High hopes for Africas first female president.

last updated 8 January 2015

Liberia

What a “breathtaking performance,” said Bolade Omonijo in the Lagos, Nigeria, Vanguard. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a 67-year-old grandmother, made history this week by becoming Liberia’s president and Africa’s first elected female leader, capturing 60 percent of the vote. The odds against Johnson-Sirleaf were enormous. Not only did she have to overcome “cultural, legal, and political prejudices against womenfolk,” but she was also up against the country’s biggest hero, soccer star George Weah. In her savvy campaign, Johnson-Sirleaf deployed “all her assets.” She mobilized female voters, who are often all but ignored in African contests. And she emphasized her Masters from Harvard, contrasting her qualifications with the inexperience of her illiterate opponent. When nearly 85 percent of Liberians lack employment, she warned, “this is not the time to come and learn on the job.”

Some doubt that a woman can be “tough enough” to govern Liberia, said the Nairobi, Kenya, Nation in an editorial. But if any woman can do it, it will be this one. As the only woman in Liberian financial circles, Johnson-Sirleaf has more than earned her “Iron Lady” nickname. And frankly, even if she turns out to be merely mediocre, Liberians would have cause to rejoice. After all, almost anyone “is bound to be an improvement on the maniacs who have ruled Liberia” in the past. Samuel Doe, who took power in a 1980 coup, was so repressive and “murderous” that a rebel group captured him and tortured him to death. Then came Charles Taylor, whose drug-crazed child soldiers committed unspeakable atrocities, raping and murdering children and old people and mutilating thousands of villagers. Taylor was finally exiled to Nigeria last year. After 14 years of civil war, Liberia needs “national healing.” Perhaps that’s a job best done by a woman.

She’ll need help from her African neighbors, though, said the Kampala, Uganda, New Vision in an editorial. International observers declared the election free and fair, but Weah’s supporters don’t believe them. “Angry crowds” have been marching through the streets of the capital, Monrovia, protesting Johnson-Sirleaf’s victory and chanting “No Weah, no peace.” Most of the protesters are former child soldiers, “who form a large portion of the country’s wretched lot.” These are the same men who terrorized and traumatized the rest of the country under Taylor’s terrible reign. “It would not do to have these people on the edge.”