Her "success," she added, would serve as the "motivation to strive to reach the next level, which is to achieve reconciliation among all the people of Liberia." She would try and unite all the leaders of the society together to get the government "working efficiently."
She also told me she would try to be "mother" to her nation; to "reconcile" the people and "educate the young people and try to provide them with opportunities for reintegrating into the society."
And she has been true to her word. In the days after the election, supporters of the beaten George Weah took to the streets to express their displeasure at their hero's defeat. In response, the president-elect, called her opponent in for talks and he is likely to be included in her first Cabinet.
Joking with her about her Iron Lady nickname, I pointed out that there had been another woman before her, also called the Iron Lady -- the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher -- and that far from being a mother to her people, Baroness Thatcher had proved extremely divisive.
Johnson-Sirleaf chuckled and reminded me: "I earned that Iron Lady sobriquet in my own right; on the basis of my record in Liberian affairs."
Similarly, she would work so hard to inspire other women that her contribution to Liberian, African and indeed, world history, would be uniquely her own, she added.
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