Lanaya - Tony Blair On 2-Day Visit To Liberia

Mr. Tony Blair

The former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, at the head of an eight- member delegation arrives in the country today for a two-day visit, the Liberian Foreign Ministry has said.Mr. Blair shares President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's ambition to “lift Liberia” and transform the country as envisioned in the government's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) document, the Liberian Foreign Ministry stated. According to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, the visit will be the first for Mr. Blair to Liberia and while here, he will hold bilateral discussions with some cabinet ministers and other officials of the government.Those he is be expected to meet and hold talks with are, Public Works Minister Samuel Kofu Woods; Agriculture Minister Florence Chenooweth, Planning Minister Amara Konneh, States and Presidential Minister Edward McClaim and Mr. Morris Saytumah, Minister of States for legal Affairs among others.

He will also meet and hold talks with President Sirleaf, Vice President Joseph Boakai, Speaker Alex Tyler and the Presiding Officer of the Liberian Senate.While here, Mr. Blair will launch a new project between his African Governance Initiative and the government. The statement quoted Mr. Blair as saying that he rightly regards President Sirleaf as one of Africa's greatest leaders and that he is pleased to be working with her and that the progress being achieved by the government is remarkable. According to Mr. Blair the statement said, stability is restored; political and civil freedom have been established for all Liberians; the public administration is being rebuilt; roads are under incredible heartening for friends of Liberia.

Before his departure tomorrow, Mr. Blair and President Sirleaf will hold a joint news conference at the Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Ministry statement added. Mr. Tony Blair was Prime Minister of his country from 1997 to 2007, when he turned over office to incumbent Bordon Brown. He became the youngest British Prime Minister of the 20th century when he took office in 1997. Blair was born in Scotland but spent most of his childhood days in Durham, England where he studied law at Oxford and then practised law until 1983, when he was elected as a Member of Parliament from Sedgefield. Blair was a member of the Labour Party, which at the time was dominated politically by the Conservative Party of Margaret Thatcher.

Blair was soon a rising star of what became known as the "new Labour" movement, with positions more centrist on fiscal affairs and social issues like crime. He became leader of the Labour Party in 1994, and three years later was named Prime Minister, replacing John Major, when Labour won a Parliamentary majority. Blair was 44, making him the youngest British Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. He was often compared with the former U.S. President, Bill Clinton, who was 46 when he took office in 1993. He was re-elected in Parliamentary elections in 2001 and 2005. He stepped down as the Prime Minister on June 27, 2007 and was succeeded by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown.