Since his exit from the limelight following his loss in the 2005 presidential elections, William VS Tubman, Jr., known as 'Baby Shad' by his contemporaries as patriarch of the Tubman clan, appeared yesterday alongside President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at Government Square where they deposited wreaths on the tomb of President Tubman, marking his 117th birth anniversary.

Shad Tubman, who remained out of the limelight for over 35 years after the demise of Liberia's 18th president in 1971, deposited a wreath on the tomb of his late father at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion, and called on Liberians to keep hands on deck with President Sirleaf in order to move the country.

"We have a great opportunity. Let us not lose it," Shad Tubman said, adding: "Let us hold hands together and ensure that this administration will go down in history as the administration that tried to hold this country together after a long devastating civil war. We should criticize, of course, but let's do our best to cooperate for the building of the country, and we will all benefit."

Tubman's rule over Liberia spanned 1 January 1944 to 21 July 1971 when he died in London following a prostate gland surgery, leaving the Open Door Policy that attracted investors, and the National Unification and Integration policy aimed at creating homogeneity among the citizens, as his legacy for posterity.