Wimot Paye, former Minister of Mines and Energy
“While it is immoral to malign the dead, I do not see the wisdom in continually celebrating William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman’s birthday as a holiday. Here are just few of the reasons I believe we should stop idolizing this man:
Abolition of the presidential term limit to extend his rule: Edwin James Barclay, Tubman’s predecessor, who was yet popular, had in 1944 refused to seek a third term. But the greedy Tubman changed this democratic culture.
Suppressing all forms of dissent with absolute ferocity, Tubman orchestrated schemes that allowed him to prolong his stay in power. He sought term after term, crushing every potential rival. In other words, had death not intervened in July 1971, William Tubman could have extended his rule into the 1980s.
Not Leveraging Economic Opportunities to Achieve Prosperity: When we consider that William Tubman was president at a time of enormous economic opportunities that could have translated into real growth and development, then it is easy to see how his prolonged rule prevented Liberia from becoming a first-world country.
Let us not forget that it was during Tubman’s era that the newly independent Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah built the Akosombo Dam, developed a five-year development plan with the goal of industrialization, established universities for science and technology, development studies, education, health sciences, etc. and established polytechnics across Ghana.
Back home in Liberia, Tubman was busy partying. He traveled in a ship from Monrovia to Harper in Maryland County, where men carried him on their shoulders through the shallow waters of the Atlantic Ocean as he relaxed with cigars in his mouth. Meanwhile, Kwame Nkrumah was busy preparing Ghana for the 21st Century.
In Tubman’s days, the cost of building a one-mile road was about US$25,000(Today the same stretch would cost between US$1.2m to US$1.5m):
It was reported that at the time of his death in 1971, Tubman’s widow, Antoinette Tubman, “inherited” approximately US$420m. This amount alone could have built more than 10,000 miles of modern roads. That is, Liberia could have been crisscrossed by paved roads. In other words, we would not be celebrating the construction of a few miles of paved roads in the 21st Century.
Tubman’s prolonged rule only temporarily deferred political instability: He kept a small army whose personnel were underpaid and only protected members of the ruling elites and their families. He instilled fear, violently crushed his opponents, imprisoned those who dared to criticize him, and frustrated his challengers. This created a latent conflict that would explode after his death.
In my honest opinion, the 1979 Rice Riot, the 1980 coup d’etat and the Civil War could possibly not have occurred had William Tubman not monopolized political power for nearly three decades. Having a holiday dedicated to him therefore makes no sense when we reflect on the enormous opportunities he refused to utilize.”
Samuel Tweah, Jr. (former Finance and Development Planning Minister):
Wiliam V. S. Tubman arguably remains Liberia’s greatest president! My generation will contest this claim for we grew up despising his 27-year dominance of Liberian governance and politics. The question that begs lampoons: 54 years after his death, have we moved Liberia beyond the shadows of William V. S. Tubman?
The unanimous and unflattering answer is no. We live in Tubman’s century, 54 years after his demise and, as a generation, have lost the right to demean his presidency or the longevity of his rule.
Fifty-four years are plenteous to wreak seismic national transformation. Yet as a country we haven’t. True, we have advanced Liberia’s democracy far beyond the political autocracy of the great old man but we have used almost half the time to arrive at this goal at a heinous cost, making the democratic gain an almost Pyrrhic victory! Plus, the development dividend since his demise pales in comparison to the development he inaugurated.
William V. S Tubman gave us 66 megawatts of capacity at Mount Coffee hydroelectric dam in 1963 when our population was not even 2 million. Fifty-four years after his death, we have added only 22 megawatts to that capacity at probably 800 percent of the cost he used to build his 66 megawatts, amid a population reaching 6 million. The whole landscape and structure of Monrovia and largely Liberia remains as Tubman left it. Commercial life in Monrovia still largely revolves around the old Waterside-Broad Street -Capital Bye pass triangle, though Sinkor is mounting a slow but still fledgling challenge. The power center of the country is still where it was on Capitol Hill, and we have barely scratched the renovation surfaces of these premises.
Under Tubman, Liberia had the simultaneously venerated and berated unprecedented economic growth in the 60s, growth we are wont to describe as “without development’ a la the criticism from a Northwestern University publication. Since then, however, Liberia has struggled on the economic growth front.
So, to members of my generation born in the year and decade the old man died, and of course to the older generation, we have ceded our rights to criticize W.VS. Tubman into our inability to generationally surpass his accomplishments.
We have even failed to upkeep the William V. S Tubman High School to the standard he erected it to maintain the beautiful Maryland County he bequeathed!
This is why today should remain a seminal birthday in our national consciousness, if only to remind us of our inability to surpass and exceed his exploits.
Like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington in the United States, William VS. Tubman too had his foibles and blemishes. But blemishes do not prevent great men from accessing the pinnacles of greatness.
Even when we would have finally and ultimately obtruded beyond the achievements of Tubman, by for example , driving on a bridge connecting 12 street Sinkor to Kesselly boulevard in the environ of Japan Freeway, (any overpass on Tubman Boulevard remains in the oldman’s shadows) or connecting Bong to Lofa through a paved road , or taking Mt Coffee to 400 megawatts of capacity, the sheer length of time and cost it would require should and would compel us to remain in awe of the greatest President we have had!
This is why we should continue to celebrate him and to say Happy Birthday to the Legendary President on every November 29!
