Light for Liberia: President Ends 15-Year Blackout

Aug. 14, 2006 — -- With the flip of a switch, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf turned on a streetlight in Monrovia last month, restoring electricity and ending 15 years of darkness in Liberia.

The lighting ceremony on July 26 marked the nation's 159th Independence Day and the beginning of the Emergency Power Program, Johnson-Sirleaf's campaign to rebuild Liberia's decaying infrastructure after 14 years of civil war.

As a part of the program, piped water is just beginning to flow through Monrovia. On hand for the festivities were the presidents of Ghana, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone.

The festivities were cut short when a fire broke out in the executive mansion.

Although no one was injured in the fire, a floor of the building was destroyed.

The fire sparked controversy and finger pointing, prompting Johnson-Sirleaf to bring in a South African team of investigators to determine the cause of the blaze.

Despite the damage to the executive mansion, Johnson-Sirleaf continues to focus her work on constructing Liberian social systems.

A More Difficult Challenge Than Imagined

Johnson-Sirleaf is the first to say that rebuilding Liberia will be more difficult than she imagined.

Africa's first elected female head of state took office in early 2006 after running on a campaign of aggressive nation building.

Johnson-Sirleaf now acknowledges that when she promised to restore electricity to Liberia in the first six months of 2006, she was an outsider without perspective on the extent of damage to the Liberian electric grid.

Achieving preliminary power in Liberia required substantial foreign aid from Ghana, the United States and the European Union.

Ghanaian engineers brought in to help were astonished by how much work was required to turn on a few streetlights.

Getting supplies for the project required Liberia's main port to be dredged. Many light poles were riddled with bullets, strung with power lines leading nowhere.

Although electricity has only been brought back to main streets, hospitals, schools and police stations in the capitol, Johnson-Sirleaf's administration is hopeful this first step will lead to the restoration of more public services in Liberia.

Previously, only the wealthy had electricity, which was powered by personal generators.

Most Liberians have lived without lights for so long that candles and charcoal stoves have become everyday staples.

The lighting ceremony was the first time most Liberian children had seen a streetlight.

Lauded in the West, Criticized at Home

Johnson-Sirleaf's efforts have been largely acknowledged throughout the United States and Europe.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on hand in Liberia for her inauguration; first lady Laura Bush wrote about Johnson-Sirleaf in Time Magazine's "People Who Shape Our World" issue; and the Bush administration recently pledged nearly $1 billion worth of aid to support Liberia.

Days before the launch of the Emergency Power Program, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz praised Liberia's economic progress and promised debt relief.

Johnson-Sirleaf has skeptics closer to home, however.

Several critics saw her Emergency Power Program as a halfhearted attempt to live up to her promise to restore full electricity by Independence Day.

Editorials in Liberian newspapers, including The Analyst, were concerned that Johnson-Sirleaf's attempts were no different from previous failed efforts of other administrations.

Conditions in Liberia, founded in 1847 by freed American slaves and once considered a model of democracy and economic progress in West African states, sharply declined during its 14-year civil war.

Considered one of the most violent in contemporary Africa, Liberia's conflict resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million people.

The fighting ended in 2003 when former President Charles Taylor retreated into exile in Nigeria.

Before he left office, combatants attacked basic services provided by the government, severely damaging water, electricity and transportation systems.

The result was a nation where even in the presidential mansion the toilets did not flush automatically.