“Are you the one who is supposed to organise an awards event in Liberia?” Minister Tah asks me the moment my aunt introduces me to her, during dinner at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, at the end of the lecture. I nod my head. She looks at me, like a mother would at her child and then smiles. Her smile is charming. I go down, kneel down on my knees so I could hear her very well, while she speaks to me. My aunt is sitting just beside her and we start to talk.
She was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General on 13 July, 2009 by Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She is a member of the Supreme Court Bar of the Republic of Liberia since 1987 and of the American Bar Association since 1994. She practiced law as legal counsel with Maxwell and Maxwell Law Offices in Monrovia in the realm of corporate law, labour law, banking and general international business transactions.
She’s been friends with Professor Leslye Obiora since their university days. Professor Obiora is currently a Professor of Law at the University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.
Minister Tah served as a professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice at Montgomery College, Maryland, USA. Previous to that post, she taught at Morgan State University for several years, and was adjunct Professor of Corporative Justice System at the American University in the early nineties. She is licensed to practiced law in the State of Maryland. While in the US she worked with various Liberian community organizations and the United States government on acquiring and maintaining legal immigration status for Liberians nationals in the US.
She obtained a BA degree in Sociology from Carson-Newman College, an MA degree in Sociology (with specialization in Corrections) from Kent State University, a LLB degree from the University of Liberia and LLM degree from Yale Law School where she specialized in International Business Transactions. In 2000, Cllr. received an outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Maryland. Mrs. Tah first joined the Liberian government in the mid seventies and served in various capacities at the Ministries of health, Justice and Finance. At the Ministry of Justice, she served as Asst. Minister for Corrections (first Liberian to specialize in correction).
Now, she’s in Lagos and she is breathing Lagos into her life. She is buying CDs of albums of Nigerian artistes.
On the next day, when we meet at Eko Hotel for a meeting, she starts talking about Nollywood films: “I watch Nollywood films from night till morning. People say people who watch Nollywood films are jobless.” She pauses and begins, “They say, ‘Minister, you should not watch these films.'”
Minister Tah appears like an addict of Nollywood films, because her renunciations of names of Nollywood actors are clear. She adores Mercy Johnson a lot. “I like Ini Edo, Rita Dominic, Nkem Owoh and Patience Ozorkwor.” She also says that she is aware that Desmond Elliot comes to Liberia. “I like the fact that Nigeria has been able to promote their cultures with Nollywood. Some of them, however, are negative things about Nigeria.” At the moment, Minister Tah is trying or visualising rebranding the Liberian police force. She hopes things will get in the way and she could be able to provide them with new vehicles and helmets and also uniform. She is very passionate about the development about the judiciary system of Liberia and she is hurt that Liberia has neglected a lot of things they cherished: “Liberians lost it all. We used to be at the top when it came to arts in Africa. Our writers, musicians and filmmakers. The war!” She also believes the colonial connection with the United States of America regenerated all the pomposity of the Liberian to negating his cultures to the background, thereby, winding up a different cultural preposition to the aesthetics of the whole thing.
“There should be a very vibrant film industry in Liberia that will enact the resilience and tenacity of the Liberian people,” she says.
The evening ends with hugs and kisses and I know that Minister Tah is meant to stay in Liberia, because the challenges she faces every day as a public servant have never demoralised her.
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Onyeka Nwelue who is a founding member of The Trent Voices lives in Paris, where he runs La Cave Musik, a record label, specialising in quality music from Africa and the Caribbean.
