"I am proud of what we have achieved": says Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Three and half years into her term as Africa's first and only female president, expectation of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's leadership acumen still remain high. But despite inevitable distractions, Liberia's president remains steadfast and optimistic. "From day one, we were aware of the magnitude of the task ahead but here we are now, and we are on the right track," she says in this exclusive interview with New African's Omar Ben Yedder. The seasoned economist and astute politician, has in the past few months not had an easy ride. There have, for example, been calls for her to resign following a report issued by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission alleging she provided financial support to former President Charles Taylor, who is currently on trial at the Special Court for Sierra Leone at the International Criminal Court facilities in The Hague, accused of war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. But as this interview reveals, the softly spoken 70-year-old affectionately called The Book in reference to her intellect, is firmly focussed on nothing else but rebuilding Liberia from the ruins of a protracted and bloody civil war. Conducted in her humble presidential office, in the capital Monrovia, the interview gives an eye-opening insight into how Africa's most powerful woman is juggling her onerous responsibilities.

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After three and a half years as the first female president in Liberia, and currently the only one in Africa, you have gone half way through this presidential term. It is timely to give what could he considered a mid-term report on your presidency and on the situation in Liberia now. Are you happy?

Johnson-Sirleaf: Clearly, we have made a lot of progress during these years. The first reason why I am proud of what we have achieved over these three and half years is that they have been peaceful for a country that has mainly been used to violence previously. But we want to do better: our objective is to attain sustainable peace and security in Liberia. This is in fact one of the four pillars of our development agenda, currently being implemented. The remaining pillars concern economic revitalisation, governance and the rule of law, and infrastructure and basic services.

Let us begin with the first pillar--peace and security ...

J-S: On these two interconnected fronts, we are moving well, notably through the training of a new army. We have totally demobilised and disbanded the old army. At the moment, there is a 2,000-strong army in its third year of training. The USA are supporting us in this crucial effort. In addition, the other security forces and national police, equally, are still going through a training process. We have the UN still around and we depend on them to a large extent for peace sustenance in Liberia. That is why we expect them to remain at least until the next elections in October 2011.

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What about the economic revitalisation of the country after so many years of brutal conflicts?

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J-S: From day one, we were aware of the magnitude of the task ahead but here also we are on the right track. For instance, we are reopening our iron ore mines. The sanctions imposed on the exports of our diamonds have been lifted. I am pleased to confirm that we are now Kimberley-compliant, meaning we respect the international norms regarding the exportation of precious minerals. We are also no longer facing sanctions concerning our forestry. They have been lifted, and we are currently going through negotiations to start off forestry operations. On the agricultural front, we have started to mechanise rice farming and to reactivate the rubber industry which was destroyed through the years of conflict. There is a lot of replanting going on. In financial terms, we inherited a $4.9bn external debt. But we have already signed off the HIPC programme. We believe that we will meet the conditions and reach the completion point sometime next year. In doing so, $4.9bn will be forgiven including $1.3bn of commercial debt held by the hedge funds which we were able to buy back at 3 cents on the dollar. There are other important signs that show how Liberia is recovering: we have in our pipeline of investment some $8bn coming in. Arcelor Mittal is planning to invest $1.5bn.

But it seems that this Mittal deal is now in trouble as a result of the negative impact of the global economic downturn on the prices of minerals. Is that investment still going ahead?

J-S: Yes. We are told by Lashmi Mittal that the investment is still there and that they are committed to Liberia but that as a result of the global crisis all the operations are delayed by a year. Whereas they should have made their first exports by 2009, the first exports will be in 2010, and they will restart operations early next year. But ArcelorMittal is not the only investor in Liberia. We have just signed with China Union to open one mine, representing $2.8bn. We have also signed with a Malaysian company to the tune of $800m to reopen a palm oil and rubber plantation. We have other smaller-type investments by local and foreign entrepreneurs. Liberia is therefore back as a good destination for foreign direct investments, and they are coming from various parts of the world.

Even though foreign direct investment is helpful, you must for sure rely first on Liberia's internal revenues. In this light, in terms of your national budget, what percentage of it comes from ODA and what is raised locally?

J-S: Less than 3% of our budget comes from ODA. We do have ODA which is double our budget but it does not come to the government directly because we are still building our financial management systems to give confidence to our partners that we can manage the resources well. When this government came to power we had an annual budget of $80m, today it is about $347111 from our own resources. We do get in the order of $500m from partners but it is being channelled into infrastructure, into institution building, and so they go directly to the contractors or to NGOs.

Financial challenges are not the only ones you need to tackle as your government faces governance and rule of law challenges as well ...

J-S: You are right. Our judiciary system has some weaknesses which are hard to change because the judiciary personnel are protected by the constitution, for good reasons in principle, except that you have people now who need to be retrained, reoriented and remoralised. This is a prerequisite before we can get the courts to function well. Yes, let us face it: corruption still remains a problem. It is entrenched, systemic. It has almost become part of the culture following many years of degradation and deprivation when people had to survive by their wits. That's our biggest challenge right now along with capacity. As everyone knows, the war provoked a lot of migration from the most qualified of our people. As a result, we lost, through that brain drain, a lot of our capacity. We've got a few programmes for repatriation and training for local people. But the public service was so filled with people rewarded for their affiliations with various warring factions that capacity is very limited. That has hampered us in achieving our development goals.

Another important area relates to the necessity to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed during the war. How have you fared so far on this front?

J-S: That too was--and remains--a daunting challenge. Yet, some progress deserves to be reported, such as in terms of water and electricity production. We have brought water and light back to the city in 14 years. We don't have enough of it yet but at least we have street lights in Monrovia and a few of the other cities and we are expanding to personal and industrial use. Our road system was completely destroyed during the war and we're trying to rebuild, starting with the Monrovia Robertsfield highway and various other primary roads. At the same time, we will continue to construct new roads. We have got the financial commitments to do all of that. And we are addressing the huge social infrastructure needs and already anyone visiting Liberia can see that we have starred rebuilding many schools, clinics and hospitals all over the country. We are starting to build a new university campus. By the next school year in 2010, we shall have our university functioning again. This will allow us to move the students from the crowded place where they are right now. We are trying to get people back into their farms. We have made compulsory primary education and enrolment in public schools is over 40%.

In sum, would you say so far, so good, when it comes to capturing the overall progress of Liberia under your tenure?

J-S: Indeed, this view summarises our state of mind at present. We have done a lot but awesome challenges remain. Because, despite everything we have done, that only represents one third of what needs to be done. When it comes to this country's stability, we are aware that it will only be a strong reality after we have reduced the large unemployment we still face. Until now, many of the young people who were conscripted into the former warring factions and who were not given an opportunity for an education or skills are still there unemployed. As long as the economy cannot open up sufficiently to absorb them they remain a solid reason to be worried about the future, and this can only be a cause of vulnerability for our society. These unemployed youngsters can be attracted at any time to bad things. Don't forget that we are in a region which is coming out of what has been a protracted and violent regional war. There are still many uncertainties in some countries in our region. And anything which may happen in one of our neighbouring countries, if something did not go well, our own country would be affected by that. So this overall regional instability means that our peace is still fragile both for domestic and regional reasons.

Yet, at the end of the day if we've done nothing else, we believe that we have given the people of Liberia hope, hope in the future. That is why any visitor to Liberia these days can only be struck by the buoyancy prevailing now in our cities. That is even the case among the young people without jobs. You see them doing a little trading activity on the streets. This leap of faith is also expressed in the housing boom across the country which is a mark of confidence that people feel they have a future. We hope that we can build upon what we have done. We are also blessed by the quality of the partnerships we have established abroad. Such as the one we have with the United States of America which is still our number one partner. We also have partnerships with the European Commission, China, Norway, Denmark. These are all great partners as are the World Bank and IMF, not only in terms of policy formulation but also through the grants they provide us as budgetary support.

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You did not mention Africa. How much have the continent and particularly your West African neighbours been helpful in Liberia's recovery efforts?

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J-S: I have been pleasantly surprised by the enormous support we have received from Africa. More specifically, all the countries in the Ecowas region have been helpful. First of all they supported the peace, with Ecomog before the UN came, and Nigeria was exceptional in this regard. Even to this day we have our soldiers being trained in the Nigerian war colleges. We have officers from Nigeria. The head of our army today is a Nigerian general, until such time that we have trained our people to a level of professionalism to assume that responsibility. Ghana is helping us also with our military and police training. Even Benin has sent people here to help us. There are meetings to see how we can enhance regional cooperation.

Do you believe that the time is ripe for a united States of Africa, as its most vocal proponents say?

J-S: The unity of Africa is important. Our continent's balkanisation has limited us to achieve the economies of scale we need to accelerate the march of our development. This can only be overcome by regional integration and the realisation of the African unity ideal. What we do need is a road map. I don't think you'll get a consensus to declare by fiat the United States of Africa, and expect that all African countries are going to join it immediately. But if you have a road map that defines the conditions for this unity, some countries may start the process and begin to integrate; others will follow. It will continue to grow as has been the case with the European Union. I believe that this road map is being conceived and people are warming to it. In the meantime we have regional blocs like Ecowas, SADC, CEMAC, to name a few, that are coming together in the same way. Once you have all of those parts moving together and getting integrated then, of course, the integration of the entire continent will come. Political union is important. We talked about establishing an African Union Authority, one in which there would be a coordinating political unity somewhere down the road that will be able to take common positions on matters affecting the development of Africa. I think that is the way to go. We need that coordination, that common position as is happening in other regions of the world, and that in itself will drive the process towards our common goal--Africa's ultimate unity.

Despite what they say in terms of managing their continent better, promoting democracy and resolving Africa's conflicts, African leaders do not seem to have impressed President Barack Obama, whose recent discourse in Accra was rather tough on them.

J-S: I wholeheartedly endorse what he said. When he mentions that African countries need to take charge and take responsibility for their own development, he's absolutely right. When he calls upon us to be more transparent and more accountable in the use and management of our own resources, I think he's absolutely right. So in all the things he said, President Obama was consistent with the position he was taking in calling for a new leadership of Africa, more responsible, democratic. These are some of the things we have been talking about in Africa ourselves, and we have to walk the talk.

Obama's Accra speech was more specifically about the need for new, responsible, leaders committed to good governance and the establishment of strong institutions. Are you seeing a new generation of leaders and a new type of leadership emerging in Africa?

J-S: Yes I am. Decisively so. If you look around, you find a lot of those being elected to high office are technocrats. People who have been in the professional life; they are not professional politicians but professionals. And they are bringing a professionalism to the job. It's all over if you look at the continent. And I am very encouraged by the new African leaders and leadership and the commitment that is being demonstrated by them to depart from the old ways and to really begin to put Africa on the map to develop our countries on the basis of our own resources, to take our destiny into our own hands. If you look at the growth record of Africa and you look at the development of Africa over the past decade, you will see that there is a big change.

You mentioned leaders, new leaders, professionals, but as the first African lady running a country, following an electoral process, what role do you see women playing towards the emergence of a better leadership in Africa?

J-S: I am a great believer in the leadership of women. The reason is simple: I think that when a woman is equally qualified, competent, committed and courageous, she excels. She performs better than men because women bring an extra dimension to the task. They carry their sensitivity towards humankind. They display greater concerns particularly about children and the welfare of people. That comes from being a mother, and it comes more naturally to women. So once a woman competes effectively with a man and comes to that task, she brings a little extra commitment, extra dedication and extra concern.

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Do you feel an added pressure as an African woman president?

J-S: Of course it carries a lot of pressure ... But I feel humbled by the position I occupy as President of Liberia. For the main reason that I am aware of the burden now on my shoulders. And beyond Liberia, it is not easy to represent the aspirations and the expectations of so many women in Africa. This is why I must do all I can to leave a legacy of which they can be proud.

Do you believe that you will be helped by the mother instinct, which is in every woman, as you are in charge of a post-conflict nation?

J-S: Yes. The concerns I bear for children is something natural. It is just so warming that they, too, now feel that they have a government, a president, a leader, who cares for them and who is concerned about their welfare and their conditions. And I hope this inspires also the many women, not only those in my cabinet but also those women leaders in industry, in the markets, in business, society, and in the churches, that they all feel inspired by this.

Would you be favourable to the establishment of a quota for women in key political positions, such as parliament?

J-S: Let us face the truth: it is important that we encourage enough women and empower them to compete for leadership at all levels of society. But this can be done without necessarily going through the system of quotas. In fact, this has already been achieved in some places. However, we need to have that critical mass of women, and if we use quotas, we would not be able to meet such quotas. What we are doing now is to make sure that Liberian women are properly trained and educated. For instance in a situation when a girl has been neglected, our objective is to bring her back to school. That is what we emphasise as our ambition to ensure that the retention level at school is increased as many girls leave school too early. Don't forget that teenage pregnancy is a big problem that we have to fix to make sure that girls are able to get to a decent level of training through higher education. That is one way through which we intend to achieve that critical mass of educated girls in the country. In doing so, we will not have to rely on any form of women quotas.

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What legacy do you want to leave for other women not just in Liberia but across Africa?

J-S: That would be a legacy associated with my tenure as President of Liberia. If it is successful in transforming Liberia into a prosperous and peaceful country, then my legacy will be powerful. As the president of this post-conflict country, my goal is to make Liberia a success story so that other women who follow my rule will be emboldened in their ambitions. That would be a big boost for their drive to capture high political offices. In other words, my own success will be their own too. That is probably why I am getting so much support from women not only in Liberia but all over Africa and the world. They want me to succeed because it would be a success for women. Then other women will be able to claim leadership all over the world, especially in Africa where the experience with political leadership has been rather messy.

The legacy you are yearning for may mean that you will go for a second term. Is it the case? [J-S had campaigned on the grounds that she would leave after her first term.]

J-S: Not necessarily. As they say in Liberia, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

What is behind your drive, what made you drop the comfortable life you could have had in Washington, Geneva or New York, and choose to come back in such a tough environment?

J-S: For the plain reason that I believe in the potential of Liberia. This may be a small country of 3.5m but it is well endowed with natural resources. Our country should have never been the poor country it has become over the past decades and our people do not deserve to be poor. That has always driven me, to see Liberia reach its potential, I think we've started that long road and I do believe that if we keep on this path, we will achieve that. These observations drive me. That is where I find my inspiration to bring about transformational change in this country. Harnessing the huge potential of Liberia for the benefit of its people motivates me, and I will not rest until we realise that potential. I hope to put Liberia on an irreversible path, on the path of development.

But despite your willingness to leave a legacy for other African women, you need to take into account the TRC which recently made statements about barring you from office because of your support for Charles Taylor's rebellion.

J-S: Yes, that report came out and it is being reviewed by the legislature and there are things in the report which are good which we need to do to heal our nation's wounds. There are other things which we need to look at, and look at the consequences. There is no judgment which has been passed on it yet.

Some Liberians believe that the TRC has been divisive and rather than bringing the people together and being an instrument for reconciliation, it has been more bent on punishment and prosecution.

J-S: Let me put it this way. We should take what they have given us and turn it into an instrument for healing which means we should come together and discuss it, take the good things which are in there, question the things which would cause disunity and may lead to possible conflict and find a way forward. Many of our churches and some of our old leaders think we should hold a national dialogue to go through all elements of the report. At the end of the day, we believe that the Liberian people have a sense of what is right and wrong. We have a feeling that the people will determine how we go forward from this and how we can truly find ways to unite and reconcile our people to achieve more sustainable peace.

On conflict resolution, don't you fear that after Charles Taylor was given immunity by his African peers and the immunity promise was broken, it will become more difficult to have leaders to step down. Clinging to power may become a trend ...

J-S: I was not around when Charles Taylor met his peers and made certain arrangements. So I don't know if what you say corresponds to what was discussed or agreed. What I do know is that Mr Taylor has a day in court. I don't want to speak about that because there is a judicial process going on and my lawyers advise me not to get involved when a court case is running. You may understand why it is wise for me to remain silent on this matter at this stage of its judicial development.

Historically, America has been Liberia's closest ally, but some commentators argue that this privileged relationship may have been slightly strained given your increasing links with China.

J-S: That is not true. The USA continues to be our number one partner. They are supporting us in every way possible. However, one country cannot meet Liberia's vast needs. And so we are expanding the partnership to many others, and China just happens to be one of these. And China of course is competing, along with others even, to benefit from our infrastructure improvements so that has brought more Chinese companies into the picture. Let me tell you about real partnerships; for example in the new university we are building. Chinese companies are building the new dormitories and the new academic buildings, while the USA, along with us, is renovating some of the other buildings. So we have a tripartite arrangement and nobody sees any one partner as being able to undermine another.