Ellen Johnson Sirleaf maybe known to all as the World's first elected black female president and Africa's first elected female president, or as 2011 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her non-violent struggle for gender equality, and women's rights to full participation in peace-building work, but there is something about this woman that always blows my mind away, 'her integrity,' which forms the basis of this write up.
Sirleaf was born in october 29, 1938, in Monrovia, to Jahmale Carney Johnson family, a son of a minor Gola Chief, she attended high school at the college of West Africa in Monrovia, at 17, she got married to James Sirleaf, who travelled with her to the United States in 1961 to further her studies, there she gained an associate degree in accounting, in Madison, Wisconsin, and Master of Public Administration from Harvard's John F. Kennedy school of Government where she studied Economics and Public policy from 1969 to 1971. In 1972, she returned to her native home Liberia to serve as the Assistant Minister of Finance under William Tolbert government, and later became Minister of Finance from 1979 to 1980. Before Sirleaf became a President, she worked in various organizations, for example, she served as a President of the Liberian Bank in 1980 though fled the country in November same year after publicly criticizing Doe and his government, she first moved to Washington DC to work as a Senior Loan Officer, before moving to Kenya in 1981 where she served as Vice President of Citibank's Africa regional office in Nairobi, she resigned from citibank in 1985 and moved to Equator bank to serve as its Vice President, from there in 1992, she joined United Nations Development Programme, working as Assistant Administrator and Assistant Secretary General of United Nations Regional Bureau of Africa.
In 1997, she resigned her post and returned to Liberia to contest for the seat of President in that year's election, though she came second after Charles Taylor, she later re-contested in 2005, today, after successfully winning the 2005 and 2011 presidential elections respectively, Sirleaf became the first female elected Head of State in Africa and still is, Africa's first and only elected female president. Sirleaf has won for herself numerous prized awards for her commitments to hard-work, honesty and integrity, and for her zeal in promoting of peace in Africa, but one aspect of Sirleaf's life that is mostly overlooked when analysing her probably because of her numerous achievements that one cannot compress into a page, or in a short article, was her refusal to accept a Senate seat she had already won under Montserrado County, same election that saw Doe and the National Democratic Party win the presidency and large majorities in both houses, simply because the election was generally criticised as not free and fair, (I believe this should be promoted and talked about all the time, because it's a standard worthy of emulation), instead, she protested against the election, calling it a fraud, even when imprisoned by Doe's forces, she still refused to accept the seat.
In 1989, at the beginning of the First Liberian Civil War, Sirleaf supported Charles Taylor to take up power from Samuel Doe, but when Taylor became tyrannical, Sirleaf opposed his government, criticising him for the way he handles the war and the way he treats rival opposition leaders like Jackson Doe, this can only be said of a person with integrity. As Thomas S. Monson may put it, ...the surest test of an individual's integrity is his refusal to do or say anything that would damage his self-respect. Sirleaf refused to diminish her self-worth for power, even in the face of danger, today as a proud mother of four boys and grandmother of eleven, and as a president, she is enjoying the fruit of her steadfastness in being a woman of integrity and a promoter of good of the society. Ellen stands against government corruption and believes in reformation of her people, she never for once abandoned her people nor go against her belief, that's why she is our number one woman.
Her quote: "All girls know that they can be anything now. That transformation is to me one of the most satisfying things."
Lesson: Integrity pays. What you give in life, you get back. The most satisfying thing is doing that which benefits others and promotes lives.
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