The Harvard-educated Liberian economist who could become Africa's first elected female president campaigns to the strains of a popular feminist anthem "I am woman, hear me roar".
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, 66, is along with international soccer star George Weah one of the leading contenders to win Liberia's October 11 presidential elections. She has earned the nickname "Iron Lady" for her tough political style in a country whose recent bloody history has been dominated by male warlords.
A former finance minister and candidate of Liberia's Unity Party, she is promising to use her blue chip education and international development experience to rebuild a country savaged by one of Africa's most brutal wars.
"I want to repair infrastructure in labour-intensive operations, restore productive assets, and restructure the civil service," she told Reuters in an interview this week.
"There can be no quick fix, but I do believe we can have a time-bound programme," she says, speaking in her beach-side home where the walls are covered with framed speeches by US black rights activist Martin Luther King.
Liberia, founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, presents daunting challenges.
A 14-year civil war, which ended in 2003 with a peace deal enforced by UN troops, has left the country's infrastructure in tatters. There is no running water or reliable electricity. Unemployment stands at 85 percent.
Thousands of disaffected ex-combatants roam the countryside, remnants of a conflict that killed 250,000 people, many of them shot and mutilated by drugged child soldiers.
Johnson-Sirleaf, who offers her Harvard training and working stints with the UN, World Bank and Citibank as solid assets to govern with, promises to restore power to the capital Monrovia in six months. She also pledges to provide a hand pump or well in every village by 2008, and provide free primary education.
And in a nation where politicians traditionally use the treasury as their personal bank account, she declares "zero tolerance for corruption".
She has preached through example. She once resigned as finance minister after protesting against excessive government spending. On another occasion, she refused to take a seat she had won in the Senate, denouncing electoral fraud.
She has campaigned across the country, braving tropical downpours to address crowds with a megaphone.
But her critics say she lacks the popular appeal to unify Liberia and beat her closest rival Weah.
Weah, who will turn 39 on October 1, is a soccer millionaire after playing stints at Monaco, Paris St Germain and AC Milan.
Although he dropped out of high school and has no experience in government, he has built up an enthusiastic following by stressing his humble origins in a Monrovia shantytown. Johnson-Sirleaf's resume tries to stress a popular side by describing her as "the grand-daughter of a Kru market woman".
In an apparent jibe at Weah's lack of experience, she says "this is not the time to learn on the job".
Liberia's ~Iron Lady" may have one chink in her armour. She is vulnerable to criticism that she was an early supporter of former President Charles Taylor, who is in exile in Nigeria after being indicted for war crimes in Sierra Leone.
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