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"AU leaders had an agreement that
facilitated peace in Liberia. It's
shameful
how Obasanjo threw Charles Taylor under
the bus after pressure from the
Europeans and America (not a signatory
to the so-called UN court). For four
years Iraq went through a wave of brutal
ethnic cleansing, I don't see the UN
Court going after the Iraqi Cleric,
Muqtada al-Sadr and Co. as well as those
brutal Afghan tribal war lords; all of
whom the US States Department and other
foreign powers struck deals. I believe
African leaders need to grow more
"spine", there will be more ridiculous
demands by western countries and the UN
to change some part of our constitution
in a few years."-- Yele Odofin-Belo.
In many respects Mr Yele Odofin-Belo is
absolutely right. This was the betrayal
of the century and, in my view, those
that should have known better panicked
at
the last minute and broke ranks. But I
do not believe that Obasanjo was amongst
those that betrayed anybody. To be fair
to President Olusegun Obasanjo he was
infact the last man standing and he
resisted the pressure until it all came
to a
head during a state visit to America
when George W. Bush refused to see him
until Taylor was produced. Ironically
the real traitor was not Obasanjo but
rather President Sirlief-Johnson of
Liberia. The agreement withTaylor was
put in
place before she was elected but she was
fully aware of it it's terms from day
one. She was actually the American and
Nigerian candidate for that election and
she worked very closely indeed with the
Americans, Obansanjo and Nigeria before
she was elected to power. She was always
at the Villa in Abuja in those days and
I think that she was one of those people
that used to work for the World Bank
before she came home for the elections.
The deal was simple and clear and the
terms were as follows.Taylor would be
persuaded to step down as President of
Liberia by the ECOWAS leaders and the
African Union and he was to be given a
safe-haven in Nigeria after doing so. He
would not be harassed, he would not
face prosecution in Liberia, Sierra
Leonne or at the International Court at
the
Hague andNigeria would not be pressured
or harassed by anyone to extradite him
anywhere. On his part Taylor was
expected to live quietly in Calabar with
his
relatives, under the direct supervision
and care of Donald Duke, the then
Governor of Cross Rivers state and he
was to stay out of Liberian politics and
not in anyway interfere with what was
going on over there. All went according
to
plan and once the African Union endorsed
the whole thing no less than around 7
African Heads of State, including
Kuffour of Ghana and Obasanjo himself,
went to
Liberia and physically accompanied
Taylor back to Nigeria and to what was
to be
his new home and final point of
destination for many years and possibly
the rest
of his life. As a consequence of this
concession and sacrifice which was made
by
Taylor the civil war in Liberia came to
an immediate end, peace returned to the
land and eventually a free and fair
election was conducted in which Mrs.
Johnson
Sirlief emerged as the new President as
had been planned all along. However
after the lady came to power everything
changed. She ditched Obansanjo
and Nigeria, turned her back on the
ECOWAS leaders and the African Union and
she
became even closer to Bush and the
Americans.
This was a great irony because Nigerian
troops were dying in Liberia for many
years in an attempt to bring peace to
that country whilst the American
soldiers
were watching the fighting from their
ships just off the Liberian coast. I
know
this because I went there and visited
our soldiers with President Obasanjo
during the course of the bitter
fighting. Anyway Johnson Sirlief forgot
all that
and she started to talk only to the
Americans. And of course the Americans
wanted Taylor's blood and his head on a
plate. At the end of it
all, and as is usually the case with
such matters, everything boiled down to
money. Johnson needed financial support,
aid, grants, loans and funding from the
international monetary institutions and
from theUnited States directly for her
small country and obviously she needed
American support to get this. The
Americans gave her one condition before
any help could come her way.....She was
to formally ask for Charles Taylor to be
returned to Liberia by Nigeria in order
to face allegations of genocide and
funding the brutal civil war in Sierra
Leone
at the International Criminal Court at
the Hague. Yes the Americans did a
complete u-turn, broke their word,
violated the previous agreement and
sought to
turn all the African leaders that had
guaranteed it, including Nigeria, into a
bunch of unreliable and spineless liars.
And sadly the lady called President
Johnson Sirlief, played along with the
Americans, capitulated and did precisely
what they wanted to the utter shock and
chagrin of virtually every African
leader of that day and in total
violation of the agreement and
understanding
that had been originally entered into by
all the parties concerned and by all
the major players including the
Americans. After the formal request was
made to
Nigeria by Liberia, America now picked
up the gauntlet and turned on Obasanjo
compelling and threatening us in
initially very subtle and eventually
very
direct tones and ways. The message was
simple and clear. We were to
release Taylor and send him back to
Liberia or Nigeria was to be brought to
her
knees. President Obasanjo stood firm and
resisted their threats for a very long
time and took the matter to the other
ECOWAS leaders and the AU who of course
supported us wholeheartedly because they
had been privy to and were indeed part
of the original agreement and
understanding that had been established
between
all the relevant parties and
stakeholders.
After this there was a long stalemate
and eventually the whole matter turned a
little nasty and became the subject of a
loud and acrimonious spat between our
government and the administration of
President George W. Bush. And of course
I
was deeply involved in that public spat
as Presidential spokesperson. Things
eventually came to a head when Obasanjo
went on a state visit to America and a
final demand was made for Taylor.
President Obasanjo's argument, and it
was a
good one, was that no-one or no country
would ever believe, trust or
take Nigeria seriously again if we
breached our word to Taylor and that
this is
not a Nigerian position but rather it is
an African Union position. The old man
fought the matter out long and hard and
I assure you he did his very best. When
the pressure got too much and President
Johnson-Sirlief made a final and public
demand for Taylor to be returned to
Liberia by Nigeria, Obasanjo ordered
that he
should be dropped at some border post
and allowed to go wherever he wanted
rather than for us to formally hand him
over to anyone. He was on a state visit
in America at the time and when it was
announced to the world that Taylor had
suddenly disappeared from the face of
the earth and was no longer with the
Nigerians all hell broke loose and
everyone panicked. It was at that point
that
George W.Bush pointblank refused to see
Obasanjo whilst he remained
in Washington unless and until Taylor
was traced, found and handed over to the
Liberians. Now I believe that this is
where President Obasanjo may have made a
mistake.
In my view he should have stood his
ground, left America immediately and
told
them all, including George W. Bush, to
go to hell especially since at that
point
and by that time we were engaged in a
full-scale verbal war on the
international
airwaves with the White House and the
American government over this issue. Our
hand was quite strong then because
virtually the whole of Africa was fully
behind us with, of course, the exception
of President Johnson-Sirlief who in my
humble opinion was nothing but an
ingrate and an American puppet. Anyway
all of
a sudden, and very mysteriously, Taylor
resurfaced, was arrested and was handed
over to the Liberians who I believe flew
him to either Liberia or Sierra Leone,
from where he was promptly and
immediately flown to the International
Court of
Criminal Justice at The Hague in
theNetherlands to face charges of
genocide and
crimes against humanity. The greatest
irony of all of this is that the nation
of
America herself, who fought for and
orchestrated all of this, is NOT a
signatory
to that Court and therefore no former or
serving American President, leader,
citizen or even soldier can ever be
brought before it to face any charges of
crimes against humanity. That tells you
just how unfair and ridiculous the whole
world system is. My position is that if
you want to try the likes of President
Charles Taylor for committing atrocities
that is fine and by all means go ahead.
However it is only right and proper for
you to then do the same to all the
living American and western leaders who
have also done the same thing in various
parts of the world. This is especially
so given the fact that they, more than
any other set of leaders in the history
of mankind, have been responsible for
the most barbarous crimes against
humanity that have ever been committed.
The
law is surely no respecter of persons.
After all it was not an African leader
that dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki
and Hiroshima, with its attendant and
horrific consequences, after the Second
World War. It was not an African leader
that committed terrible atrocities in
Iraq by slaughtering hundreds of
thousands
of defenceless Iraqi women and children
when bombing Baghdad, all in the name of
regime change and the prosecution of an
illegal and barbarous war. It was not an
African leader that killed the
defenceless Arab women and children of
Sabra and
Chatilla in Southern Lebanon just a
couple of decades ago. It was not an
African
leader that enslaved a whole continent
and pillaged it's resources and sold
it's
people into slavery for hundreds of
years. I could go on and on. I have said
this earlier and I repeat it here today,
unless and until I see Tony Blair and
George W. Bush being prosecuted by that
same court at the Hague for their own
undeniable and irrefutable acts of
genocide and crimes against humanity, I
cannot in any way be impressed with what
they are doing to Charles Taylor or
anyone else there.
And to make matters worse such is their
utter desperation that they have now
dragged super- model Naomi Campbell into
the whole fray in a rather futile and
childish attempt to confirm their sordid
perceptions of the classical and
stereotypical African dictator and
warlord who they allege gave "blood
diamonds"
to a beautiful British model that he
couldn't resist at President Mandela's
dinner. This is indeed the stuff of
which bestsellers and blockbuster films
are
made. Now the whole thing has backfired
on them and blown up in their faces
because Naomi Campbell, quite rightly
and courageously, has not allowed
herself
to be used for such a sordid venture and
exercise. She has refused to play the
game according to their script. For
that, I thank God. I watched Charles
Taylor
closely in the dock and I wondered if he
would ever get the chance to tell his
story to the world. I thought perhaps he
shouldn't even bother with presenting a
defence for himself against these
terrible charges that have been made
against
him in court. I thought perhaps he
should just spend his last few years in
solitary confinement writing a book for
posterity and tell the world his own
version of events. I say this because
the outcome of this so-called "trial"
has
already been determined by international
public opinion and the world powers
that be, who of course see themselves as
being above that same law. In my
candid view Charles Taylor will
definitely be convicted for crimes
against
humanity and his powerful enemies will
have their pound of flesh. But that may
not be the end of the story . As a
matter of fact it may just be the
beginning.
He was looking dejected, lonely, old and
grey in that Court on yesterday
(Thursday 5th of August, 2010) and as I
looked at him the only words that came
to my mind and spirit were: "There sits
a man betrayed ". My view? A pox on
all their houses, for we live in a truly
treacherous world.
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