The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Liberian President will visit

For the first time in 50 years, a sitting head of state will visit Marquette to be honored and deliver a speech, the university announced.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the president of the west African nation of Liberia since January, will be on campus Oct. 23 to receive an honorary doctorate and speak.

Johnson-Sirleaf, known by supporters as the "Iron Lady," is the first elected female head of state in an African nation.

Johnson-Sirleaf was invited to the university because University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild believed she exemplified the spirit of Marquette, according to David Straz Jr., a trustee of the university.

Straz, who serves as an honorary consul to Liberia, invited her on Wild's behalf during a summer visit to the country.

"She's a very strong symbol of courage, perseverance and leadership," Straz said.

Johnson-Sirleaf, who has also worked on the international stage as a senior United Nations administrator, leads a nation that has been torn by civil wars for the last 25 years. She was threatened by the civil wars: She spent time in jail under a military dictatorship in the 1980s and former Liberian President Charles Taylor charged her with treason.

Her success, according to Hannington Ochwada, visiting instructor of history, stems largely from her struggles and the fact that people can identify with her. To win the presidency, she had to defeat international soccer star George Weah.

"Being a woman helps," Ochwada said. "A male leader would invite instantaneous opposition" in such a then-unstable country.

She also helps to give Liberia a good international image, changing the previous image of corruption, he said.

Even under her leadership, change comes slowly, Straz said. He said many young people in the country have never attended school and the infrastructure of the country is very poor, with even the capital of Monrovia lacking basics such as water, electricity and sewer services in many areas.

Straz said he did not know what Johnson-Sirleaf would discuss on her visit to Marquette, but he had recommended to her that she speak on what was "most passionate" to her.

"She is a very powerful speaker — an inspiration to listen to," he said.

The last head of state brought to Marquette was German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who visited the university on June 16, 1956. Lech Walesa, president of Poland in the early 1990s, also visited the university during Mission Week in 2004.

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