Tubman Solidified The Imperial Presidency!

By: ralph geeplay

This week, Liberia celebrated November 29, the birthday of Liberia’s 18th president, William Vacanarat Shadrach Tubman. Tubman is a polarizing Liberian politician on all fronts. To call him the father of modern Liberia as he is popularly referred to by historians [mostly those of none Liberian origin] is by no means a mistake. The policies and the politics of his era still have a domino effect and his shadow still looms large. No doubt, Tubman contributed largely to the economic and political development of Liberia. 

In truth, and in retrospect though, he seem halfhearted at leadership, because his autocratic and dictatorial methods speak for themselves. Given his position and times, say analysts, he easily could have left a great legacy, and recognized probably as the greatest president of the nation. But, he was helped: The Liberian constitution gives the chief executive sweeping powers, but even with that said, those who harbor dictatorial tendencies will always circumvent the laws to suite their caprices, and Shad Tubman did just that, during the 27 unbroken years he led Africa's first republic.

 

What influenced Tubman, and why was he so determined to dominate the political landscape of Liberia as president, is a question those who are interested in his presidency must probe. Shad, the second son in his family was the most successful of his siblings. He attended primary school in Harper, before going to the Methodist Cape Palmas Secondary Seminary and Harper County High.  Tubman according to records participated in several military operations from 1910 and 1917, rising from a private to become an officer. Most of his earlier influences can be traced to Robert Tubman, his father, who was also a former speaker of the Liberian Congress, a military man and a straight disciplinarian, and also a probable reason for Tubman rise to fame. 



According to Wikipedia, Robert Tubman made it imperative that his four children attended family prayer on a daily basis while requiring them to sleep on the bare floor because, he thought beds were supple and therefore "degrading to character development." He also wanted to be a preacher, and at nineteen was named a Methodist lay pastor, a probable reason for his oratory too. He study law under several tutors as was the case then, passing the bar in1917. He was also a tax collector, teacher, Colonel in the Frontier Force, a Freemason man, a former senator and associate justice by the time he conquered he Africa’s first Executive Mansion. 

Tubman is probably the most experienced civil servant that ascended to the presidency, reason why President Edwin Barclay chose him personally over a notable statesman, Clearance Lorenzo Simpson, between 1943 and 44. It is however not known, if Simpson would not have been a dictator as Tubman, given that both were products of the establishment which vehicle was the True Whig Party. Barclay, years later came to regret the choice and confidence in Tubman. Tubman was an autocrat, and he was unapologetic. He was methodical in his drive to build an imperial presidency, exploiting an already weak political system where the check and balances that sustain democratic foundations neither existed nor nourished; he straightened his hand and personalized the presidency at the cost of the nation. 

Tubman basked in fame as president with score of public buildings, schools, bridges, stadiums, boulevards and roads, monuments and anything good enough that needed to be remembered during his regime consuming his name across the length and breath of the country.

He joined the True Whig Party (TWP) at an early age, which had always dominated Liberian politics since 1878, when it dethroned the Republican Party (RP) which was the leading party of the lighter skin group of settlers in the earlier days of the nation.  Joseph Jenkins Roberts belonged to the RP; James Springgs-Payne was its last president. Tubman began his career in 1923, aged 28; when he was elected to the senate from the south eastern Maryland County, holding the record as the youngest senator in the history of Liberia. Calling himself the "Convivial Cannibal from the Down Coast Hinterlands,” he rise to power was definite. Reports say he was offer the associate justice position by president Barclay to ward him off from the presidency earlier on. Once in office, Tubman did everything to succeed himself continually until his death in a London hospital in 1971. His moves were orchestrated, moving with marksman precision as he silenced and removed his opponents from near the seat of power--- the Executive Mansion. His, was a playbook of survival, wild manipulations and tricks as he consolidated political power, according to analysts. There was so much anger and frustrations from the Tubman years that President Tolbert inherited, others have said, that contributed to the national woes of the 80s and 90s. He ruled with iron hands.

Tubman was calculative in his attempt to silence political descent, especially in the wake of the 1955 coup, which many Liberians now say was stage managed in an effort to consolidate his power. “President William V. S. Tubman was faced with a strong opposition in 1955,” wrote, J. Kpanneh Doe and Siahyonkron Nyanseor.  

“His supporters staged a fake assassination plot. The alleged conspirators were former president Edwin J. Barclay, Nete Sie Brownell, Samuel David Coleman and Paul Dunbar of the Independent True Whig Party (ITWP), all political heavyweights viewed as alternatives to Tubman authoritarian and corrupt rule.” Tubman, in the process according to several accounts went after them with vengeance. Samuel David Coleman and his son, Joseph S. Othello Coleman were killed as they tried to flee the country. Accordingly, “Nete Sie Brownell, then vice presidential candidate, and father-in-law of Ambassador Henry B. Fahnbulleh, Sr. was charged with treason, disgraced and imprisoned and later pardoned,” wrote Doe and Nyanseor in the Perspective in 2001. The 1955 ‘failed coup’ marked Tubman’s eleventh year in office. 

It was also the eleventh hour of all the politicians of the Tubman era! There would be no more attempts to challenge the imperial cigar smoking president. He had sent the message and they got it. Successive Liberian presidents learn this Tubman trick, stage managing coup plots to get rid of political opponents, notorious amongst them was Samuel Kanyon Doe principally, and Charles Taylor. His policies were also controversial, but he achieved success.

No doubt, Tubman’s Unification and Open Door policies opened Liberia and brought much needed developments as was never seen before his time, opening up the interior of Liberia and attracting much needed foreign investment, during the 1950s and 60s. At the time of his death Liberia was the main exporter of iron ore on the continent, it was ranked third over all in ore exports and had attracted more than US $ 1 billion of foreign investments including the largest Swedish investment abroad after world War Two. Liberia also had the largest German investment then. Those policies too have detractors. His critics say it is hard to see how one pursues unification when major political actors in the country were being silenced and crushed as was the case of the Colemans and the fiasco 1955 coup. "Growth without development," is the stinging criticism of his economic policy, analysts say. Alvin Winford, a Liberian interested in the Tubman presidency says “The Tubman legacy is something that we should learn from. We should resolve never to go that route, too many scars left behind…”

The imperial presidency with which Liberians still wrestle has its legacy in the patronage system and the systematic corruption of the state bureaucracy. It was a gift from Tubman, says an observer. For one man to monopolize state power for 27 years reeks of distaste. Van der Kraaij, who also studied the Tubman presidency say that Tubman was a “a chauvinistic defender of Americo-Liberian interests and an ardent supporter of the noble cause of national unification. Some authors, such as Robert A. Smith, A. Doris Banks Henries and Lawrence A. Marinelli, devoted eulogies to him, while others such as Albert Porte, Tuan Wreh, Robert W. Clower and Gus J. Liebenow did not attempt to hide their criticism and, in some cases, their disgust at his policies and practices.” He was flamboyant and impenitent. 

"Uncle Shad" has endured. Now in his sixth term, he has been busy the last two weeks celebrating his 25th anniversary as chief executive of Africa's oldest republic," TIME Magazine reported in 1969.  Its reporter, James Wilde, who attended the party saw, "a ten-day long binge of dinners, dances, agricultural exhibitions, parades and fireworks!" Tubman was flamboyant as he was imperial!

For example, when the legendary Albert Porte cautioned him not to spend precious state funds on a luxurious presidential sailing yatch, since the country could not afford it, and as a citizen, he is was speaking because the “ultimate success or failure in a democracy rests not only upon the President, but upon each citizen as well.” ‘Uncle Shad,’ was exuberantly defiant when he shot back: “I will buy the yacht,” the autocratic leader said, “without regard to the grumbling of you grumblers. That yacht will be used for the recreation of the President from his onerous duties that have been increased by more than one thousand percent since 1944, and may invite you to accompany me on one of my cruises that you might get a benefit of some rest from your onerous duty as a school teacher and which may possibly broaden your vision.” Why do we still celebrate the birthday of a tyrant? It is a question that this generation must address!