Charles Sirleaf

Abubakar Hashim/ Neighbouring Sierra Leone

Charles Sirleaf, son of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former acting Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia CBL, died in his sleep last Monday in Ghana.
Charles was a prominent and prudent figure in Liberia’s financial sector, serving as deputy Governor, Acting Governor, under three Presidents from 2004 to 2020.

I met with him at the CBL after I had an exclusive interview with former President Sirleaf. I spotlighted his reforms at the CBL on that special publication on Liberia.
He was popularly known and respected for his tremendous efforts in stabilising Liberia’s economy by instituting critical financial reforms.

During this period, he served as Deputy Governor, operations, at the CBL from 2012 to 2020. He was Acting Governor, following the resignation of the then substantive Governor, Mill Jones.

When Milton Weeks was appointed Governor, Charles returned to his substantive post as Deputy Governor, operations. This was the period when George Weah was President.

This period was the darkest for Charles Sirleaf’s sterling profile. There were trumped- up allegations by the Weah government of printing excess bank notes by Charles and other top officials of the CBL.
Charles, along other officials of the CBL, were indicted by the Weah government, of printing local currency worth millions of dollars that reportedly disappeared in 2018.
While the legal process was ongoing, former President Weah appointed Madam Pearson to Charles position.

This was, perhaps, the saddest moment for late Charles and her mother, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She saw her beloved son, late Charles, in pink prison tunic in the public glare. She was reported to remark that “Charles was innocent in the false allegations”. Family sources say she is yet to fully recover from that shock.

Charles’s death last Monday in Ghana has compounded Madam Sirleaf’s shock.
Late Charles Sirleaf’s records in the service is quite impressive. Before his tenure as deputy and acting Governor at the CBL, he held various significant positions like Director, Finance, at CBL, from 2006 to 2012, Manager, Banking and Debts, 2004 to 2006, Assistant Manager, Ministry of Finance, 2000 to 2003, President, National Housing and Savings Bank, 1998 to 2003, Instructor of Economics at the University of Liberia, 1998 to 2006, Manager, Citicorp Credit Corporation, Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 1990 to 1992, with an MBA in Finance from Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Family sources say his death is a purely private affair and will be buried soon in Monrovia.

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

*Abubakar Hashim is the NEWS Magazine West Africa Bureau Chief, based in Sierra Leonel