THE US STATE Department Report warned in March 2021 that Liberia’s human rights issues were contrary to international norms and, therefore, alarming: “arbitrary killings by police; cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by police; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary detention by government officials; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; serious restrictions on freedom of the press, including violence and threats of violence against journalists; official corruption; lack of investigation and accountability for violence against women; the existence or use of laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults; and the worst forms of child labor”.
REALIZING THE EFFECT this has on his administration in terms of its image in the international community and the consequent factor of international aid, President George M. Weah has moved in the direction of rebranding. The Weah administration has hired Liberal CNN analyst, Bakari Sellers, for the rebranding initiative. Sellers will help with “developing and executing a U.S. media and press engagement strategy for the Republic, President Weah, and key officials to raise Liberia’s profile in U.S. media and bring positive attention to the Republic with American and African-American audiences”.
PRESIDENT WEAH’S REBRANDING initiative is reminiscent of the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration, when the international figure received the rebranding professionalism of Riva Levinson and her KRL International. Levinson and KRL International began representing the government of Liberia in Washington in 2005 when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was democratically elected the first female head of state in Africa. As a poor country emerging from two decades of civil war, Liberia faced many challenges.
FORMER PRESIDENT SIRLEAF (2006 – 2018) inherited a collapsed economy, an external debt load six times the country’s GDP, weak political institutions, and decimated infrastructure. According to President Sirleaf, “Liberia was at the bottom of a very deep hole,” and urgently needed to fortify the fragile peace and deliver economic dividends to the people.
RECOGNIZING LIBERIA’S HISTORIC relationship with the United States, KRL worked to position the newly consolidated peace as a priority for the U.S., translating the goodwill and political support for ending the war into long-term development assistance.
AS A RESULT of KRL’s advocacy, Liberia received $1.8 billion in total U.S. foreign assistance from 2006—2017. The country benefited from an AFRICOM program, a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact, Feed the Future, Power Africa, and the unprecedented Ebola recovery efforts in 2014 and beyond.
REASONING FROM THE success of the KRL International-Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration, it can be deduced that President Weah is focused on the long-term benefit the Bakari Sellers-CNN rebranding would bring his administration, which is welcomed considering the fact that the Weah administration has received little international attention as compared to that of ex-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.