Tough task for Liberia's 'mother'

By Mike Wooldridge
BBC world affairs correspondent, in River Cess County, south-eastern Liberia

Liberia's women hope for a sympathetic ear from President Johnson-Sirleaf

They gave Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf a wildly enthusiastic welcome at Cestos, this county's main town - right down to the hen's egg and the lock and key presented by the local men and the two live chicken by local women.

The egg signified the purity of their hearts - a gesture of particular symbolism in this country still emerging from 14 years of civil war.

The lock represented the state of their impoverished county and the key the president and her supposed ability to make life better for the people of River Cess.

But after this they wasted no time in launching into a litany of their requests of Africa's first elected female president.

Each speaker at this stop on her first national tour since being inaugurated in January paid respect to her as "mother".

"We are dying, mother," said one.

Teachers unpaid

Like so many communities in Liberia, Cestos has a desperately neglected appearance.

Liberia is struggling to shake off the legacy of years of war

Its grandly named City Hall is just a shell of a building, with blackened and mouldy walls and the roof looted. They told the president they wanted the City Hall rebuilt.

They also called for teachers to be paid. The fact that often they are not is one of the reasons many schools are not operating - or certainly not properly.

Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf readily agreed that teachers should not have to go all the way to Monrovia, Liberia's capital, to collect their pay.

And she said that if anyone tried to cheat teachers out of part of their pay she personally wanted to hear about it.

They said they wanted the road to Monrovia - the access into the county - to be repaired before the next rainy season or it would then become impassable.

The session was a snapshot of Liberia's poverty in the aftermath of so many years of war and mismanagement.

Scraping by

Before Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf arrived, I talked with Esther Gee at her traditional wattle and thatch home on the outskirts of Cestos.

A fishing net hung drying from a tree and a well used canoe was on the path.

She is bringing up five children on the little money that she says comes in from fishing and from other things she can sell in the market.

She hopes the president, as a woman, will be sympathetic to struggling market women like her.

Esther had a visitor while I was there.

It was the local magistrate, who said there is no court house, no prison and there are no lawyers to prosecute or defend.

And in the even remoter parts of this county of 86,000 people anyone needing a clinic might have to walk for many hours.

Across much of Liberia, the picture is similar - and many thousands of people displaced by the war have been returning home to such conditions.

President Johnson-Sirleaf told the people of Cestos she hoped that UN sanctions of Liberia's diamond and timber trade would be lifted in the months to come, an important step in generating funds to meet all these challenges.

For now, she was cautious in her pledge that people should see things improve "bit by bit".

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf answers your questions in Have Your Say this Sunday at 1400 GMT on BBC World Service Radio and BBC World Television.