Spare Taylor this Odium: A Rejoinder

By

Candidus Uzoukwu Obiajunwa

cuobiajunwa@yahoo.com

Port Harcourt – Nigeria

This is in corroboration of an article on the above subject by Ben Lawrence, veteran journalist and reporter, in the Guardian Newspaper) of August 18, 2003, P. 15.  The piece was a presentation of facts, away from legends and fiction about Mr. Charles Taylor and the Liberian Imbroglio. It was good to know that there is still in Nigeria someone who knows the truth and would rather not join the bandwagon to malign an unlucky guy.

 

I am   touched by all the ignorance, misrepresentation, falsehood, hypocrisy, mischief and injustice against the person of Charles Taylor.  It is particularly disturbing that somebody like chief Tom Ikimi; former Nigeria’s external affairs minister under Gen. Abacha is so involved in this campaign of calumny. Ikimi lied that he was the first Nigeria’s foreign minister to set foot on Liberia at the time of her civil war(s). Gen Ike Nwachukwu (Rtd) was known to have visited ECOMOG in Monrovia about seven years earlier in December (Xmas) 1990 at the peak of Taylor’s insurgency. Perhaps Ikimi thinks it tool far back to be recalled.

 

I think Ikimi is seeking for a new relevance and being of the Abacha people’s party (APP), which is not particular friendly with president Obasanjo. He is trying to tell the world just what he perceives they would like to hear, that Taylor is very quilt and crucify him! But Ikimi himself served a government that was grossly despotic and notorious for corruption, vices, and deceit. One would have expected that people like him who were part of the bazaar that was Babangida/Abacha regime in Nigeria would be too ashamed to be seen or heard in public. Ikimi was involved in the politics that made Liberia/Taylor Nigeria’s Dilemma as he phrased it.

 

There is a need to keep abreast with the facts or truth about the Charles Taylor phenomenon. We need to appreciate the background and Taylor’s mission in Liberia, how far he went, and the obstacles and odds he came to face and how his cookies crumbled.  Then we would be able to judge him fairly if we must judge him and whether anybody should be harassing him   in Nigeria. Then also we would see how Liberia and Taylor came to be Nigeria’s dilemma, which I think is far from what Ikimi is telling us today in the media.

 

Charles Taylor happened to belong to or be of the upper elite ruling class or rank in Liberia and served in the government of Sgt. Samuel Doe who was a Despot. He offended Doe and had to flee for his dear life and Doe went after him with a charge of corruption. Taylor was eventually arrested and jailed at Baltimore prisons USA – the colonial master and  the parent country to Liberia. The Liberian flag is similar to that of the US and obviously there is a political angle to the above development.   Taylor must have developed his own plans about how to get back to Liberia and at Doe. He jumped bail and came back to start a guerilla war against Doe’s government.

 

Charles Taylor-led NPFL was determined to overthrow Doe’s regime, which had already lost its legitimacy and acceptance in Liberia. That was about the only way to affect a charge of government in Liberia as at the time and it was in vogue and the trend in Africa to do so by force of arms or coup. So NPFL launched an insurgency against Doe on December 24, 1989 from their base in Cote d’Ivoire. Taylor’s approach, strategy and logistics proved very elaborate and his investment in the mission heavy. He was however not the first to take the perilous risk to challenge the misrule of Doe. Thomas Quinwokpa and others were executed in one of the invasions.

 

Eventually Taylor bestrode Liberia and was set to take over the Executive Mansion or presidential villa where Doe was ensconced in when Nigeria/ECOMOG intervened in 1990 on the side of the Devil Doe. Taylor refused to be deterred or intimidate and the resultant armed conflict or clash left heavy casualties on all sides and the state paralyzed. In the follow up NPFL was infiltrated and Prince Yomie Johnson was sponsored or supported in betrayal and to help destroy Taylor. He led a counterfeit I-NPFL apparently because NPFL then was synonymous with the people’s army. But it was to no avail of getting rid of Taylor.

 

What followed in September 1990 was the capture and slaughter of the Devil Doe by Johnson, apparently with the connivance of ECOMOG. This must have been to remove the Doe factor in the crisis, appease Liberians and possibly turn them against Taylor. This obviously did not work and Johnson’s own factor was also there then.  Johnson himself also was eventually out played, lured out kept hostage in Nigeria at lest to reduce complications. In any case the collapse of the Liberia state lasted for almost eight years, essentially because Nigeria/ ECOMOG would not let go Liberia or let Charles Taylor have his way. Abacha carried over from where Babangida left at in 1993 on the policy thrust. But try as must as we could Liberia remained with Taylor and a Vietnam for Nigeria.

 

Ikimi reports that Nigeria/ECOMOG eventually conducted a free and fair elections in Liberia which Taylor won and was inaugurated as president. What Ikimi would not want to highlight was the fact that it was out frustration for them and that Taylor polled 80% of votes. However Taylor was not allowed to rule or run the country as he was supposed to. On one part ECOMOG was to organize the new army of Liberia, but Taylor did not trust Nigeria as a neutral party and knew better than to put the security of his government in their hand. He rather tactically consolidated himself with the integration of NPFL into the army and eventually expelled ECOMOG out of the country in shame.

 

On the other hand the US was never comfortable with Taylor. They obviously considered him as being disrespectful and not open to them. They also considered his activities and role in the Liberian neighbourhood or region as pervasive and against their interests. When the us failed to get Taylor’s cooperation or submission to their dictates they imposed sanctions against his government. Taylor’s opponents and opposition were therefore and by all these strengthened and supported at home and aboard and gradually he was overwhelmed to give up power. And to make sure there would be no way for him to continue he was curiously also framed up as a scape goat for war crimes, not for the war in his own country but that of another country ad without his physical involvement. Of course this also has a political angle to it. 

 

Taylor’s problem and case was that of a struggle for survival, preservation and sovereignty. He had to fight against both internal and external forces. He had to destabilize by as much as possible safe havens for his enemies and supported friendly government and movements, especially those that helped his own mission and government. He also had to source for money and friends from anywhere available or possible to run his government. And while the fighting raged, no one heard of institutionalized political murder, assassination of opponents or rivals or sending troupes to commit genocide. The worst we heard was incarceration of dissidents and fighting rebels by the rules.

 

If Taylor was hostile to Nigeria at a time, it was because of the role of Babangida in particular in taking side to defend the devil Doe and trying to stop Taylor at the 11th hour. Nigerians soldiers and journalists in the front bore the direct brunt of this indiscretion as part of their occupational hazard. The rest of us at home in any case held the long end of the stick on our economy. Babangida and Abacha had really no moral justification to go to Liberia or to insist on stopping Taylor. Nigerians could either afford it nor ever supported the mission and wastage in Liberia.

 

Taylor is or was a warlord and could never be found a saint or flawless. His hands may be stained with blood and hence not worthy to build a house or nation for the Lord. But he is not as crazy or as vicious as has is being painted or portrayed by people like Ikimi. No one has said he is or was corrupt at least not overtly and he is not really a criminal either. Taylor helped Liberians to Liberate Liberia from the Devil Doe and stood to defend his victory. He lost out eventually because of a build up of forces too much for any one person and Nigeria contributed to prolonging the strife as it were.

 

Taylor was indeed a man and still capable of taking the chances to fight on and further the carnage. But he decided to cooperate with Nigeria to bring about peace. In accepting exile or asylum in Nigeria he was wiser than Saddam Hussein. He is or was David (not Moses) for Liberia. We own it to him to give him his credits and to allow him rest and refuge as wells as protection from his prosecutors. And this is very Biblical. What is needed now for Liberia is a Solomon and prayers not to have an Absalom or Jerobaom there. And let no one forget that it is also a war crime to strike a fallen or a surrendered enemy.

 

Thanks.