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ON THE SECOND INVOLVEMENT IN LIBERIA By ADVANCING DEMOCRACY in AFRICA (ADA) PO BOX 532, SOMERVILLE, MA 02143.
PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO ASO ROCK ABUJA NIGERIA
Your Excellency:
GOAL OF NIGERIA SHOULD BE A COMPREHENSIVE SETTLEMENT FOR ALL LIBERIANS. This is an open letter to the President of Nigeria as he contemplates the second involvement of the Nigerian troops to Liberia. Getting involved in the Liberian crisis is the right thing to do and it is in the nations’ security interest. For the first time it was as a military regime and Nigeria was selling what it did not know and did not have at home. This second time, Nigeria is a democracy and the goal should be different hence I am imploring Mr. President to ensure the following: 1. That under your leadership, Peace for All Liberians should be the "Nigerian Irreducible Minimum" for participation in the international operation in Liberia. 2. That it should not be an opportunity for the military officers as they did in the past to amass wealth and leave the people of Liberia in the lurch. 3. That all those involved in the international community would have to agree on the notion of a Comprehensive Peace Settlement for Liberia. 4. That there should be a fundamental redefinition of the mission that would not be a continuation or a reenactment of the failed mission that eventually ended with the so-called rebel leader Charles Taylor who killed many Nigerians in the past and frustrated the goal of the Nigerian military intervention. 5. That the Nigerian involvement in Liberia should not be a Monrovia based operation committed to the protection of the State House bound government of Liberia in Monrovia from being overrun by the insurgent groups. 6. That Nigeria must avoid the irony, in fact the tragic irony of the past whereby the Nigerian military regimes got involved in that crisis in the 1990s and were selling what they did not have at home. 7. That Nigeria must be clear in its mission and not be faced with the situation where Nigeria in the past had to live with Charles Taylor who prided himself with number of Nigerians he killed and how he frustrated the goal of Nigerian military regimes. 8. That Nigeria being now a democracy should only sell what she promotes at home. 9. That consequently Nigeria should have a VISION of Peace that a democratic Nigeria should from now on promote and enforce in the sub-region or in the African continent.
GOAL OF INVOLVEMENT IS COMPREHENSIVE SETTLEMENT Mr. President, the Nigerian goal should be the kind of peace, which takes into account the interests of all the people of Liberia. All the interests we are talking about should include the rump of the government based in Monrovia; the insurgent armies that had been fighting the various corrupt regimes in Monrovia since 1980s; The teeming millions who are affected by the many years of military operations since 1980s, the children and women. the displaced persons and refugees; Those driven into exile. The social and physical infrastructure.
Mr. President, the people of Liberia have had enough; they would wish that some one would bring about the kind of settlement, which takes into account the issues that led to the insurgency since 1980s Mr. President, for the interest of clarity, one should state what the settlement is not: It is not about the defense of the ‘government’ of Charles Taylor in Monrovia; It is not about the search and capture of the ‘rebel leaders’; It is not about taking possession of the diamond, which successive regimes since independence had always used for the interest of the elite; It is not about asking military troops from Africa and Asia to die in the jungle of Liberia enforcing non-existent peace.; and It is not about asking the Nigerian troops leading the ECOMOG to do what they did in Liberia and in Sierra Leone in the past.
INITIAL OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME Mr. President, the current effort of the ECOMOG in Liberia should and must be aimed at overcoming three problems: It must overcome some misconceptions about the nature of the insurgency; how it originated and the issues in it; It must harmonize the conflict of orientation among the West African players on the one hand and among the players in the international community, such as the US, EU and UN on the other; and It must overcome the misconceptions about the character of the regime in place in Monrovia to which all groups in the insurgency must be reconciled.
NATURE OF THE PROBLEM: LIBERIA IS "A COLLAPSED STATE" Mr. President, accept and drum on your colleagues the following facts of the nature of the problem: That LIBERIA is not a democracy, as we know it. This is the assumption of Charles Taylor who continues to take himself as the legitimate government of Liberia elected by the Liberian people in a free and fair election. That the so-called government of Charles Taylor in Monrovia has no independent means of surviving on its own; That the government in Monrovia cannot boast of being a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Its basis of legitimacy is in dispute; That the government in Monrovia is not based on the will of the Liberian people. That the people and groups excluded from the government based in Monrovia control well over 70% of the land mass. There is a territorial dimension to the mandate enjoyed by the government in Monrovia.
Mr. President, accept and drum on your colleagues to accept that the government in Monrovia had collapsed. Monrovia is not Liberia. Even the Monrovia will be taken over if the various insurgent groups were to continue their march to the city. Liberia is a classical case of a COLLAPSED STATE. It is not a failed state as some would want to call it. In a collapsed State there is no peace to keep. But in a failed state there might still be a peace to keep.
Mr. President, if you accept this point of view, the kind of peacekeeping in a state that has collapsed is different from peacekeeping in a state with minor crisis or a state that is failing. There is no peace to keep yet in Liberia and there would never be peace to keep until the issues in the insurgency are put on the table and addressed and resolved.
NEW APPROACH TO DEALING WITH COLLAPSED STATES Mr. President, the international community should on this second time adopt a new approach to deal with the Liberian protracted crisis. Consequently the following should be the rules: Avail yourself of the precedents of such a comprehensive settlement in Cambodia and Mozambique and recently in East Timor. These were collapsed states just as Liberia; the resolution of the crisis in Liberia should take identical form as in Cambodia and Mozambique in the past and recently in East Timor. Demand from the international community especially from the US that Liberia should NOT be landed with a cheap peace settlement? Nigeria and ECOWAS countries cannot fund this venture from their resources. They should not pretend that they could start. In the end it will not be peace and it will not be settlement. Mr. President, there is a model with a budget and funding mechanism that could be used in the comprehensive settlement in Cambodia and Mozambique. Do not send Nigerian troops to Liberia until the cost and who would bear the cost shall have been resolved. Mr. President this is an opportunity for you to take leadership within the ECOWAS to initiate a fundamental reassessment of the Crisis of State in Africa, with the hope of redesigning some of the STATES in Africa. This is an area where Mr. President could make a difference in Africa today. Merely sending Nigerian troops on a mission devoid of the goal for the mission and an exit strategy is not only disastrous for the people of Nigeria, it is an unmitigated calamity for the people of Liberia that Nigeria is trying to help. Mr. President, under your leadership ECOMOG would be able to undertake a fundamental restructuring of Liberia and push for a new action plan. This is what in the US they call "nation-building". This is usually beyond the military. Mr. President should get many Nigerian professionals involved to tackle different facets and phases of the Liberian reconstruction.
TRANSITIONAL AUTHORITY Mr. President, there is a need to set up a Transitional Authority that will undertake five functions: 1. Military; 2. Political; 3. Administrative; 4. Humanitarian; and 5. Economic.
All these will cover the gamut from the enforcement of ceasefire to the installation of a democratic government for the people of Liberia. The details of these five aspects of the Comprehensive Settlement can be gleaned from the documents on Cambodian and Mozambique.
Mr. President, nation-building is not a military operation. Beside No. 1 above that would require the military under a civilian supervision, Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 should be handled by civilian experts and professionals. There are many retired professionals in Nigerian and among Nigerians in Diaspora from which you could draw. Many starting with yours truly Omo Omoruyi would volunteer services for the sake of Africa. There are many Liberians abroad to participate if the atmosphere is ripe and right. There is no need asking the US to send their sons and daughters to go Liberia where there are enough Africans to do the job.
Mr. President, the decision to send troops to Liberia is the right thing to do and Nigerians should support your action. But it must be done if and only if such an involvement would lead to an immediate comprehensive settlement for ALL GROUPS and not more humanitarian miseries from more troops. This is the right thing to do and it is in the Nigerian’s security interest.
COMMITMENT OF NIGERIA UNDER HUMAN RIGHTS LAW As to what should happen to Charles Taylor arising from his indictment, those who are raising question about President Obasanjo’s decision to grant Charles Taylor asylum are missing the point. Did these people know that Charles Taylor killed many Nigerians that were never mentioned? President Obasanjo knows that when he took the decision to offer him a political asylum in Nigeria. President Obasanjo’s view is that Taylor’s human rights violation should not take precedence over the immediate humanitarian crisis in Liberia that calls for an overall immediate Comprehensive Peace Settlement in Liberia. Mr. President you are on the right track.
President Obasanjo knows of Nigeria’s commitment under the relevant human rights law to which she is a party. There is no doubt that he will make sure that Nigeria, as a democracy will live in accordance with those laws.
Those who breach human rights laws can face the relevant tribunal anytime. Right now, there is an overriding consideration to save the lives of the Liberian people and corporate existence of the Liberian State that should be beyond preoccupation with how to deal with Charles Taylor. That is and should be the immediate commitment of the international community and not on when where and how Charles Taylor would be arrested and tried. This can wait. But the human miseries in Liberia cannot wait.
Mr. President you are doing the right thing; I support you. May I volunteer to design a plan for the political reconstruction of Liberia?
I wish Mr. President a successful show of leadership and courage in taking the right decision.
July 2003
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