Voice of Liberia

J. Yanqui Zaza
November 18, 2009

In discussing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s business interest, an article on Equatorial Guinea (NY Times, 11/17/09) caught my attention. Mr. Urbina, reporting for the NY Times, stated that Teodoro Nguema Obiang, the son of Equatorial Guinea’s president, owns a fleet of luxury cars and bought a $35 million dollar real estate in Malibu, California. The Equatorial Guinea’s President uses phony business practices, extortion, theft, etc to amass wealth according to U.S. Justice Department Memorandum dated September 4, 2004. Yet U.S. officials and reputable institutions such as Wachovia Bank, Riggs Bank, Bank of America which are preaching the philosophy of privatization, are not only facilitating corruption, but are also undermining the campaign of genuine economic prosperity.

As for Liberia, our international partners such as the World Bank, etc and U.S. officials are not only silent on Sireaf’s business deals, as in the case of Equatorial Guinea, but they are also praising President Sirleaf’s efforts to fight corruption. The latest Report of the World Bank called President Sirleaf the “Global Reformer,” referring to Sirleaf’s war on corruption. Well yes, in less than four years, the “Global Reformer” and her cronies are seizing businesses ranging from banks, to mining gold, mining diamond, logging, consulting, importing rice, serving public corporations, etc as depicted by the diagram below.

An American scholar called J. Gus Liebenow in the 1960s narrated this kind of spurious business practice. In his book, Liberia, the Evolution of Privilege showing that a few families of the Tubmans, Tolberts, Coopers, and Dennis' and their Americo-Liberian cousins owned more than sixty percent of the wealth of Liberia. He said they were the Monrovia-landlords, minority shareholders of Liberia’s natural resources such as NIOC, Bong Mines and the lawyers of foreign companies.

A Liberian critic, the late Albert Porte, in 1970s, wrote and circulated a pamphlet called Gobbling Business. In it, he showed how Stephen Tolbert, the brother of President William R. Tolbert, used his family connection to acquire business. For instance, Stephen Tolbert took over the Sinoe Rubber Plantation, covering 600,000 acres of land, by crook. First, he encouraged other Liberians to take the Company from a German group. And then, he, his wife and his brother took over and kicked out the Liberians. The newly acquired land was in addition to the 4000 acres of land they owned in Bong County and half of the real estate of their Township of Bensonville, Montserrado County. Trying to intimidate Porte, Stephen Tolbert sued the Liberian advocate for damages for libel. The case went to the Supreme Court where Stephen Tolbert’s father-in-law was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia.

Joining the critics of Tolbert was Ellen Johnson Sirleaf herself. Even right now in her book, she is critical of the Tolbert family for dominating the government and private sector of the country. However, she is doing the same thing and thinks nobody knows.

She is preaching a fight against corruption while she and her family and friends are swimming in it.

While owning acres of land is still profitable, financial institutions such as banks, generate huge profits. Therefore, it was not a surprise that Sirleaf Inc sought and got the ownership of International Bank (IB), formerly called International Trust Company (ITC). Soon after the 2005 election, President Sirleaf and her American partner, Stephen Cashin joined with her friend, Clavenda Bright Parker and her business partner, Ken Atta of Ghana, and took over ITC. Thereafter, Sirleaf Inc got all the major businesses (Firestone, Mitall Steel, the Maritime and the oil facility granted to Liberia by the Nigerian government) as the bank customers. Such an arrangement does, practically, strangulate other banks of profitable revenue. Ken Atta, who Sirleaf had picked to manage the Nigeria oil facility, was now the chairman of the board, while Cashin is the president.

Well, while there is the perception of conflict of interest because some of the president’s counterparts are customers of her businesses, but the million-dollar question is where did Sirleaf Inc gets the money to buy ITC, etc?  The Liberian Petroleum Refining Company’s saga is one of the many money transactions that throws a light on how president Sirleaf had planned to accumulate funds for investing in IB, etc. From the onset, President Sirleaf put her man Harry Greaves at LPRC to manage the Nigerian oil facility and the tank farm to make money for Sirleaf Inc. Of course with the consent and knowledge of President Sirleaf, Greaves cancelled a contract to rebuild the tank farm. Later he negotiated a new contract that was going to give Sirleaf Inc more than $3 million, an amount built in the contract.

However, the plan failed because Edwin Melvin Snowe, who was Charles Taylor man at the refinery exposed Harry Greaves. Every time Greaves tried to explain he did open

new questions. And the public condemnation against Greaves forced President Sirleaf to dismiss him, but all along she knew what Greaves was doing and supported him. Now she is looking for another one of her bagmen to head LPRC.

The deal at LPRC did not get the $3 million for Sirleaf Inc but her company, serving the National Port Authority, is receiving more than half a million a month. Her friend Clavenda Bright Parker brought a company from Ghana that provides equipment for the National Port Authority. Madam Clavenda Bright Parker is on the board of the company and making sure that the interest of Sirleaf Inc is protected.

 In the Lebanese community, President Sirleaf has engineered a cut-throat struggle between two groups of Lebanese merchants. She spends significant time at Abejoudi and even helps them clear their goods through the Port. Her close commercial friend includes Tony Hage and the Lebanese interest he represents. Many ministers of government, including the Finance and Commerce ministers should be able to attest that “aunty” Jenny has called them or visited them to promote the interest of Abejoudi, Tony Hage and their Lebanese friends even when the interest of Liberia and Liberians are involved. President Sirleaf supporters say that she does not know about the corrupt practices of her sister. This is hard to believe since President Sirleaf herself is involved.

“Aunty” Jenny, president Sirleaf sister, is the chief promoter of Lebanese businessmen, while her husband, Estrada Bernard, the President brother-in-law seems to be a legal consultant to every major corporation. Frontpage Africa exposed him as special consultant of Cellcom who was on their payroll. Everybody who read the Dunn report could conclude that Estrada Bernard should have been sanctioned if not prosecuted for illegal acts on behalf of Cellcom. Instead, the Dunn report died a natural death in the hands of a president who says she is fighting corruption. A deal of $600,000.00 for Cellcom DRC showed up on the president’s personal computer used by her brother-in-law and the president Sirleaf claimed that it was another house guest who used the computer. Okay, it was just a coincidence that her brother-in-law is a consultant for Cellcom and a visiting guest happened to be a consultant for Cellcom DRC. Nobody was fooled.

Rice production has taken a back seat because President Sirleaf’s cronies prefer to make huge profits from importing rice. Right after her inauguration, she took the rice monopoly from one group of Lebanese and gave it to Allan Brown, an American who was major campaign contributor. Brown entry into the rice market was subsidized from the rice stabilization funds in the amount of $600,000. After Brown failed, president Sirleaf gave the monopoly to the nephew of her friend Clarence Simpson, her friend Clavenda Parker and her sister Jenny. Today they are the major rice importers. John Bestman is a minor player in the game.

President Sirleaf and her team of greedy friends have now turned to logging and mining. Carney Johnson, her brother is a consultant for every major mining prospecting company in Liberia. Just recently the president team, which included her sister Jenny, her friend Mrs. Clavenda Parker, Morris Saytumah, her bagman and the Speaker of the House of Representatives pressured the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) to overrun the results of open bids that favored a team of investors promoted by Jackson Doe and some leading citizens from Grand Gedeh County to give to their group of investors. Another son of Grand Gedeh, George Boley was denied request to bring in investors to do oil palm farm in Putu, Boley’s home town. In the meantime, a group that involves Clavenda Parker and Richard Tolbert and others from Monrovia was given mining rights to extensive land in the same area in Grand Gedeh.

All of these deals were being squared in the office of Morris Saytumah, Minister of State for Economic, Legal and Financial Affairs. For a government that says it wants to act transparently, this office is the most secretive. It is in Morris Saytumah’s office that president Sirleaf and her cronies seal all their deals. Her brother-in-law teamed up unofficially with Clarence Simpson, and both are the silent lawyers for all of the deals.

Let us not be surprised that as president Sirleaf prepares to run for the second term of 6 years, she and her bunch of cronies will complete their control of the economy and a return to the rule of the few Americo-Liberian families. Or even if an opposition candidate wins the 2011 presidency, while Sirleaf Inc controls every economic activity, the prospect for achieving economic prosperity will be difficult.

jyanqui@aol.com

718-720-0514