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New York, USA – United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres has lauded Nigeria ex-President, Olusegun Obasanjo, for his mediation role in brokering a peaceful transition in Liberia.
The swearing into office of George Weah on 22 January 2018, as Liberia’s 24th president, following elections late the previous year, ended a deadlock of a peaceful and democratic transition of power since 1944, with a rather grim fate of four of the country’s past presidents since 1971, either dying in office or being sent into exile.
In his latest statement to the Security Council’s debate on the ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Mediation and the Peaceful Resolution of Conflicts’ at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday, Mr. Guterres expressed gratitude to Mr. Obsanjo, for his role in Liberia’s first peaceful transfer of democratic power since more than 70 years ago.
“I am also grateful to former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a member of the Board, who traveled to Liberia on my behalf to support the peaceful transfer of power after the 2017 elections, said the UN chief, who disclosed that as a way of complementing his efforts and those of his envoys, he has established a High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation, of which former Nigerian president Obasanjo is a member.
Mr. Obasanjo was also a designated UN envoy who has overseen various democratic elections across the continent and is particularly renowned for his activities in the peace process of West African countries Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In December 2017, following Liberia’s presidential runoff election between forerunners, current president Weah and former Vice-President Joseph Boakai, Mr. Guterres dispatched ex-president Obasanjo to the country to support the process leading up to its first peaceful transfer of democratic power within decades.
Former president Obasanjo has previously been involved in mediation efforts in Angola, Burundi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa, among others, according to UN News.
The former Nigerian leader along with 17 other global leaders, senior officials, and experts that make up the UN high-level board created in early 2017 to advise the Secretary-General on mediation and back those efforts around the world.
The Board is part of Secretary-General Guterres’ pledge for the UN to embark on a surge in diplomacy for peace.
“This is just one example of how we can deploy Board members in the cause of conflict prevention,” said Guterres, adding, that his Advisory Board members have experience and networks across the entire spectrum of mediation.
He continued: “I look to them to provide tailored advice, to find new entry points, and to help train and build capacity amongst our partners”.
The UN has a number of mediation resources that are deployed in various ways, he said, indicating that his special envoys and representatives pursue consultations, good offices, and formal talks, often alongside envoys and mediators from regional organizations or the Member States.
The UN chief said successful mediation and the peaceful settlement of disputes required a deep understanding of leaders and their constituencies and strong political will.
“War is becoming increasingly complex – and so is mediating peace. Today, internal conflicts frequently take on regional and transnational dimensions,” he emphasized, adding, “Many feature a deadly mix of fragmented armed groups and political interests, funded by criminal activities.”
He noted: “Conflicts around the world drag on for years and decades, holding back development and stunting opportunities,” pointing out that “Comprehensive peace agreements are becoming more elusive and short-lived, as political will wanes and international attention drifts.”
Howbeit, he stressed that as bad as the situation is in many parts of the world, he is optimistic that it was still within the power of world leaders and global actors to tackle and reverse these trends.
“Finally, we should invest in the mediation and conciliation opportunities offered by information technology. We are all aware of the role social media can play in exacerbating divisions and provoking hostility, he said, adding, “But social platforms can also be a tool to bring communities together, stimulate dialogue, share information and heal historic wrongs.”
‘Obasanjo and Liberia’
The name Olusegun Obasanjo is not strange in Liberia, as far as the country’s decade-plus civil war and its resolution are concerned.
In August 2003, following the brokering of a peace deal that called for jailed former president Charles Taylor to relinquish power and go into exile in Nigeria, then president of Nigeria, Obasanjo offered asylum to Taylor which brought about some measure of peace to Liberia, although the former president had to endure some harsh criticisms that came from both home in Nigeria and from abroad in parts of the international community.
At the time, the first step towards restoring peace in Liberia and West Africa was to remove from Liberia Taylor, who was accused of aiding and abetting rebels led by Foday Sankoh in neighboring Sierra Leone to destabilize the West Africa sub-region.
Taylor and his government mostly controlling the capital, Monrovia, was also being confronted in heavy gun battles by two different rebel groups who had seized about two-thirds of Liberia.
Although Obasanjo’s critics fell short of acknowledging the accuracy of his vision regarding awarding Taylor asylum, he was able to balance the different interests at play to ensure that peace was restored to Liberia and the West Africa sub-region and at the same time that Taylor did not go unpunished for his actions.
Nigeria, under Obasanjo, delivered on all fronts on the Taylor issue without the country compromising her national integrity, with observers expressing that the former Nigerian president’s personality and leadership traits came handy in resolving Taylor’s saga.
Obasanjo’s personal diplomacy ensured the successful termination of the Liberian war and by extension the Sierra-Leonean war.
While on a state visit to the U.S. in 2009, President Obasanjo was reportedly denied access to former president Bush apparently due to reports that Taylor, who was offered asylum in Nigeria, had gone missing.
But by the time of Taylor’s arrest within less than 24 hours, which Nigerian security forces said took place while the former Liberian president was trying to cross the border into Cameroon, Obasanjo and Bush sat down for talks.
Obasanjo arrived in Washington Tuesday evening, Taylor reportedly went missing the same day. By the time the Nigerian leader met with President Bush the following morning, everything had changed.
Taylor’s disappearance was dramatic and relatively brief. Less than a day after he disappeared from his sanctuary in Port Harcourt in Nigeria, he was captured trying to cross the border into Cameroon, according to Nigerian police who say the former Liberian leader was picked up in a vehicle with diplomatic license plates and bags of cash.
Obasanjo reacting to Taylor arrest at the time, termed same as “divine intervention,” informing reporters as he concluded talks with Bush, that at that very moment a plane carrying Taylor was about to land on Liberian soil.
The newly elected president of Liberia, at the time, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had earlier requested Nigeria to extradite Taylor, a request Obasanjo agreed to. President Bush, who met with Sirleaf week before she requested Taylor’s extradition, told the ex-president of Nigeria he was pleased that Taylor would face justice.
‘Obasanjo gets Liberia’s highest honor’
In August 2017, just at the point when former President Sirleaf’s tenure was fading away, she conferred on Obasanjo her country’s highest honor, the “Most Venerable Order of the Knighthood of the Pioneer with the Grade Grand Condon of the Republic of Liberia.”
Sirleaf, who presided over the ceremony as Grand Master of the Orders of Distinctions, admitted the former Nigerian president into the Most Venerable Order of the Knighthood of the Pioneer with the Grade Grand Condon of the Republic of Liberia at a special investiture ceremony in the capital, Monrovia.
“Baba, thank you so much for accepting Liberia’s request to honor you; We cannot let you go without saying thank you; Your services to Africa, the sub-region and Liberia has been exceptional,” Sirleaf noted at the time.
‘Obasanjo farms in Liberia’
Five years ago, Obasanjo inaugurated a 125-acre farm in Liberia’s western Grand Cape Mount County, as an expansion of his farming business under the brand name Obasanjo Holdings Limited.
At the time of its opening, the farm, according to top Agriculture Ministry officials, would provide job opportunities for some 30,000 Liberians.
Obasanjo Holdings Limited Group Manager, Daniel Atsu disclosed during the opening program attended by scores of officials of government, including former president Sirleaf, that the farm was set up in anticipation of the adverse effects of global warming and climate change on poultry production in tropical Africa, adding that such anticipation informed the decision of the former president of Nigeria to develop African poultry breeds which could thrive in hot and humid environment.
