene. “His fans are literate enough and are the most surprised,” says James Troll a Liberian following the scenario currently unfolding, “but Morlu,” he concedes “still has a certain political capital, but has a thin skin for being criticized.”

Everyone knows that the post of the Auditor General of Liberia (AG) was a mere facade until it was advertised in 150 countries upon President Sirleaf assuming office in 2005. Morlu won hands down with many including the EU, describing him as brilliant. He brought a can-do managerial fighting spirit to the office, and in the process made a name for himself. He was unafraid to lead and tackle the age-old problem of corruption, ineptitude, and graft that helped to destroy the country.
The former AG positioned himself as a frontline commander against graft, and at times a little overzealous when he charged that “the Sirleaf government was three times more corrupt than its predecessor” even before commissioning his very first audit.

Morlue was rude to the president. His letter was distasteful and repugnant, especially when he called the president’s associates "dogs." Even the wayward in WestPoint would know better. Even his idol, Thomas Jefferson would be ashamed. While Jefferson was well accomplished and sought to enshrine liberty in the American psyche as most of the founding fathers of the American Revolution were, persistently advocating for an absolute government built on the separation of powers, he also understood that the importance of civility as far as public discourse and policy are concern.

So what is this Jeffersonian doctrine that inspires Morlue? I am baffled because while Jefferson was a wise man, he was the most contradictory of sort as far as the equality of blacks were concerned. He owned slaves but yet penned the declaration of independence positing, "All men were created equal..." It is hard to even imagine he would have written a disrespectful letter to his superiors when he served as ambassador to France in 1789 over major policy disagreements, or to President George Washington whom he served as Secretary of State for four years; beginning the same year he was posted to Paris.

Morlu my man, let the streets do the talking; sit back and nurse the juice. That's the way it is done, brother! Yes, you have supporters, and I was one of your fans until that sordid letter...what in the hell was that gloat? I am chuckling, fighting to hold myself back here... gees! Moving forward, Morlu must handle himself with sass if he wants a political future. For the record, we must all thank John Morlu for speaking truth to power while serving in the very government of which he was a part.

Laurent Gbagbo Shines Spotlight On Africa In A crucial Election Year

By: ralph geeplay

2011 could make or break Africa

In case you have not been listening, Africans goes to the polls across the continent this year. More than a dozen African countries are expected to elect their leaders in what is expected to be an unparalleled move since the 1960s when the zeal and zest for independence saw white colonial rule ceding state power to indigenous led black leaderships at the time. And boy, has it been a disappointment?

What is interesting is that most of the countries currently under the radar as this crucial election year comes have continually rigged the polls in their favor while suppressing political dissent, ala: Uganda, Cameroon, Gambia, Egypt, etc etc! Laurent Gbagbo refusal therefore to cede state power and a united international voice against him especially coming from the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) coupled with the United Nations (UN) is a paradigm in African politics that must be seen as a welcome development. But it remains to be seen if the arc will hold and be sustained as Africa fight in a new decade to turn around its fortunes as the least lagging continent with vast mineral resources and a huge potential for growth.

It is not clear if this is the last decade of the strongman on the African continent yet as the Gbagbo bashing shows, because quite frankly, many still abound around. Laurent Gbagbo must be wondering and fuming in his plush presidential palace why has he gotten the bad end of the bargain when so many leaders on the continent have done worse then he has done so far. Take Paul Kagame of Rwanda for example for who international praise and western aid is unreserved. Not only did he managed to eliminate all his political opponents, having locked all up and shot some point blank. Kagame went to the polls last year virtually unopposed, securing his second term with over 95 percent endorsement! Though to his credit he has kept the country safe and its economy on the rise as investment pours in, he is no more a dictator as Mr. Gbagbo! Else where, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni who has been in power for 25 years (Gbagbo has 10 to his credit), is bidding yet again this election year to lead that East African state. Unsurprisingly this week, he was it again arresting the editor of the Business Summit Review Magazine in Kampala for publishing a “caricature of the president that embarrasses him,” the government said, in relations to a cartoon of Mr. President standing alone and holding a knife before a cake with one candle as the country’s 48th independence approaches!

Ivory Coast's President Ouattara

Gbagbo refusal to cede power therefore, in what was a whipping he got at the polls from his opponent Alassane Ouattara will test Africa’s resolved in a crucial election year when fraud has always been a problem and norm. This virus have never received enough attention, either because leaders on the continent are patronizing each other, turning the other way, while wielding the so-called sovereignty stick of “equal nations whether small or big that must be respected and not interfered with internally,” or because Africans must die in huge numbers and live in poverty and poor health while these tired old men rule at all cost! Because come to think of it, credible polls have always been shunned and denied in Africa, as new ideas on the continent are pushed away continually, thereby, contributing to Africa’s woes as political leaderships stay ineffective and new solutions stifled. For example, “the largest population of children in Uganda and many adults cannot make it to the hospital to obtain treatment. In many cases, the drugs will not find their way to the most rural areas without additional resources for doing so,” says Vivian Glyck writing in the Huffington Post this year. Uganda alone, analyst say if commercially farmed adequately, has the potential to feed the whole of Africa! Such is the importance of governance on the continent as inept leaders cling to power while the lives of our future and children are wasted.

Since the post independence era of the 1960s wherein political freedom and economic revival and the well being of the ordinary African has always been the central themes of national governments with little to show for it, 2011 is poised to usher in a huge wave of voters going to the polls for the first time, amongst them youths and women! Take these countries: Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, and Gambia. Others are: Gabon, Guinea, and Ivory Coast (legislative elections), Liberia, Malagasy, Mauritania, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, South Africa (municipal election), Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe! In Harare, Mugabe remains a sad example of a once prosperous country run into the ground by a stinky dictator. “The naked, provocative racism that [Ian] Smith so proudly and unapologetically wore all his life unfortunately enjoys currency from the poor state of the Zimbabwe that has emerged from his Rhodesia” wrote Chido Makunike, a Zimbabwe social commentator. Ordinary Zimbabweans, According to the New York Times would prefer the racist repressive regime of Smith to Mugabe’s rule, because at least, they could afford to buy bread and put food on the table! Sadly, Gbagbo has taken a play book out of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, and Mwai Kibaki’s Kenya, itching for a power sharing government, even though he lost the election to his opponent and in the process willing to see thousands of his country men die in the streets like dogs.

How these elections are conducted in 2011, and how the voices of the continent's peoples are heard will say a thing or two about Africa and its readiness to step into the future and claimed its place amongst nations that are determined to improve the lives of its own peoples, or remain backwards and a laughing stock in the international media. The fraud and incompetence committed by African leaders since independence has all, and a lot to do with the backwardness of Africa’s current problems. Nigeria most importantly will be watched.

Gbagbo and wife, happier days

The elections in Nigeria particularly will be an important milestone for several reasons. It remains Africa’s power house in Sub Sahara Africa and probably the most important country on the continent. It has not been afraid to use it military power in the last fifteen years to intervene in trouble spots on the continent for no other reason other than regional stability and solidarity, especially West Africa. The current democratic consolidation in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau plus its peace keeping efforts around the continent and the world cannot go un- noticed! The current strong posture coming out of Abuja in the wake of the Gbagbo bluff shows the capability of a regional power not willing to dance to the mess in Abidjan, unlike South Africa that has nurtured a Mugabe regime that is killing it's its own people.

While Nigeria currently ranked third behind South Africa and Egypt economically speaking, it is expected to be the biggest economy on the continent soon analysts say. “Yet while South Africa is the larger economy, Nigeria is expected to catch up in the next few years.” Continues Razia Khan, head of African research at Standard Chartered. Khan says that, "In Nigeria, you still have 70 percent of the population living on a dollar a day, but there is a demographic impact. In the next five years, Nigeria will add another 23 million people and South Africa will add another 2.8 million,” With such potential, Nigeria’s voice and wealth and military power will be needed and put to use as the continent move to consolidate it gains and entrenched its democratic values, that is, if the political leadership in Abuja is stabilized and the federal government there is accountable to democratic transition.

Smaller countries like Liberia whose civil war contributed mayhem to regional instability must make sure the polls this year are fairer and an even playing field created for all participating candidates. Calls by a segment of the opposition that the Johnson Sirleaf administration reconstitute the country’s election commission must not be taken lightly! Liberia has set an example in its democratic governance thus far of allowing dissent where a free press, political opposition and the three branches of government now co exist and independently function smoothly, howbeit flaw, since it return to constitutional rule in 2005. This move must be hailed. Violence as such that currently prostrate its neighbor La Cote Ivoire must be studied and potential weaknesses weed out of its system to avoid violence in the aftermath of the polls.

But on the whole, it is a safe bet to say that Africa has made progress and is moving forward, but governance remains its biggest cancer, as Mo Ibrahim observed. “Africa’s average growth,’ he says “is now almost five times the Euro-zone average growth, according to the latest IMF update on World Economic Outlook. These changes, however uplifting, are not the only story" he says. "We continue to lag behind in many key areas. Although we can blame many factors for this, none is more central than the lack of high-quality governance” Africa must insists that leaders like Gbagbo relinquish state power in a timely fashion when they lost elections, but the continent with one voice too must be equally determined that leaders like Museveni respect the rule of law and that strong denunciations must equally come when they subvert the rule of law and arrest journalists and political opponents for no reason other than to show raw power.

Ralph Geeplay's Posit

The Looming fight: The Weah -Brumskin merger

 

                        

By Ralph Geeplay

Politics today as we know it still resembles the ancient Greek theatre for its atrocity and comedy and in the times of the Athenians when the spectacle to battle was both an act of entertainment and a scene of carnage that was both mouth gaping as it was a sport. Transport that to West Africa and you see Liberians politicians gunning for the presidency of their country as an all important election approaches next year.

The Ghost By ralph geeplay

                           
                                                     The Liberian Executive Mansion

It is obvious, President Sirleaf's disdain for the Liberian presidential state house is no secret. Here, I am not alluding to her famous declaration, that she wanted Liberia's Executive Mansion levelled to the ground in the midst of war, when her predecessor, Samuel Doe refused to leave the fortified palace while ordinary Liberians were starving in the streets and torrents of bullets were raining on them.

Liberian Hugarian Coach Faces First Real Test! By: ralph geeplay

The Liberian Lone Star soccer squad

The same week Liberian soccer legend George Weah was in South Africa critizing African football authorities for hiring foreign coaches, his own Liberia was busy signing one.

Weah reportedly made the comments right after the just ended FIFA World Cup, which was held for the first time on an African soil.

He chided the poor display of African teams, noting that foreign coaches were heavily paid, and uncustomed to the cultures, players and environments with which they worked in Africa: Liberia faces Zimbabwe Warriors this weekend in Monrovia. Head to head: two coaches, one foreign the other local.

The first real test of the newly minted coach, who is just few months on the job comes on Sunday afternoon in the Liberian Capital of Monrovia.

The Warriors, come to Monrovia determined to give their West African counterparts a run for their money, pound for pound and in the process recalling a throng of their own foreign professionals scattered accross Africa and Europe.

What's interesting is that "Zimbabwe will be parading a local coach, while Liberia has a foreign one," says a football observer, current about the debate, as far as foreign and idegeneous coaches are concerned. Nigeria, he says is about to hire Sampson Siasia, while South Africa has opted for their local coach Pitso Mosimane who was deputy under the Brazilian, Carlos Alberto Parreira who led Bafana Bafana during the just ended tournament.

Many African countries are following suit. Only Algeria, paraded a local coach Rabah Saadane, at the just ended football festivities on the continent, in what was certainly a dismal perfromance by the all African teams expected to have done well on home soil, safe for Ghana Black Stars, however, that also fail to meet expectations.

The Black Stars squandered a golden opportunity to reach the semi finals, by wasting a late panelty goal that would have seen them through, as Africa held it's breath!

It is therefore no secret, that Egypt is currently the only highly placed African side at the 9th spot in the world and lst overall in Africa, according to the latest FIFA ranking. The North African football giants have won the Afican Cup consecutively trice in recent times. Egypt does have a local coach, in Hassan Shehata. He is the coach Nigeria probably should have taken to the world cup, instead of Lars Lagerback, the Swede, who fail to win a single game fot the West African power house, reaping almost 1.5m dollars in renumeration in just five months. "The ball therefore is up in the air, but the onus should be on the expatriate, because he's being paid alot of money." The analyst concluded.

The Liberian coach Bertalan Bisckie, according to the Liberian Football Association has (LFA) summoned about 15 foreign players, amongst them the deadly duo of Francis Granpa Doe, who currently plies his trade in the Egyptian top flight Al Ahly, and the ever industrious Patrick Doeplah, currently seeking opportunities in Budapest, Hungary having played in the Israeli premium league last season.

Liberia, will be going into the weekend's match hoping to picked up points where former coach (German) Anthony Haye left off. Under Haye's mentorship, Liberia failed to qualify for the just ended African Cup held in Angola and the World Cup in South Africa.

The team remained winless throughout the qualification campaign, but it played better and was more cohesive and tactical, football observers note.

Liberia's Hungarian coach Bertalan Bisckie

To solve that deficit, the Hugarian tatician have invited a 20 years old Liberian sensation Sekou Jabateh Oliseh (CSKA Moscow, Russia), who holds a Nigerian passport, but was reportedly born in Liberia.

His recent goal for CSKA Moscow was spectacular to say the least, bullying himself between three to four defenders deliberately yet delicalitely, before slushing home a beautiful shot that hit the back of the net.

If he brings that footwork and flair this weekend as he makes is debut appearence for the national colors of Liberia, local fans and their beloved Lone Star should see results and reason for joy.

The Sunday encounter against the Warriors at Liberia's only sports complex has seen Zimbabwe's coach, Norman Mepeza inviting 13 foreign based professionals. Clerence Matawu of Polish side Polonia Bytom and South African based star Knowledge Musona of Kaiser Chiefs, are two central players Berscki should watch. The Hungarian, is reportedly being paid about 13,000 United States dollars a month in addition to housing, vehicle and bonus for home and away wins.


The Foreign professionals players called up against Zimbabwe:

Defenders:
George Baysah, Hapoel Kfar Saba Israel
Alex Karmo, Stima FC Kenya
Gizzie Dorbor Irony BatYam of Israel
Jimmy Dixon Manisaspor of Turkey,

Midfielders:
Dulee Johnson, AIk Solna Sweden
Theo Weeks, Ankanragucu Turkey
Patrick Doeplah, clubless
David Ghemie, clubless
Sekou Jabateh Oliseh, CSKA Moscow Russia
Isaac Pupo Panionios GSS Greece
Solomon Grimes, Ethnikos Greece
Steven Mennoh Perspipasi Berkasi Indonesia

Fowards:
Anthony Laffor, Super Sport United South Africa (Captain)
Francis Doe of Al Ahly of Egypt
Dioh Williams of FC Alania Vladikavkaz of Russia (on loan from AGF of Denmark)


Liberia meanwhile, is grouped with Mali, Cape Verde and Zimbabwe for the qualifiers, which makes up Group A. Gabon and Equitorial Guniea host the African cup of Nations in 2012. Liberia is fighting for a place amonst elite African football nations at the pending gala.

The Liberian Football Association have meanwhile closed the national team training section to the general public. No visitors are allow to the hotel hosting the team, also. The remainer of the team will be composed of local based players.

Key player: Lone Star:
Francis Doe, who is currently playing in
Egypt, has scored important goals for
every club he has played for, including
the Lone Star. If the Hungarian use him
tactically and stratigically, Liberians should
be dancing in the streets when the
final whistle blows on sunday evening in Monrovia.

Key Player: Warriors:
Knowledge Musona, the South African Kaiser
Chiefs based player is a rising star in Zimbabwean football
and his footworks will be needed, if the Warriors
must put up an impressive showing in Monrovia.

Prediction: 2:1 Liberia Lone Star

Tubman’s Last Gamble!

By: ralph geeplay

Liberian politician Winston Tubman

Politicians are gamblers. They all bet and stake their fate on the future, and this is done not in so quiet ways. To add to the spectacle, it is often executed with everyone watching, and if they do win the glee is always never mistaken: Cameras capturing the smiles of victory, newspaper banners hailing their conquests, television and radio stations blaring their speeches and images.