Solon, a Greek thinker, who’s acknowledged as one of many fathers of democracy, as soon as stated: “No man ought to take into account himself actually completely happy till he’s useless.”
Solon believed that it’s on the submit of an individual’s life (upon loss of life) that the decision comes out as to how effectively the person lived with others for good or for unhealthy. It’s that point when those that knew or interacted with the deceased, or had been impacted by the actions of the deceased memory.
A latest instance in Liberia was the November 28, 2024 loss of life of Prince Johnson, a warlord turned politician, who was chief of one of many warring factions throughout Liberia’s civil conflict, which value the lives of an estimated 250,000 individuals.
Within the wake of Johnson’s loss of life, public discussions about him generated excessive rigidity between those that noticed him as a liberator who defended his individuals through the Liberian civil conflict, and people who thought he was a assassin liable for the loss of life of then President Samuel Doe and others. Amid escalated rigidity, there have been studies of makes an attempt to smuggle Johnson’s physique from the funeral house by these bent on revenge – who wished to mutilate his corpse – prompting the federal government to deploy safety officers on the funeral house.
Accordingly, this text is in reminiscence of former US President Jimmy Carter, who died December 29, 2024, on the age of 100. To God be the glory for the lifetime of President Carter, which was principally considered one of service to the reason for humanity to make sure democratic governance and enhance the circumstances of individuals world wide, together with Liberia.
The passing of Mr Carter, a worldwide humanitarian, who served because the thirty ninth President of the US from 1977-1981, has been a serious information round world as a result of he tremendously impacted the world for good or for unhealthy, relying on anyone’s standpoint.
On this mild, this text is mainly to recollect President Carter principally for his position within the affairs of my beloved nation, Liberia, starting along with his one-day official go to to Liberia in 1978 through the administration of President William R. Tolbert.
Tens of 1000’s of Liberians, principally college students, lined the primary route from the Roberts Worldwide Airport outdoors Monrovia to the Govt Mansion on Capitol Hill in Monrovia to present a rousing welcome to the US President. He rode in an open high limo with President Tolbert, waving to the adoring crowds.
An eighth grader in junior highschool, I used to be among the many 1000’s of scholars who lined the route waving Liberian flags to welcome the President of america, Liberia’s closest conventional good friend. Liberia was such a peaceable and exquisite nation, and Monrovia was a really clear metropolis with electrical energy, piped water, medical, academic and different companies working effectively.
President Carter arrived in Monrovia from Nigeria, changing into the primary American President to formally go to sub-Saharan Africa. He stated he chosen Nigeria as a result of it was essentially the most influential and nonetheless is essentially the most populous nation in Africa, whereas he additionally chosen Liberia due to its historic ties to the US, relationship again to Liberia’s founding within the early 1800s by freed women and men of colour from America.
Throughout his presidency, Carter emphasised human rights in his overseas coverage. Really a person of peace, the 1978 Camp David Peace Accord between Israel and Egypt was thought of essentially the most vital overseas coverage achievement of President Carter.
After he misplaced re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1981 as a consequence of home challenges, together with excessive unemployment and inflation charges, together with the vitality disaster the US endured on the time, the previous president made his best impression on the world by The Carter Heart (TCC). Established in 1982 by the previous president and his spouse Rosalynn Carter, TCC has been concerned in serving to to resolve conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights world wide, amongst others.
My first private encounter with President Carter was in 1991 when he visited Liberia as head of the Carter Heart, to assist mediate a peaceable finish to the Liberian civil conflict. The civil conflict began in December 1989 when rebels led by Charles Taylor, which styled themselves because the Nationwide Patriotic Entrance of Liberia (NPFL), attacked Liberia from the Ivory Coast, looking for to overthrow the federal government of Samuel Okay. Doe. Then Grasp Sergeant within the Liberian armed forces, Doe himself got here to energy by a bloody navy coup through which President Tolbert was assassinated and 13 senior officers of the deposed authorities had been publicly executed by a firing squad.
When he arrived in Liberia on his first peace mission in 1991, we, as leaders of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) through the early years of the conflict, had been amongst representatives of a number of civil society organizations in Liberia who met with President Carter. He additionally met with then Interim President Amos C. Sawyer and officers of Dr Sawyer’s Interim Authorities of Nationwide Unity (IGNU), in addition to Prince Johnson’s INPFL earlier than heading to Gbarnga, Bong County, to satisfy with NPFL chief Charles Taylor. The NPFL had occupied about 90 p.c of Liberia moreover Monrovia, the place the Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping drive, ECOMOG, was in charge of safety within the capital and its environs.
Upon his arrival on the airport in Monrovia, the place he was given an official welcome, President Carter advised reporters that he was optimistic that peace would return in just a few months to Liberia. Earlier than departure for the NPFL headquarters in Gbarnga, President Carter’s public utterances relating to the message he was taking to Taylor for the restoration of peace in Liberia was very encouraging, hopeful and effectively obtained in Monrovia.
Nevertheless, upon his return from Gbarnga after assembly with Mr Taylor, President Carter quickly adopted a place that was favorably disposed in direction of the NPFL chief. Amongst different components, Taylor was stated to have exploited his Baptist connections to affect Mr Carter, who was recognized to be a religious Christian and a deacon within the Baptist Church. Carter reportedly started to treat Taylor as a real Christian, as Taylor advocated that he was compelled to take up arms in opposition to an evil institution and that his efforts to usher in an period of democracy was being undermined by political components in Monrovia by the Sawyer-led IGNU.
Mr Taylor had portrayed Dr Sawyer and different key IGNU officers as socialists, who sought energy to show Liberia right into a socialist state and thereby suppress democratic governance and the rule of legislation, as was the case in socialist oriented nations in Africa and different components of the world. Taylor projected himself as a bulwark in opposition to a socialist takeover in Liberia.
From 1991-1994, President Carter made 4 journeys to Liberia to satisfy with leaders of interim governments, together with those who adopted Sawyer’s IGNU, and heads of warring factions that emerged through the course of the crises.
And so, Mr Taylor was seen to have exploited President Carter’s goodwill to his benefit for a few years through the civil crises. It was not after the United Nations investigations, strongly supported by the US authorities, which linked Mr Taylor to gun-running and regional destabilization, that President Carter lastly realized that Taylor had deceived him, in response to Mr Carter himself. In a letter earlier than Taylor’s fall from energy as President of Liberia, President Carter famous that he had come to appreciate, nevertheless late, that Taylor’s roles in Liberia and the West African subregion had been harmful.
After Taylor was compelled from energy, bringing an finish to the 14-year brutal civil conflict, the Carter Heart enhanced its operations in Liberia, centered on offering monetary, human and materials assets to construct Liberia’s democratic system, to make sure free and honest elections and the rule of legislation within the conflict ravaged nation.
As a testomony of his dedication to make sure free and honest democratic elections in Liberia, President Carter co-led the worldwide remark mission collectively established by the Washington-based Nationwide Democratic Institute for Worldwide Affairs (NDI) and The Carter Heart for the 2005 basic elections in Liberia. The co-leader of the worldwide election remark mission was former President Nicephore Soglo of Benin, who additionally presided over the Liberian peace course of throughout his tenure as Chairman of the Financial Neighborhood of West African States (ECOWAS) within the Nineteen Nineties. The 2005 political course of noticed the historic election of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia and Africa’s first democratically elected feminine president.
The continued sturdy engagement of The Carter Heart in Liberia is an illustration of the late President Carter’s want for Liberia’s democratic establishments to be strengthened.
It is usually equally essential to notice that whereas President Carter is universally acknowledged and revered for championing human rights and democratic governance globally, together with Liberia, there are those that have expressed reservations about his international actions.
Amongst Carter’s critics is a piece of the Liberian intelligencia or mental neighborhood, who’ve felt that President Carter bore some accountability for the extended civil conflict and its devastating penalties in Liberia due to his assist for Taylor.
For instance, when President Carter visited Liberia as co-leader of the joint worldwide election remark mission through the 2005 elections, former Interim President Sawyer refused to satisfy with him. Dr Sawyer, now late, stated he was very upset with President Carter’s position within the Liberian civil crises.
Through the 2005 elections, I served as Program Officer for Worldwide Remark on the then NDI workplace in Monrovia. And so, within the wake of Dr Sawyer’s disposition that he was not taken with assembly with President Carter, I used to be dispatched to satisfy with Dr Sawyer.
Throughout our assembly, I used to be capable of prevail upon Dr Sawyer to conform to attend what was a excessive stage assembly between high Liberian political actors and the remark mission, co-led by former Presidents Carter and Soglo. I reminded him that as chief of the PUL, I used to be a member of the IGNU delegation he led to a kind of peace talks held in Cotonu, Benin, through the tenure of President Soglo as Chairman of ECOWAS. It was at that peace discuss {that a} newly rising armed faction, referred to as ULIMO for brief, which was led by Mr Alhaji G.V. Kromah, started to realize worldwide recognition as a faction. I recalled how the now late Mr Kromah appeared in navy fatigue on the presidential palace in Cotonou through the peace talks.
After we memory a bit, Dr Sawyer agreed to attend the assembly with President Carter and to make use of the chance of the assembly to precise his misgivings relating to President Carter’s position within the Liberian peace course of, which he did.
There was one other argument that it was through the administration of President Carter when the bloody 1980 navy coup occurred in Liberia, which led to the assassination of President Tolbert, who was then the sitting Chairman of the Group of African Unity (OAU), the continental physique renamed the African Union (AU). The US acknowledged the navy junta and was seen to have established a really shut working relationship with the navy rulers throughout many of the years of the regime.
The 1980 navy coup shattered Liberia’s as soon as enviable picture as one of the peaceable and steady nations in Africa, and it was the start of the nightmare that has left the nation virtually utterly destroyed.
However, no matter might have been his shortcomings as he endeavored to play his half in a really troublesome world, there will be little query that President Carter was a humanitarian who championed the reason for democratic governance, human rights and the rule of legislation across the globe.
To paraphrase Solon’s quote at first of this tribute, President Carter ought to take into account himself actually completely happy in loss of life as a result of he labored effectively in the reason for humanity.
Might his soul, and the soul of his beloved spouse Rosalynn Carter, relaxation in good peace. Properly carried out, thou good and trustworthy servants!
The query to everybody alive is, how do you need to be remembered when the curtain closes?
Concerning the writer:
Gabriel I.H. Williams is a profession journalist, former diplomat to the US and the writer of two books, specifically, “Liberia, The Coronary heart of Darkness: Accounts of Liberia’s Civil Battle and It is Destabilizing Results in West Africa,” and “Corruption is Destroying Africa: The Case of Liberia,” each accessible on-line. He will be reached at gabrielwilliams028@gmail.com.
