President Joseph Boakai's announcement for the reburial of late statesmen including former Presidents William R. Tolbert and Samuel Kanyon Doe was greeted with both enthusiasm and anxiety in many social and political quarters.
The President, in his Annual Message on January 27, 2025, declared that the government had initiated plans to properly rebury former Presidents William R. Tolbert, Jr. and Samuel Kanyon Doe as a way to address unresolved historical wounds and fostering reconciliation.
Tolbert was overthrown and killed in the April 12, 1980 coup, while Doe was gruesomely and violently killed in 1990 during the civil war. They both remainedcentral figures in Liberia's political and governance history.
Doe who became head of state was one of the major participants of the coupe in which Tolbert lost his, while he (Doe) also lost in his life in a civil war many said was launched to avenge Tolbert's death, although its actors blamed it on massive corruption, injustices and dictatorial tendencies of the Doe regime.
Political commentators described it a good calculated move that a sitting President, many years after the two illustrious leaders met their deaths in a manner deemed brutal and macabre, would consider bringing to closure the dark and disheveled chapter by giving them a dignified state burial appropriate of their statuses as former heads of state.
Others on the side of the political divide thought it was just another public stun by the President who, since coming to power, has been accused of making plethora of pronouncementsthat greeted with disdain and considered far-fetched.
However, following up on the pronouncement, President Boakaifew days ago constituted a special high-level reburial committee charged with the responsibility of overseeing, formulating strategies, plans and programs for the actualization of the "historic presidential move," which is likely to be inked in the pages of history for centuries to come.
The team is led by Dr. Jarso Maley Jallah, Liberia's Minister of Education, and includes Episcopal Bishop James B. Sellee, Methodist Bishop Samuel J. Quire, Senators Zoe Pennue and Abraham Darius Dillon, former Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Brigadier General Davidson Fayiah Forleh, among others.
Dr. Jallah is expected to coordinate efforts to ensure a respectful and well-organized reburial - a move the government views as a moral obligation that reflects a broader commitment to unifying the country and acknowledging the complexities of its past.
The Executive Mansion said the initiative represents a significant step toward national healing and reconciliation, acknowledging Liberia's complex history while striving for a united and peaceful future.
It also shows the government's commitment to fostering dialogue, understanding, and national unity through this solemn and historic undertaking.
The ceremony is also said to have excelled ceremonial significance, but a crucial step in addressing historical injustices and reinforcing Liberia's dedication to national unity. en
The committee, a day after its formation, began the tedious and heinous task of exhuming the remains of the dishonorably buried officials of government, including the executed thirteen men of the deposed Tolbert administration.
It is a known fact that along with their late boss, President Tolbert, the remains of the thirteen men were bundled in a hole at the famous but dishonored Palm Groove Cemetery on Center Street.
At an initial ceremony Wednesday, yellow machines bulldozed the burial sites of the former government officials, as part of the exhumation of their remains in preparation for the official state reburial ceremony.
Considering the many years elapse since their deaths, it is obvious it would entail forensically scientific assessment of their bones and skeletons to make proper and fair determination of their identities.
"No one should expect that they were meet their bodies intact as they were buried several years ago," remarked a bystander during Wednesday painful and lugubrious exhumation attended by the committee members and watched via social media by thousands of Liberians.
The Samuel Doe No Grave Factor
While it may be too easy for the committee to locate the graves of late President Tolbert and former thirteen government officials, locating and identifying the grave of slain President Doe may be one of challenge.
Since the brutal killing of the late President Doe, efforts to locate and identify his grave has been a challenging undertaking as his killers, on many occasions, failed to address the issue of where he was buried.
It is presumed that he was buried in the Caldwell Community where the rebel faction, Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) led by the recently demised Prince Yormie Johnson, former Senator of Nimba County, that captured and killed him based.
Doe died reportedly from profuse blood hemorrhage and other painful and stressful endurance at the hands of INPFL fighters a day after his humiliating capture at the Free Port of Monrovia, and his remains were put on display at Island Clinic, a medical facility in TwehFarm, Bushrod Island that catered to Liberians during the hey days of the conflict.
Johnson during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Public Hearings failed to provide proper account on the status of Doe's remains and where he was buried. He claimed his deputy, the Samuel Varney, was in charge of Doe when he met his demise, and he (Johnson) had no idea as to where he was buried.
At some in time, Johnson cheeked that Doe remains were thrown in the nearby river, while another account had it that he was buried along the river bank.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
What appears intriguing about the circumstances of Doe's burial place is the fact none of key figures that supposed to provide cogent information are no more. Senator Johnson ceremoniously passed away last December and was laid to rest January 18 in his NimbaCounty following an unprecedentedly befitting state burial of another kind.
Samuel Varney who Johnson blamed and held accountable for the most part of Doe's burial mystery predeceased him, and whether other fighters who witnessed and oversaw Doe's humiliating treatment and subsequent death would have the effrontery to come out.
The mystery hovering over the late President's grave or burial site only poses significant hiccup to National Reburial Committee's work as it began work to bring to closure what is now viewed as dark chapter in the country pre-war existence.
This paper could not reach out to the head of the team prior to publication or any of the committee members, but the 'No grave, burial place unknown' factor surrounding the former President could be the eye-catching and breathtaking part of its work, which suggests that the expertise of international experts could be sought as part of the process to locate where the characteristic former President Doe was laid to rest.
No doubt Liberians will be watching and eagerly waiting to see how the committee is going to navigate the entire process of Doe's grave mystery. Until then, the task and case of exhuming Doe's remains a grave issue.
