PERHAPS THE LEGACY of ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf will incline more toward the international high achievement and astute recognition than the marks she left at home. President Sirleaf, who picked up every international recognition for outstanding leadership from the Nobel Prize for Peace to the Presidential Medal of Freedom—and, three years after her two-term, twelve-year tenure, continues to pick up international accolade, because the prestigious US Forbes Magazine has named her the recipient of another outstanding award for leadership—now faces criticism from her successor, President George Manneh Weah, for not doing enough in her home county, Bomi County.
PRESIDENT WEAH TOLD the people of Bomi County during the second phase of his nationwide tour that it was disheartening to see the county backward while his predecessor, ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, castigates his development drive, terming it as opulence. According to him, it is the sole responsibility of any educated, wealthy or influential individual to raise the living standard of the people they live among.
“I LISTENED TO the young people complaining about the lack of everything. But this county just recently produced the President and Speaker of the Republic of Liberia, but nothing happened for it. For me, these are some of the things I consider opulence—when you live with people and you don’t strive to lift their standard of living. I call that opulence! So, if doing something for the people means opulence, then I believe in opulence,” President Weah told the citizens of Bomi County.
PRESIDENT WEAH CONTINUED, “I listened to the former President’s cousin, and I’m sure he is disappointed. We, too, are disappointed. But as the President, I can assure you that we will do our best, and you will not be disappointed again. We will do the things that we intend to do, and you will be happy. But there are some things that you will have to pass through your lawmakers to get done—Representative Bishop Johnson, Senators Snowe and Saytumah—I’m sure they will help you.”
BOMI COUNTY IS home to President Weah’s immediate predecessor, ex-President Sirleaf, and former Speaker Tyler, but lacks almost all basic social services and infrastructure development, which ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s critics believe she should have addressed during her twelve years in office.