Tipoteh & Ellen Johnson Sirleaf deserves A Chance in October
Mar 10, 2005
Author: Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

“This is not the time to be on the sidelines and claim not to be a politician.” That’s what I always tell those Liberians I see daily in and around metro Atlanta, as we meet unexpectedly and discuss politics, while we try to tend to personal and family matters at the same time.

I know “It’s not easy,” as our people back home like to say, especially when one has to work in America as hard as they can to put food on the table, keep a family together, keep roof over the head and go to school at the same time. However, with all that is happening in that person’s life, it ought to also be a moral duty to contribute whatever they can to improve the conditions of their people.

That can mean sending money or supplies to family and friends back home to keep them going, or staying in touch with them as much as that person can.

It can also mean getting involved in politics in this election year to make a difference, because no matter how much money and supplies one sent to their relatives by western union, or how many containers that person shipped by sea, and how many phone cards one buys to call those relatives and friends, when the political climate is unbearable, all that effort can be in vain, because when there is no freedom, it is hard for the people to be happy.




Our country is too old to be behind in every category, too old not to be democratized, and too old for the Liberian people to live in abject poverty. Even though Liberia was behind hundred years before the civil war, we cannot continue to repeat the mistakes of the past for democracy and prosperity to elude us once again.

As if you don’t know by now, I have been doing everything possible to stay involved in politics this election year. Like those Liberians who are political, I have been very busy going over the names of those who are in the 2005 presidential race.

Too bad two persons cannot be president of a country at the same time, else I would have voted for both of the individuals in this piece. Since I can not vote for all at once, I will vote for one, and will do all I can so that the other person will never be forgotten, because they deserve a piece of Liberian history.

Hopefully, the individuals I am endorsing now will let go their personal differences, their conflicts and egos and their party differences, and put their enormous talents and resources together to be on the same ticket as number one and two in October; meaning president and vice presidential candidates in the interest of Liberia, because as a team, they can be formidable.

So after thoroughly examining the individuals, their consistent history of public service, and champions of freedom and democracy, their grass-root organizational skills; their calmness under fire; their wealth of experience as public servants, their wealth of international experience, and their undivided love for Liberia and its people, I have come to the conclusion, and without any hesitation to endorse Togba Nah-Tipoteh and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for president and vice president of post-civil war Liberia, because I sincerely believe if elected, the individuals will look out for the Liberian people and will make us all proud to be Liberians once again.

It is never easy to make such a decision, which I considered a patriotic duty. However, knowing that my conscience is clear, it will not bother me at all if I am called names as a person who’s being bought or if I am ever accused of seeking future employment, because neither is true. My endorsement is about the welfare of Liberia, a country I love and care about a whole lot and its people.

Before their detractors get into that attack dog mode and begin to put forth those old and tired arguments, and go negative by calling the candidates names as either a “political prostitute” and a “power-drunk opportunist,” who will do all he can to be president at any costs, and instead of dealing with the issues of who is best to lead Liberia in times like these, it will be better for those critics to also take a quiet time to look at the candidate's positives, and their achievements in both their personal and professional lives, and see whether they are not qualified to lead Liberia.

During the early part of their careers, the two candidates started out working for the Liberian government. Tipoteh, the college professor and radical idealist often clashed constantly with the Tolbert and Doe administrations over policies in the early 70’s and 80’s, served as both Budget Director and Minister of Economic and Planning Affairs.

Tipoteh eventually left government, and for more than three decades has been a champion of freedom and democracy. And when other potential presidential candidates and politicians fled en mass for their own safety to other countries during our country’s dictatorial years, he remained. That’s courage, indeed!

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s only stint in government was in the early 70s, when she served President William R. Tolbert as his Minister of Finance. A prodigy in her field, she left government after that administration was fatally overthrown in 1980.

Ms. Sirleaf has been on the other side of the political spectrum since, went to prison after the 1985 presidential elections during the Doe regime, and hasn’t worked for government since. And for over two decades, this lady has given her life, her tears, blood, sweat, and money to champion freedom and democracy in Liberia. So what must a person do to prove that they are champions of the oppressed and downtrodden?

Togba Nah-Tipoteh and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are titans of Liberian politics, whether we like them or not, role models to countless young men and women, and an inspiration to us all supporters and detractors.

The two candidates are of course competent, complete and a total package in terms of education and achievements, (it is not that others in the race are not educated; this is being mentioned only if we want to look at education as a guide post for the presidency).

Both Tipoteh and Johnson Sirleaf could have opted to leave “the people thing alone,” leave Liberian politics and a dysfunctional country with us altogether and seek employment in the private sector where they could have made lots of money, make their family happy and don’t risk their lives; instead, they chose to struggle for our headaches.

Tipoteh and Sirleaf are champions of democracy, and have been tested on many occasions by the political power that is for their fierce and uncompromising devotion to their ideas and principles, at a time when others took a path to self- aggrandizement.

With their enormous name recognition, experience in international finance, economics and international affairs, working and collaborating with some of the best minds in the global arena and making decisions that affect nations, Tipoteh and Sirleaf have what it takes - the knowledge and the expertise to lead Liberia.

Let us not be carried away by our innate hatred for a person so much that we are blind to reality and refused to see the good in that person.

Our country is in desperate need of repair and our people are starving. Our children cannot go to school, and grown men and women are begging total strangers in the streets to get by daily. Health care, education and affordable housing are nowhere to be found, while clean drinking water and a functional sewer system continues to be a crisis.

In order to rebuild Liberia and achieve those goals and get needed international assistance, we need credible, competent and politically mature leaders who can network with world leaders and international organizations to bring the bacon home, and implement those kindler-gentler policies that make sense. Togba Nah-Tipoteh and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are the leaders who can make that happen.

Even if Tipoteh and Sirleaf cannot be on the same ticket as a presidential and vice presidential team, let’s make sure one of them is elected in the October elections this year.

This is their time, and Liberia will be blessed to have both Togba Nah-Tipoteh and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as our president and vice president after October 2005.