Diompillor America - News around the Kissi Community

10/02/07 - Rodney D. Sieh, rsieh@FrontPageAfrica.com

Washington, D.C. -

Besides owning the rights to Africa’s first female Head of State, Liberia is also the bearer of the first male Vice President - to a woman – in Joseph Boakai.


REPLACEMENT SPECULATIONS
"Let’s make people know that very clearly that I am not an appointed person. I am elected and people are speculating about a replacement as if to say the Vice President can just be replaced at any time, I think that should be some joke."
Joseph Boakai, Vice President, Republic of LiberiaThe quiet, laid back and low-key second in command, who has taken a back seat to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf throughout much of the first two years of the administration remains an enigma all too often ignored and whose posture and demeanor depicts a man most times either misunderstood or simply difficult to gauge. Boakai’s emergence on the world’s biggest stage last week to address the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly was a major departure from the second-fiddle role he had become accustomed to and for one which his boss, the President, had taken much criticisms, credited to her many travels and time reportedly spent from the domestic duties for which the Unity-Party-led government was elected. In this FrontPageAfrica interview, the man dubbed “The Quiet One” took time of his whirlwind first major international assignment to discuss a number of issues which has dogged him over the past few months, notably concerns about his health and speculations about his replacement as Vice President; his recent breakaway from members of the Upper House of the National Legislature regarding controversial Auditor General John S. Morlu, the return of the assets freeze bill to the Executive Branch and among other issues, his views on the criticisms from many that the administration is treading dangerous territory with the presence of so many personalities from the Tubman and Tolbert eras.


FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Mr. Vice President, we have heard a lot about your education initiative and how you were planning to set up a program wherein students would apply for loans? What is this all about?

BOAKAI: No, not students, actually what we are trying to do is that we made this trip to California at the invitation of a lady who runs a foundation, called the foundation for women and we are trying to create macro credit for market women mostly and that is what we are working on. I would wish that in the long run and it is part of my thinking that we should be looking into loan possibility for students. I think that will be a good way mostly at the University level because I believe that will be a good way to remove some of the burden from us and also to make the students work for their education.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Since the inception of the new government, there have been a lot of speculations about your role in the government and until recently you were just in the background. How do you feel now that you are finally coming out – with your address to the United Nations?

BOAKAI: I continue to tell people that I haven’t been in the background that much. I mean the President has actually given me opportunities to represent her on many occasions and yet people seem not to be informed. But I have gone to Nigeria to represent the President, I have gone to The Gambia, I have gone to Sierra Leone to represent the President. Except that you are talking about representing her in Western countries and even that we went France to represent her at a summit. So, I think the President initially she had to move around because there were these relationships that had gone cold over the years that she needed to be there. It needed her personality and her image to reestablish and we thought that was quite in place. After that the rest of what we do have been follow up.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: You recently declared that Liberia would soon become an oil-rich nation in West Africa but fell short of detailing what you meant by that. Do you care to elaborate? What is in the pipeline?

BOAKAI: We do have the potential for oil exploration. I mean, but I have heard that there were seventeen block that were identified and that had some potential and needed to be explored and people were beginning to and in fact we are beginning to understand that there was a group on its way to London to get a contract for them to come in and begin to explore for oil. So, Liberia stands a very good chance within that region like Ghana and Ivory Coast, we do have a very good chance for the possibility of offshore.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Let’s move to the issue of the Auditor General a bit. Recently a motion introduced on the floor of the Senate on behalf of AG John S. Morlu spurred some controversy which led to the refusal of some Senators to honor your gavel after you had asked them to rethink and share notes over Morlu’s action to dismiss the entire staff of the General Auditing Commission and be given another chance for deliberation. In the wake of this we gathered that you had been playing a behind-the-scenes role in an attempt to mend fences between the Executive branch and the AG. Are there any truths to this and what do you think can be done to ease the current friction with the AG? Do you think there is any room for improvement to ease the friction between the AG and the Executive Branch?

BOAKAI: Let me just make it very clear that the issue was not mostly of the Auditor General’s role. The Senators were asking the Auditor General and had asked him earlier to appear before the Senate to show cause while he had terminated the services of the core group of employees of the General Auditing Commission which he inherited and he had come to address himself to that. The second request was that he should not just pay a fine but he should reinstate all of the persons that he had fired. They (the Senators) know that the constitution is clear on who plays which role. They might have an oversight responsibility for the auditor general but the employment of the Auditor General to engage in services falls under the Executive and what we were saying was that if they felt that the Auditor General had done something wrong. We had over the period began to establish some dialogue system but to say reinstate people, especially so when we know many other ministries, including the Executive Mansion have for the purpose of rightsizing and downsizing, laid off people. If you begin to ask the Executive Branch to reinstate people, it means that all the other people we have laid off should be reinstated and you know we would be opening a Pandora’s Box and what we were saying was that the motion at the Senate was overloaded. It was saying the Auditor General should pay a fine and reinstate. I said, I have no problem with the fines issue, but to ask the AG to reinstate would be overstating your boundaries. And that is why I tried to tell them to reconsider it and look at it again so that we do not begin to run at loggerheads with the Executive. We need to work together.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: The recent coup plot revelation was dealt a setback when one of the government’s witnesses said he was forced to name names. Do you think the government has a strong case?

BOAKAI: You know on this issue, the government would not have encouraged any prosecution if we were not reassured that there was a case. And you know this whole think started in The Ivory Coast and we want to believe that the evidence is very strong. What may be the main witness may have had cold feet or maybe for whatever reason. But I am sure that the security apparatus did a good job at this time and they will bring him to book. They will definitely nail him to specifics in terms of what happen and how it is that he came to be apprehended. So we are not worried about that, they will handle that.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: A major concern from most critics of the administration is that the government is treading dangerous territory with the presence of so many figures from the Tolbert and Tubman era. Do you think that this is a fair criticism of this administration and do you think that the administration is representative of entire population of Liberia?

BOAKAI: It is not a fair criticism. This government is saying it over and over again and just saying it. But this government is demonstrating a departure from the past. This government is not involved in witch hunting; this government is not involved in anything that will divide the society. The government wants peace, the government wants reconciliation, and the government is keen on justice. As you know we have three branches of government. For the government, we talk about justice; we want to see the system work. This is why we are working with all of these reform agenda so that we make sure that we start on a good slate so that everybody will know what the government stands for. This government is intended to bring every citizen together to decentralize the country and make sure that they empower the people up country and make sure that we set a climate in which our people would speak freely and fairly and also be responsible for what they say. And there is no witch hunting, there is nothing fake about what we’re saying we mean it seriously and we are demonstrating it.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Speaking of demonstrating policies, there has been a lot of concern that the government is not really sincere about fighting corruption. How firm do you think the government is on this issue?

BOAKAI: Corruption has more than one partner and the first and foremost we need to actually find out and nail a person to corrupt practices. Many of the people who talk about corruption, if they were to go into a Ministry and conduct an audit and that audit reveals that somebody had squandered some resources, the President will not hesitate to prosecute, but you have to be able to really have a case. We hear these rumors, we hear about people who are corrupt and ministers and people who are carrying out corrupt practices. We are working and we are also trying. You know the Liberian society, people talk a lot too and sometimes most of what is said is not necessarily true. I mean, we build everything on rumors and you are not going to start where you have all of these human rights people just because somebody said we hear that somebody’s doing this, you go and arrest them, but the Liberians would know the day somebody is charged with corruption and is proven guilty, they would know what will happen to that person. The government is committed to fighting corruption in a very serious way.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: How is the government coping with the recent rejection of the assets freeze bill which was sent back to the Executive Branch by lawmakers?

BOAKAI: Now, with this assets freeze bill. You know that there assets freeze bill is not the work of the government independently. This government, before it was ushered in, there was a couple of number of things that we were required to do. The outgoing legislature passed a resolution that this government should investigate and reevaluate all inherited contracts. The GEMAP was inherited, which is why you see all of these foreigners that are assigned to different ministries and agencies. So it is also that part of the condition for all that we are trying to do, whether it is in debt relief, showing evidence of good governance, all of them are tied together with insuring that the assets freeze bill is implement. The assets freeze bill is not the work of the Liberian government. It is part of an international requirement and all the government is doing is to send it to the legislature for them to see and take their concurrence. If the legislature decides that this is not in the best interest of the country, it is their right to reject it and to say this is not part of what we want to do and sent it back to the President. The President may decide to veto it or the President may decide to go along with it. But this was not introduced by the Liberian government.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Speaking of contracts that this government has signed. Recently, a lot of eyebrows were raised with the decision by the government to sign a deal for the United States to pay a flat fee of $US2, 000.000 per month for the sizeable piece of Cape Mesurado – a prime piece of property. Many are saying that the annual amount is too small and are beginning to suggest that the property is simply too lucrative to be given away at such a low figure for such a long time. What was the government’s thinking when it agreed to this deal?

BOAKAI: I’m sure the money involved in that agreement was even far less than that. So it was actually appreciated quite a bit because when we knew about it. You are talking about the Grey Stone property, right?

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Yes!

BOAKAI: When the Grey Stone property came about, I do not know the figure off hand, but it was a very small amount. So, talking about two million dollars. Well, again, they’re talking about two million dollar a year or what?

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: They’re talking about fifty years and that is where the concern is.

BOAKAI: Again, the contract is not before me and I am not in the know of all that went through to come up with that figure, but I can tell you that we need to discuss with the legal people and would want to know the basis for which they came up with two million dollars but again, this is a parcel of land that has been there and is finally being put to some use. And I am sure that the American government is one of the best friends that we have right now and I’m sure if we have those difficulties we can overcome them.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: How is your health, Mr. Vice President?


Liberia's vice President, arriving for Liberian Investment Symposium in Washington, D.C. Monday, says his health is just fine.BOAKAI: So far it is good. I mean I feel alright otherwise I would not be moving around as much as I do and still continue to survive because in Liberia, just as much as I come here and maybe even more so, it is a twenty-four hour thing because you go to work, you are kept busy almost all through the day. You go to the house they follow you. On weekends there are programs all over. But I thank God. I mean I am okay.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: In the beginning of the administration there were some concerns and there continue to be some fears that you are in declining health spurring concerns that there are plans to have you replaced. Were there any truths to those stories?

BOAKAI: That’s just politics. I mean if I am not healthy, I should be the first to know but if other people are concern that I am not healthy, they would have to come and tell me. But to replace me, let’s make people know that very clearly that I am not an appointed person. I am elected and people are speculating about a replacement as if to say the Vice President can just be replaced at any time, I think that should be some joke.

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Last week you addressed the U.N. and spoke about how the country is still fragile and this week at the investment forum, you spoke about luring investors in the country. What do you think is the most challenging task facing the administration right now in terms of luring investors?

BOAKAI: What we would consider the most challenging tasks which need immediate attention is employment. You know a lot of young people and even those who have been right-sized because of overcrowdings and even now if you can further downsize, you still have a lot of people that are very ineffective. But what we need to do is to build the capacity of some of the people as well as we would like to see job created, so that opportunities can be made for these large number of young people who are unemployed. People talk about 80 percent unemployment, that is not an easy number and not a healthy society where 80 percent of the people are not working, no matter what you do. So we are not talking about the governing is fragile in that it might face an overthrow tomorrow. That’s not what we are talking tomorrow. We’re talking about certain basic things that like security that needs to be put in place. Security is not just taking a gun and protecting people. It is about jobs, it is about children being in school, it is about fathers being able to support their children – those are the kinds of situation we are talking about and that is what this investment forum is all about...

FRONTPAGEAFRICA: Are you happy with the pace of the symposium so far?
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BOAKAI: So far, you know it is so difficult for people to judge people on the basis of achievement when a country comes out of a war situation. There are so many things that need to be put into place to create the environment for investors. You talk about a country that is without electricity, country without water. It means that for every area you come to invest, it is in the manufacturing area, you would have to provide all of these which create a lot of investment burden. But we want to believe that there are very important investments that have been made in the country and besides that there are existing investments that are now being upgraded like the rubber industry. These have been there and thank God some of them have returned and they have been upgraded. People are cutting down old trees, replanting, but what we want to see is mass employment, investment like that of Mittal Steel that we believe would be able to employ more than three to four thousand people. Those are the things we are talking about. And also the small investment that would take twenty persons and maybe a few of these and gradually we would begin to see people getting back on track.

FRONTPAGEFRICA: Do you see yourself eyeing the presidency some day, especially if President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf decides not to seek a second term as she pledged on the campaign trail?

BOAKAI: You know, people always come to that. But my belief in life is what God has given you - the people in Liberia give us six years to prove ourselves, to improve their lives. I am more concern about the six years and what we would do to show that we are worth their confidence. My own life has been that of what God wants me to do, I’ll do it. I mean, I do not go out there chasing for this or that. Let us face the task on hand to improve the lives of the Liberian people. I think that if we do that, time will decide on where we go next, but our job is to see that our country become a proud country again, a country of healthy citizens, citizens that can go anywhere and are proud to present their passports and people will say yes, this is a Liberian.



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