Solon, a Greek philosopher, who is recognized as one of the fathers of democracy, once said: "No man should consider himself truly happy until he is dead."
Solon believed that it is at the post of a person's life (upon death) that the verdict comes out as to how well the individual lived with others for good or for bad. It is that time when those who knew or interacted with the deceased, or were impacted by the actions of the deceased reminiscence.
A recent example in Liberia was the November 28, 2024 death of Prince Johnson, a warlord turned politician, who was leader of one of the warring factions during Liberia's civil war, which cost the lives of an estimated 250,000 people.
In the wake of Johnson's death, public discussions about him generated high tension between those who saw him as a liberator who defended his people during the Liberian civil war, and those who thought he was a murderer responsible for the death of then President Samuel Doe and others. Amid escalated tension, there were reports of attempts to smuggle Johnson's body from the funeral home by those bent on revenge - who wanted to mutilate his corpse - prompting the government to deploy security officers at the funeral home.
Accordingly, this article is in memory of former US President Jimmy Carter, who died December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. To God be the glory for the life of President Carter, which was mostly one of service to the cause of humanity to ensure democratic governance and improve the conditions of people around the world, including Liberia.
The passing of Mr Carter, a global humanitarian, who served as the 39th President of the US from 1977-1981, has been a major news around world because he greatly impacted the world for good or for bad, depending on anybody's point of view.
In this light, this article is basically to remember President Carter mostly for his role in the affairs of my beloved country, Liberia, beginning with his one-day official visit to Liberia in 1978 during the administration of President William R. Tolbert.
Tens of thousands of Liberians, mostly students, lined the main route from the Roberts International Airport outside Monrovia to the Executive Mansion on Capitol Hill in Monrovia to give a rousing welcome to the US President. He rode in an open top limo with President Tolbert, waving to the adoring crowds.
An eighth grader in junior high school, I was among the thousands of students who lined the route waving Liberian flags to welcome the President of the United States, Liberia's closest traditional friend. Liberia was such a peaceful and beautiful country, and Monrovia was a very clean city with electricity, piped water, medical, educational and other services operating efficiently.
President Carter arrived in Monrovia from Nigeria, becoming the first American President to officially visit sub-Saharan Africa. He said he selected Nigeria because it was the most influential and still is the most populous country in Africa, while he also selected Liberia because of its historical ties to the US, dating back to Liberia's founding in the early 1800s by freed men and women of color from America.
During his presidency, Carter emphasized human rights in his foreign policy. Truly a man of peace, the 1978 Camp David Peace Accord between Israel and Egypt was considered the most significant foreign policy achievement of President Carter.
After he lost re-election to Ronald Reagan in 1981 due to domestic challenges, including high unemployment and inflation rates, along with the energy crisis the US endured at the time, the former president made his greatest impact on the world through The Carter Center (TCC). Established in 1982 by the former president and his wife Rosalynn Carter, TCC has been involved in helping to resolve conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights around the world, among others.
My first personal encounter with President Carter was in 1991 when he visited Liberia as head of the Carter Center, to help mediate a peaceful end to the Liberian civil war. The civil war started in December 1989 when rebels led by Charles Taylor, which styled themselves as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), attacked Liberia from the Ivory Coast, seeking to overthrow the government of Samuel K. Doe. Then Master Sergeant in the Liberian armed forces, Doe himself came to power through a bloody military coup in which President Tolbert was assassinated and 13 senior officials of the deposed government were 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) during the early years of the war, were among representatives of several civil society organizations in Liberia who met with President Carter. He also met with then Interim President Amos C. Sawyer and officials of Dr Sawyer's Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU), as well as Prince Johnson's INPFL before heading to Gbarnga, Bong County, to meet with NPFL leader Charles Taylor. The NPFL had occupied about 90 percent of Liberia besides Monrovia, where the Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, was in control of security in the capital and its environs.
Upon his arrival at the airport in Monrovia, where he was given an official welcome, President Carter told reporters that he was optimistic that peace would return in a few months to Liberia. Before departure for the NPFL headquarters in Gbarnga, President Carter's public utterances regarding the message he was taking to Taylor for the restoration of peace in Liberia was very encouraging, hopeful and well received in Monrovia.
However, upon his return from Gbarnga after meeting with Mr Taylor, President Carter soon adopted a position that was favorably disposed towards the NPFL leader. Among other factors, Taylor was said to have exploited his Baptist connections to influence Mr Carter, who was known to be a devout Christian and a deacon in the Baptist Church. Carter reportedly began to regard Taylor as a true Christian, as Taylor advocated that he was forced to take up arms against an evil establishment and that his efforts to usher in an era of democracy was being undermined by political elements in Monrovia through the Sawyer-led IGNU.
Mr Taylor had portrayed Dr Sawyer and other key IGNU officials as socialists, who sought power to turn Liberia into a socialist state and thereby suppress democratic governance and the rule of law, as was the case in socialist oriented countries in Africa and other parts of the world. Taylor projected himself as a bulwark against a socialist takeover in Liberia.
From 1991-1994, President Carter made four trips to Liberia to meet with leaders of interim governments, including those that followed Sawyer's IGNU, and heads of warring factions that emerged during the course of the crises.
And so, Mr Taylor was seen to have exploited President Carter's goodwill to his advantage for many years during the civil crises. It was not after the United Nations investigations, strongly supported by the US government, which linked Mr Taylor to gun-running and regional destabilization, that President Carter finally realized that Taylor had deceived him, according to Mr Carter himself. In a letter before Taylor's fall from power as President of Liberia, President Carter noted that he had come to realize, however late, that Taylor's roles in Liberia and the West African subregion were destructive.
After Taylor was forced from power, bringing an end to the 14-year brutal civil war, the Carter Center enhanced its operations in Liberia, focused on providing financial, human and material resources to build Liberia's democratic system, to ensure free and fair elections and the rule of law in the war ravaged country.
As a testament of his commitment to ensure free and fair democratic elections in Liberia, President Carter co-led the international observation mission jointly established by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and The Carter Center for the 2005 general elections in Liberia. The co-leader of the international election observation mission was former President Nicephore Soglo of Benin, who also presided over the Liberian peace process during his tenure as Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the 1990s. The 2005 political process saw the historic election of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Liberia and Africa's first democratically elected female president.
The continued strong engagement of The Carter Center in Liberia is a demonstration of the late President Carter's desire for Liberia's democratic institutions to be strengthened.
It is also equally important to note that while President Carter is universally acknowledged and revered for championing human rights and democratic governance globally, including Liberia, there are those who have expressed reservations about his global activities.
Among Carter's critics is a section of the Liberian intelligencia or intellectual community, who have felt that President Carter bore some responsibility for the prolonged civil war and its devastating consequences in Liberia because of his support for Taylor.
For example, when President Carter visited Liberia as co-leader of the joint international election observation mission during the 2005 elections, former Interim President Sawyer refused to meet with him. Dr Sawyer, now late, said he was very disappointed with President Carter's role in the Liberian civil crises.
During the 2005 elections, I served as Program Officer for International Observation at the then NDI office in Monrovia. And so, in the wake of Dr Sawyer's disposition that he was not interested in meeting with President Carter, I was dispatched to meet with Dr Sawyer.
During our meeting, I was able to prevail upon Dr Sawyer to agree to attend what was a high level meeting between top Liberian political actors and the observation mission, co-led by former Presidents Carter and Soglo. I reminded him that as leader of the PUL, I was a member of the IGNU delegation he led to one of those peace talks held in Cotonu, Benin, during the tenure of President Soglo as Chairman of ECOWAS. It was at that peace talk that a newly emerging armed faction, called ULIMO for short, which was led by Mr Alhaji G.V. Kromah, began to gain international recognition as a faction. I recalled how the now late Mr Kromah appeared in military fatigue at the presidential palace in Cotonou during the peace talks.
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After we reminiscence a bit, Dr Sawyer agreed to attend the meeting with President Carter and to use the opportunity of the meeting to express his misgivings regarding President Carter's role in the Liberian peace process, which he did.
There has been another argument that it was during the administration of President Carter when the bloody 1980 military coup occurred in Liberia, which led to the assassination of President Tolbert, who was then the sitting Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the continental body renamed the African Union (AU). The US recognized the military junta and was seen to have established a very close working relationship with the military rulers during most of the years of the regime.
The 1980 military coup shattered Liberia's once enviable image as one of the most peaceful and stable countries in Africa, and it was the beginning of the nightmare that has left the country almost completely destroyed.
Nevertheless, whatever may have been his shortcomings as he endeavored to play his part in a very difficult world, there can be little question that President Carter was a humanitarian who championed the cause of democratic governance, human rights and the rule of law around the globe.
To paraphrase Solon's quote at the beginning of this tribute, President Carter should consider himself truly happy in death because he labored well in the cause of humanity.
May his soul, and the soul of his beloved wife Rosalynn Carter, rest in perfect peace. Well done, thou good and faithful servants!
The question to everyone alive is, how do you want to be remembered when the curtain closes?
About the author:
Gabriel I.H. Williams is a career journalist, former diplomat to the US and the author of two books, namely, "Liberia, The Heart of Darkness: Accounts of Liberia's Civil War and It's Destabilizing Effects in West Africa," and "Corruption is Destroying Africa: The Case of Liberia," both available online. He can be reached at gabrielwilliams028@gmail.com.
