Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf: First Elected Female President in Africa!

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (born October 29, 1938) is the President-elect of Liberia following the 2005 election. Barring any exigencies, she will become the first elected female president of an African country.

Educated at Harvard, Johnson-Sirleaf became involved in government when she became Finance Minister in President William Tolbert's administration in 1970. While running for Senate in 1985, she spoke out against the military regime, and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Released after a short period, she left in exile and returned in 1997 in the capacity of an economist, working for the World Bank, and Citibank in Africa.

Initially supporting Charles Taylor's rebellion against General Samuel Doe, she later went on to oppose him, and ran against him in the 1997 presidential elections. She managed only 10% of the votes, as opposed to Taylor's 75%. Taylor charged her with treason. She campaigned for the removal of President Taylor from office, playing an active and supportive role in the transitional government, as the country prepared itself for the 2005 elections. With Taylor's departure, she returned to take over the leadership of the Unity Party.

In the first round of 2005 voting, she came second with 175,520 votes, putting her through to the runoff vote on November 8 against former footballer George Weah. On November 11th, the National Electoral Commission of Liberia declared Johnson-Sirleaf to be President-elect of Liberia, while her opponent, George Weah, refused to concede and filed a writ of prohibition with the Liberian Supreme Court to halt the ballot counting.



About her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson-Sirleaf
See Also: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4395978.stm
Her campaign website: http://www.ellenforpresident.org/

I have two things to say to this:
1) Wow! 
2) Women in the house, what were you doing when all this was going on?

wow!@ seun, i'm busy gettin my education or what else do you expect us to do?

A good thing. She's always been an independent voice in Liberian politics. And contrary to Weah, she did not sollicit the former teenage soldiers to support her campaign.

Me too...Nigeria very much needs a female president!!!!!!!!!!Even the guys shouldn't doubt that.

Women rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Forward always, backward never!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we'll conquer the world!!!!!! it's just a matter of time.

My bad, wrong wording.
They rather supported him because he is the former football superstar Georges Weah, then because he represents the masses. Anyway, of these teenagers, very few were LURD, most were former Taylor foot soldiers. I was feeling uneasy when watching a Weah rally on TV. I've got a Liberian Mandingo friend who didn't feel at ease either.

Weah didn't have any political past before entering the race, so he indeed didn't align himself with any of the former politicians in Liberia. As for Ms. Johnson, she quickly distanced herself from them when it became clear that they were not going to bring any improvements. All older Liberian politicians are somewhat interconnected, even Taylor was part of a Doe cabinet.

It's not bad for there to be equal (or something approximate to it) representation among major groups in politics. one side can't run the show and leave the others in the dark. Of course there are intelligent and charismatic individuals among females AND specific ethnic groups therefore, there's nothing wrong with saying "Nigeria needs a <insert name of favoured ethnic group here> president." especially if the ethnic group has been deprived for years in that position.

i wish Mrs Sirleaf goodluck! i'm proud of her!

Why do we always have old people as presidents in Africa?? This 67 yr old woman doesn't have any strength again. What's she looking for? Me thinks younger people (male or female) should be given the chance and not people who have just few more years to live on earth.
It's a nice start anyway.

Older people have wisdom and perspective, especially if they're still very active and quick witted, which is certainly the case for Ms. Johnson.
This is exactly what Liberia needs after the last decades of insanity.

I agree with you legs. thats very true. this is one thing Nigerians have failed to realize. all most of us think about is gender and ethnicity, and this has not taken us anywhere!

Nobody thinks about the gender.  People - both men and women - just assume by default that the leaders should be men and so it is.  It is not as if there has been a woman who came out and said "I want to be Governor/President" and people said "oh no, we won't vote for you because you're a woman".  But we have women in the national assembly, because for some reason women decided to contest for those positions.

people don't just assume by default that the leaders should be men. they just assume that it will be men.
It's been something that's been in existence for countless centuries.

just like you say it's cold in december. . you just assume that it will be cold because it has always been cold. . not that it will be cold because you want it to be cold!! . .

I think the Liberians made a wise choice.  I for one would not have voted for a washed up old dumb ex-jock.  He would be first in line to loot the treasury and then declare martial law when you check him on the issue.  He is along the lines of G. Bush!!! Another dumb-ss.  This woman is articulate, she will be able to sit at the table and talk authoritatively with the business leaders around the world.  Any developing land needs investment so that building can take place.  This will make jobs for the masses and eventually bring in hard currency.  Money talks!  BS walks!  I think gender is irrelevent.  Do you remember Thatcher of England?  I never liked her politics ( like Reagan in drag ) but you have to admit she was one iron fisted MF'er.  She did'nt take crap from the opposition or anyone else.  Remember Bhutto of Pakistan?  They both were good leaders.  For myself if a woman ran for pres of the USA, if she and I agree on the issues, she will get my vote.  I am just tired of the same old BS, the same old lies, the same old corruption, the same old hypocrisy.  Why not go for something different.  Remember, its quality that counts.   

Are  you an Americo Liberian? Would you, and do you think other Liberians,  would have a problem with a large mass of middle and upper class African-Americans moving to Liberia? Yes I do accept a female being president.

lets hope madam ellen wont promote the narrow interests of the Americo Liberians ; which is simply to hold on to power , plunder the nation, and remain a dominant small liberian elite.

The Americo Liberian domination of Liberia for hundereds of years is the genesis of the liberian problem

lmao


Other African Countries should emulate this.