The administration of President George M. Weah has hired the liberal analyst of Cable News Network (CNN), Bakari Sellers, to develop and execute a U.S. media and press engagement strategy for the Republic, President Weah and key officials of government to raise Liberia’s profile in U.S. media and bring positive attention to the Republic with American and African-American audiences.
Sellers has, meanwhile, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to work on behalf of the Liberian government, acknowledging that he would be paid a salary for his work. Documents filed with the Department of Justice on Wednesday show that Sellers will be working on behalf of the “Government of the Republic of Liberia”.
He is expected to rebrand and, with the help of CNN, project a positive image of the Weah administration, which has suffered local and international media degradation over the years.
It can be recalled that the US State Department Report warned 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—hiring CNN analyst, Bakari Sellers, for the initiative.
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.
Former President Sirleaf 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 US$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.
Besides the financial dividend, world figures, including President George W. Bush, Jr., UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Bill Gates and First Lady Michelle Obama, visited the country, which in turn promoted Liberia and the Sirleaf administration at the international level.
Now that President Weah has begun to thread similar path, it is expected that the CNN-Sellers contract will yield international good image for the CDC administration.
However, with just two years to the 2023 general and presidential elections, critics are saying that the public relations contract between the government and Sellers is intended to pave a way for the regime to solicit funds and provide a good image for international consideration for re-election, which they claimed are both impossible. They say the Weah administration committed “self-destruct” from the unset of their ascendancy to power, and can in no way be redeemed in two years.
Contrarily, proponents of the CDC administration are hailing the contract, envisaging that it would erase the negative propaganda being masterminded against the regime and unearth the facts and development stride of the President. They say the affairs of the state are not as bad as is being projected by the “negative media”; therefore, it will take a media with bigger audience and reputation to subdue the negative propaganda and restore the lost image of the CDC administration.