Ellen talks politics at diplomatic meeting

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has told a diplomatic retreat here that she had to run out of the meeting to get engage into politics, something which suggests that the president will not be an onlooker in the October 10, Presidential and Legislative elections.

“I will not be here for long,” Mrs. Sirleaf told her audience on Thursday March 9. “I have to go and do politics, because you know politics never ends,” the president said as she laughed out her comments.
The president did not made it clear where she was heading off, to a political meeting, but her comments come at the time she has been heavily accused of supporting the opposition Liberty Party of Cllr. Charles W. Burmskine at the detriment of her vice President Joseph N. Boakai.

 Recent media reports here suggested that the Vice President had expressed frustration over the fact that he was getting the kind of support that an incumbent candidate would get from his boss.
However, the retreat which is being organize by the Liberian Government through the Ministry of Foreign for Ambassadors and heads of Diplomatic Missions abroad at the RLJ Kendeja Resort, outside Monrovia is intended to acknowledge their contributions as well as show case what this government has been able to achieve over time.

President Sirleaf in her very brief statement said the retreat offer an opportunity to thank the heads the country’s of foreign missions abroad and ministers who have contributed immensely during her administration.
“It might not be all the things that we have done that the next administration will follow, and they will also have their own Ministers and Ambassadors but through your hard work, the next administration, will pick up from where this administration ended.” She noted.

bForeign Minister, Marjon V. Kamara, said it was the last six years since the Liberian Government had such retreat to bring together Ambassadors and heads of Diplomatic missions.
She said the retreat is the overview of Liberia’s Development Architecture and Expected contribution of the Foreign Service under the theme “Promoting Liberia’s Transformation Agenda through the Liberian Foreign service”.
 Meanwhile Representative Edwin Melvin Snowe District #6 Montserrado County, said by the end of the retreat, they will expect to see the policy being put in place. He also said the ambassadors should be well prepared to represent the country outside.

By Ethel A. Tweh