By: Blamoh Nelson

Deliverying a lecture at the Ninth
Charles Gbenyon Memorial Lecture Series
Held Friday, June 18, 1993 — USIS Library, Monrovia, Liberia, Hon. Blamoh Nelson stated: “We are humbled by the kind statement of introduction, and so we thank you very much.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have been invited to speak on the topic: The Liberian Conflict: What Keeps it Going –
Prospects for a Lasting Solution. Let us caution that certain portions of our presentation might
appear provocative. But we should not be taken out of context or misconstrued. Sincerity is part
of the lasting solution. The tongue is obedient to the mind, which determines the deeds of the
hand. Hush not, therefore, the lips that speak, for the hand that moves can be more destructive.”

The Liberian conflict began when the founding fathers of the country, all free slaves from the United States of America, in their statement declaring independence, condemned the natives
— the indigenous from whom they had acquired the territory — as “heathens”.
And then, they proceeded to arrange the operation of the body-polity of the new nation, not on the principles of
virtues ordained by the commandments of the God they avowed, but on the influence of vices manifested by deceit, corruption, treachery, immorality, wickedness, and an imperial-servant
dependency philosophy. Liberia’s foundation as a nation is crocked – it is not straight!

The conflict is an effort aimed at replacing the old political establishment with a new order
based on majority rule. In other words, we are bickering over how to make the Liberian government accountable to the majority under the rule of law. This should not be difficult. We
should simply have a free and fair democratic election. But the conduct of free and fair elections pee-supposes the existence of a culture of respect for the fundamental principles of democratic
values.

At times one cannot, but be fascinated by the Biblical saying: “the tender mercy of a heathen is cruelty”. At other times, we wonder how interesting the observations of Rosa Luxembourg. She wrote that the ruling class will never give up its powers and privileges willingly.

She said that the ruling class will move heaven and hell to hang on. They will fight “tooth and nail” to preserve their holy of hollies. In the end, she concludes, the ruling class will put the people against each other, and would rather reduce the country into a smoking heap of ruins than to relinquish power completely. So, you see, there will be no free and fair democratic elections in Liberia until members of
the old order are convinced that the “natives”, sometimes labeled as the “aborigines”, will protect
everyone’s interest after the elections.
We will stop short of a long historical account of how it was made difficult to uproot the old
establishment. But we beg to make a few contemporary citations which should prove relevant to an understanding of the situation at hand.

The Liberia civil war is not the conflict; the killings and destruction of properties are all manifestations of the depth of the conflict. The level of greed, deceit and treachery in which we
find ourselves are rooted in the conflict.

In November, 1979, the True Whig Party (TWP), having held political sway for 110 years, convened its first open convention in the city of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County. To introduce
reform and make the Grand Old Party responsive to the demands of the time, the late William Richard Tolbert, Jr., then President of Liberia and Standard Bearer of the TWP, asked a team of
young Whiggers for a critical analysis of the Party’s future. George E. Saigbe Boley, who was reared by the Tolbert family, was a member of that Commission.
In reading their observations, Emmanuel L. Shaw, a senior executive officer at the Montserrado Group of Companies owned, in those days, by the Tolbert family, warned that, “…unless the True Whig Party made a fundamental change towards open politics, the Buchanan
Congress might prove to be its last…”.
Shortly thereafter, Elmer Glee Johnson, nephew to Counsellor Clarence L. Simpson, Jr., declared his intention to oppose the Counsellor, his own uncle, for the Secretary-General position
of the TWP. Young Johnson was warned that his dream was a novelty and a childish wish. Few days later, Elmer withdrew his intention.

Then Francis (Chu-Chu) Horton decided to run for the position of City Mayor of Monrovia
on the TWP ticket. He was challenged on an independent ticket, by his colleague, University of Liberia Political Science Associate Professor, Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer. Sawyer had the support of the students and general grassroots of the progressive wing of the political divide.

The True Whig Party panicked and, in order to prevent a non-party victory, invoked the infamous Property Clause of the then Elections Law. Sawyer challenged the Law. In response,
the TWP, outside of a court decision, announced cancellation of the elections. The Grand Old Party had failed to liberalize; on April 12, 1980, it was violently overthrown.

young Master Sergeant in the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), by the name of Samuel Kanyon Doe, announced that he had seized power. Master Sergeant Doe was of the Krahn ethnic group. As Chairman of the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) which had staged the coup, he
had assumed the position of Head of State and Commander–in-Chief of the AFL. Master Sergeant Doe then decreed that all political activities in the country should immediately cease.

On the same day that the TWP-led government was removed, the Masonic craft in Liberia was put asunder. But most importantly, the enlisted men of the Armed Forces of Liberia, almost
all of whom perceived themselves as “natives” of the country, took control of the command structure of the army. The coup-makers charged officials of the TWP government with high treason, rampant corruption, nepotism, misuse of public office, and gross abuse of human rights.

On the morning of the coup, Samuel Doe announced that “the government is overthrown until corruption stops”. Four years later, an operational expert team, OPEX, sent by the United States Government to straighten the Liberian Government, later concluded in its official report that never before had such a group of men, so young in age, so inexperienced and unfamiliar with
government and the opportunities it brings, seized power so completely. It was believed that, at the demise of the hegemony of the old establishment and the taking over of state power by the
“natives”, the political problem of Liberia had been resolved.
But soon after the overthrow, it became evident that corruption and excessive greed, deceit and hypocrisy, mingled with ignorance, cruelty and wickedness, were not unique tendencies of the old order. The “natives” that seized political power acted worse.

So, what keeps the conflict going? We have not yet found an acceptable replacement to the old order.
Less than a year after the overthrow of the government, the progressive activists who had clamored so much for socio-political and economic change began to openly exhibit their
differences. Their inner contradictions were sharpened by the disintegration of the TWP; an external “enemy” against whom they were perceived to be united. Meanwhile, the old older began
to slowly find its way back into the corridor of power.

Looking back then, Togbah-Nah Tipoteh wouldn’t join a delegation headed by Baccus Matthews; Matthews and his comrade, Dr. H. Boimah Fahnbulleh, Jr., wouldn’t speak to each other. Professor Amos Sawyer refused to support the idea of LPP and UPP forming a merger,
advising that we should not put all our eggs in one basket. Your humble servant could not exert himself to make a difference.

Then, Charles Taylor who was then in charge of the General Services Agency ran into complications with Head of State Samuel Doe. Madam Hawa Danqua tried to intrude the feminist
charm into the arena. She wanted to be President, but quickly abandoned the effort, realizing that, with too many children, the African scene was still a male-chauvinist world.

The Honorable E. Sumo Jones wanted to be President too. He organized the National
Integration Party (NIP). Teacher William Gabriel Kpolleh organized LUP (Liberia Unification Party). He also wanted to be President. And, while the “struggle” was intensifying, Professor Dew
Tuahn Wreh Mason who had taken over as head of the National Investment Commission, approved operation of a casino. It seemed he wanted everyone to calm down. Counsellor Winston
Tubman, reviewing the entire episode, declared: “it’s all mischief”. The next day, he Tubman, got on a plane and left the country. So, what became of the progressive struggle!

In the mid-1980s, an unusual political phenomenon obtained in the country. Some of the progressives on the radical left and some members of the Old Order on the extreme right of the political spectrum found common ground to move against Samuel Doe.

As the situation became very complex, Samuel Doe retreated to the Scheiefflin Military Barracks outside of Monrovia. There he convened the brass of the Armed Forces of the Country – both retired and active – and declared that he would be President. It was a simple trick: any
opposition to his declared desire would be treated as a move against the army; and who dare challenge the military.

By this time, elements of the old ruling class finally succeeded in forming an unholy alliance with those progressives who had become frustrated with the confusion – AH NYENPOH-NANNEH: SAYDE-SAYDE. (Kru adage: “if I cannot eat, you will not eat”).

On July 26, 1984, Head of State Doe conceded to demands for elections. He announced that the ban on political activities was lifted and that citizens were free to organize parties to
contest the elections that would take place in October the following year. Members of the left and right of the political scale were awakened and energized. Both sides splintered; their leaders were all consumed by individual political ambitions; each wanted to be President of Liberia. Many
political parties were organized so that each could challenge the other.
But, no sooner had political activities started, Head of State Doe banned the United People’s Party (UPP) and the Liberian People’s Party (LPP) and kicked them out of the process of returning Liberia to multi-party democratic civilian rule.

This was a fatal mistake on the part of Head of State Doe. Charles Taylor who by then had left the country on charges of corruption would mockingly conclude “…the ban on the two progressive groups was a mistake; if it were not
a mistake, then it is a mistake that it was not a mistake…” So, the conflict continues!

During the elections that took place on October 15, 1985, Samuel Doe, Head of State, Chairman of the People’s Redemption Council, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces ofLiberia was declared the winner. There were to be no further General and Presidential Elections in Liberia until 1991.
Howbeit, the integrity of the 1985 elections was so questionable that President Doe soon became the target of agitation by the re-energized progressive hardliners who felt betrayed and let-down and by the hopeful old establishment of the far right who wanted to regain “paradise
lost”. Mr. Doe became the “common enemy” of the two extremes.

It was a classic case of convergence of interest: removal of Samuel Doe from power. The enemies from the left and right of the Liberian political playing field had become unequally yoked.
They formed an unholy alliance for the removal of Samuel Doe from power. On November 12, 1985, Thomas G. Quiwonkpa, an estranged member of the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) and Commanding General of the AFL at the time of the PRC, led an attempt to overthrow his
former chief, Samuel Doe. The conflict kept on going.

On September 11, 1987, two years after the November 1985 brutal fiasco, Baccus
Matthews, Chairman of the UPP which by then, together with the LPP, had been legalized, smelled something ominous. Speaking before the Press Union of Liberia on behalf of the UPP, he warned that any change of national leadership outside the constitutional process would push the expected planned general elections far beyond 1991.

Matthews’ prophecy provoked the wrath of the confederates. For two months, the country stopped. Demonstrations were organized calling for Matthews and his followers to be punished for warning against what, apparently, had become a popular public expectation — removal of
Samuel Doe from power.

As tension between the social forces of the country heightened, Dr. Augustus F. Caine, Chairman of the then ruling National Democratic Party (NDPL), in early 1989, announced that he
had had a dream in which the forces of good and evil were about to clash in Liberia. Dr. Caine, explaining his dream in a public speech, called on all Liberians to repent. He predicted that an Armageddon was at hand in the country.

By the end of October 1989, efforts to bring about political negotiations were showing signs of hope. The opposition parties were having consultative meetings. It was a simple strategy:
first unify the opposition; and later, move the political process into a stage of bi-lateral talks between the ruling party on the one hand, with its privilege to state resources; and on the other hand, the unified opposition with its advantage of collective strength.
Recognizing the trend, President Doe, in October 1989, convened a meeting with leaders of all the political parties including those of his own, the National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL). He explained to them that, unless all the parties in the country worked together, theexpected 1991 general elections would be chaotic. Therefore, he, Doe, wanted the parties to work out “certain modalities”. The opposition leaders congratulated Mr. Doe for calling the
meeting and promised to get back to him within a week.

Two significant views developed as to how best to respond to President Doe’s proposition:
1. To hell with him! How dare he ask us to tolerate him further? What such nerves has this man. Why, does he think that we are spineless? We are not going back to him. He needs to be arrested and prosecuted. The chief proponent of this position was Cllr. J. Laveli Supuwood
of the Liberia Action Party.
2. Let us be men! Next week, as we have agreed, we should go back to President Samuel Doe and tell him to his face that he should forget about the second term in office. Since he had the guts to tell us how he felt directly, we, equally, should want him to know honestly that we
will unite, oppose and defeat him in the pending general elections. Doe should be told to simply commit himself to a free, fair and open democratic process. Mr. Alphonso Kawah of the Untied People’s Party was pushing this view.

The opposition could not agree on a unified position; so, the conflict continues.Those who insisted on dialogue and negotiation with Samuel Doe and his NDPL were branded as “double standard politicians; gravy-seekers”, who were prolonging the suffering of the
Liberian people for their own selfish gains. At the end of it all, the opposition did not meet Samuel
Doe as promised.

The extreme left and right became more resolved: Doe has to be forced out of office. He does not understand politics. Catholic Archbishop Michael Kpakala Francis who had tried desperately to bring reasoning and ethics to bear on the dialogue would later declare in an
interview with a local journalist that “Samuel Doe’s Episcopacy is faulty in term of his Ecclesiastical
Sacramentality”.

The limits of tolerance had been exceeded! The conflict continued.
On Friday, November 17, 1989, a meeting took place on the plantation of the Liberia Agriculture Company (LAC). Located in Grand Bassa County. At that meeting, it was decided that
everything should be done quickly to prevent a possible political conclusion of the Liberian conflict, since such a conclusion could give Samuel Doe a second term and, thereby, provide time for consolidation of a new unintended political hegemony of the “aborigines” in the body politics of Liberia, a reality which would forever relegate the old establishment to history.
Several weeks before December 1989, Chief Jerry Gonyor of Nimba County raised alarm that he was not too pleased about the kinds of movements taking place around him. Chief Gonyor ran to Monrovia to inform the central government authorities. President Doe commissioned a teamof senior government investigators, led by the then Minister of Internal Affairs, the Honorable
Edward Komo Sackor, to go to Nimba and find out why Chief Gonyor had panicked.
The team returned to Monrovia and reported that all was calm in the central province and that the people were only implementing the Green Revolution. Chief Gonyor was, therefore, jailed for lying. But indeed, as it is said, truth crushed to the earth shall rise again. On December 24, 1989, war broke out in Butou, not too far from Chief Gonyor’s house. A group of armed Liberians calling themselves the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) under the leadership of Charles
Taylor entered the town of Butou, Nimba County, from the Ivory Coast and triggered what later would become one of the most brutal civil wars the world has ever known. The Liberian political
confusion had turned into a ferocious military struggle.

During the last week of June, 1990, leaders of all the political parties in Liberia, including the ruling NDPL, representatives of interest groups and the Interfaith Mediation Committee, along with delegations of the rebel group, NPFL, met in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

The American Ambassador in Sierra Leone hosted the meeting. At the close of the meeting, the participants issued an affirmation that the administration of the NDPL, led by Samuel Doe, was in no position to continue providing political leadership for Liberia. They asked for ECOWAS’s intervention.

On July 2, 1990, six months after the war started, fighting reached the capital city, Monrovia; civil authority finally crumbled. Anarchy became the order of the day.

Emmanuel Z. Bowier, who attended the Freetown conference as Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, and also as one of the principal spokespersons for the Doe regime,
delivered a message to his boss, President Samuel Doe, that he, Doe, should resign – a military
solution to the conflict in his favor was not possible.

The Freetown conclave became the first instance in Liberian history, when leaders of the
country from all walks of life – tribe, faith and civil advocacy – met around one table, consulted upon the common good, and concluded that the national conflict should be resolved through
dialogue and negotiation, taking into account vested political and economic interests, the creed of the Christians and Muslims, and the position of the rich and the poor.Yes, they had agreed that a new government of national unity should be formed led by the rebel group, NPFL of Charles Taylor, provided that the national security arrangement would
temporarily be in the hands of a multi-national peace-keeping force from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Mr. Taylor rejected the condition. He insisted that his NPFL would be in charge of security.
As efforts to end the war began focusing on the conclusion of the Freetown meeting, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a prominent Liberian who had earlier, in the war, contributed money to
support the NPFL, announced that, as far as she was concerned, no government would come to power in Liberia after Samuel Doe on the back of the NPFL.

So, the conflict continues!
On July 8, 1990, few days after the Freetown meeting, another consultation was held in the office of Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Washington D.C., USA. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Elwood Dunn, former Minister for Presidential Affairs in the Tolbert Administration. Present, among others, were Dr. Marcus S.G. Dahn and Mr. D. Karn Carlor for UPP; Dr. Amos Sawyer, and Mr. Dusty Wolokolie for LPP; Mr. Harry A. Greaves for LAP (Liberia Action Party); and others.

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf, Messrs Jonathan Reffell, and Randolph Cooper, all representing the NPFL at the meeting, refused to put their signatures on the conclusion.They gave three reasons:
1. The use of foreign troops in the Liberian conflict was a violation of, and an infringement upon,
the sovereignty and integrity of Liberia;
2. Whoever heads the interim government should not be excluded from the pending elections; and
3. Whatever the situation, the NPFL was poised to take over Monrovia and complete its declared
mission – removal of Samuel Doe from power.

On July 9, 1990, Battle Group Commander Prince Yedou Johnson heading the
Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) seized the western part of the City of Monrovia, Bushrod Island, where the national sea port, the electric power plant, and many major industries were located.

On July 26, 1990, Charles Taylor seized the ELWA radio station in Paynesville on the outskirt of Monrovia and declared himself President of Liberia. In his announcement, Mr. Taylor instructed his armed forces to disregard the writ of habeas corpus. The next day, July 27, 1990, on the order of President Doe, the AFL bombed and silenced the ELWA and ELBC radio stations.

On August 16, 1990, there was a change of heart: Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf and Mr. Randolph Cooper joined fourteen other Liberians in the Diaspora who were still holding on to the Freetown conclusion by adding their signatures to a letter addressed to leaders of ECOWAS. In the letter, they declared support for deployment of the multi-national peace-keeping force and establishment
of an Interim Government of National unity (IGNU).

Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf and the others who had earlier opposed the idea, now agreed that the IGNU should be established but not headed by any leader of a warring faction; and that whoever heads the IGNU should not be allowed to participate in the general elections that would follow.

Bingo; end of the conflict? Nope; the conflict continues!

To establish the IGNU, representatives of the Doe government, the various political parties, the Interfaith Mediation Committee, and host of Liberian civil society organizations,
convened An All-Liberian Conference under the auspices of ECOWAS. Mr. Taylor was invited; the meeting waited for two days for his arrival; he did not show up. Under the Chairmanship of
the Inter-Faith Mediation Committee, the meeting went ahead. Professor Dr. Amos Sawyer and Lutheran Bishop Ronald J. Diggs were respectively elected Interim President and Interim Vice President of the IGNU.

Mr. Taylor rejected Dr. Sawyer and Bishop Diggs because, he said, the meeting at which they were selected was not held on Liberian soil – it was not sovereign. Taylor demanded that another meeting be held in the City of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, Republic of Liberia.
While the idea of another All-Liberian Conference on Liberian soil was being planned, Prince Johnson captured President Samuel Doe, cut off his ears, and killed him; bringing to an end the first Government of the “natives”. But strangely, Field Marshall Prince Johnson did not declare himself as Head of State, insisting that “…the guns that liberate must not rule…” So, the conflict continues!

On advice of the multinational peace-keeping force (ECOMOG), a second All Liberia National Conference was held at the Unity Conference Center in Virginia, Montserrado County. It was attended by delegates from the NPFL, INPFL, AFL, the Interfaith Mediation Committee, all
the political parties, and civil society organizations. Bishop Ronald J. Diggs withdrew from the position of Vice President of IGNU and Dr. Peter Naigow was given the position based on a
recommendation from INPFL leader Prince Johnson.

Again, Mr. Taylor refused to accept Dr. Sawyer as a suitable replacement to General Samuel Doe as Head of State. He insisted that he, Taylor, would make a more capable successor, especially considering the military condition of the country.

Liberia was then divided between Sawyer and Taylor. So, the conflict continues.
Now let us discuss the prospects for a lasting solution:
The civil war has rendered our country ungovernable.We have defined the Liberian conflict as an effort aimed at changing the ruling class and
making public officials fully accountable to the people. We have tried to show that the conflict is being sustained by our inability to recognize two basic truths relative to socio-political change:
1. It is very difficult to achieve the total replacement of a ruling class; and
2. Where vested interest is not clear, the quest for political power is often reduced to ruthless personality conflicts.

The Liberian conflict has assumed two dimensions: the military and the political.

ECOWAS, with support from the larger international community, has taken responsibility for resolving the military confusion. Now, to bring about a lasting solution to the political aspect, the following steps should be taken:
First: The ECOWAS peace-keeping force, ECOMOG, should be re-enforced. Its capacity should be sufficiently obvious so as to stimulate the warring factions into disarmament and, eventually,
into a political mode; and

Second: In the event of disarmament, a meeting of faces and voices of the socio-political configuration of the country — the old order, the natives, the Inter-Religious Council, the interest groups and the warring factions should be convened by ECOWAS.
It is at this meeting that members of the old establishment, the natives, the factions, the religious groups, and all other interest groups will be brought together, eye-ball-to-eye-ball, no
tricks, no pretense, to consult upon the common good of the nation and its people; to agree on the philosophical and moral premise upon which the new foundation for the conduct of the body-
politic of Liberia should rest: on the strength of self-esteem, pride, dignity and honor; inclusion, tolerance and respect for expression and practice of faith; honesty and integrity as guiding
principles for public and private life; justice and fairness under the rule of law; respect for personal liberty and freedom that should never be enjoined by earthly forces; the right for each person to have, protect and enjoy life as nature bequeaths; and adherence to the principles of democratic
values.

My fellow compatriots; Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Liberia’s best prospect for a lasting solution to the ongoing national conflict.

After the national leadership meeting, we could all begin the process of organizing a nice little government which should be able to maintain law and order as we constructively work
together, getting married to the princes and princesses as our individual eyes will behold, having little children who, in time, will be proud of their ancestors, and of course, watching ourselves grow rich, old and wise.
This is our honest assessment of the Liberian situation. Thank you.