The Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frederick Cherue and the Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Foreign Service Institute (FSI) have acknowledged the role played by the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in bringing peace to Liberia.

They both spoke Friday evening, June 7, at a dinner tendered by Justice Minister Cherue for the visiting delegation from the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), Abuja, who were on a 10-day study tour.

According to a Foreign Ministry release, Justice Minister Cherue said Liberians have always shown gratitude to the Nigerians. “When you come from Nigeria to Liberia, Liberians have always shown gratitude to Nigerians looking at the history of the past and the present,” he said, adding, “In 1990, your country sent soldiers here to stop us from killing ourselves; following the soldiers were doctors, later volunteered teachers came to help re-boost our educational system. This kind of help is not likely to be forgotten by us. These are some of the things your country has done and continues to do for us. We can’t pay you back in kind to commensurate with what your people and government have done for us; all that we can do is to show you how grateful we are.”

For his part, the Director-General of the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Dr. Augustine Konneh, on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, H. E. Marjon V. Kamara, joined the Justice Minister to praise Nigeria for leading the way for peacekeepers, who came to help Liberians return to peace.

“I was in the U.S. doing my PhD when the war broke out in Liberia. Some of us tried to reach out to some influential American government officials and they told us squarely that our problem was an African problem and it should be solved by Africans,” he narrated, adding, “We are very grateful that Nigeria came in; that is why many times, for those of us who believe in afro-centrism, always appreciate the fact that we are afro-centric. Our policies must be in tune with Africanism,” he stressed. 

Responding, Mr. Adamu Ali Dodo, Director of Research at the ISS, Abuja, stated that the reception was “unprecedented” as they never had it in their thoughts neither did they expect that they would have received such treatment.

“This has further strengthened our conviction that indeed we are one Africa and we are all our brothers’ keepers. In my local language, we say kindness is like bubble gum. When it falls on the ground, it doesn’t come up the same. It comes up with a lot of other foreign particles on it. So, if you do good, you should expect goodness ahead,” he said in appreciation to the gesture.

Mr. Dodo, who is the team leader, further said that when the crisis erupted in the early 1990s, most of them were still in school; adding, “We didn’t know that we would have benefited from the generosity of that generation of Nigerians, who came here on peacekeeping mission. This has also thought us to be exemplary in our character and conduct.”

During one of the lecture series earlier, Mr. Dodo had stated that the choice of coming to Liberia was not a mistake: “what makes this country to be moving in leaps and bounds in a relatively short space of time. Our study tour has proven to us that indeed this is a great country,” he said.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, the visiting delegation met with commissioners of the National Elections Commission (NEC) at its headquarters in Sinkor.

In his briefing, NEC Chairman, Cllr. Jerome Korkoya said the Commission is one of the two commissions created by the Constitution of the Republic of Liberia and that because of this, they are independent of the three branches of government in doing their work.

Cllr. Korkoya informed his visitors that presidential elections is mandated by the constitution to be held every second Tuesday of October in the election year; adding: “This year’s election will be held on October 10.”

“Currently, we have 26 political parties in Liberia. If all of these parties put out presidential candidates plus the independent ones, we are going to have maybe 30 candidates vying for the post of president. However, we have been hearing from the news that some of these parties are forming collaborations, which we hope will reduce the number of candidates.”

He further disclosed that as the nomination process for candidates ends on July 21^st, campaigning will begin on July 31^st.

Providing reasons why the NEC had added an additional 10 days for the nomination process, which should have ended on Tuesday, July 11, the NEC chair clarified that there are some new laws that the National Legislature recently passed; one of them has to do with the minimum number of candidates that each party can name.

“For example, the law requires that parties should put 50 percent representative candidates. Some parties are finding it very difficult to get that threshold and of course there are some financial obligations involved.

“Another provision in the new law has to do with gender balance. So, we want to encourage more women participants in the political process,” he noted adding, “this is very serious from the perspective of the Commission. Some political parties are also finding it difficult to meet this and because we want to have an inclusive process, the Board of Commissioners has decided to extend the process by 10 days. Rather than ending the process on the July 11^th, we are going to be closing it on July 21^st,” he informed the visiting Nigerian delegation.

On court proceedings, he informed the visiting Nigerians that they (Commission) were getting ready to go to court because of their decision to reject the nomination papers of some of the candidates.

“You have probably heard that we are going to court. Some candidates have been rejected because we believe they didn’t comply with the Code of Conduct, which requires people with intent to participate in the process should have resigned within a given period. Those people who didn’t meet that requirement have been rejected and some of them have taken us to court,” he said.

Cllr. Korkoya thanked the Liberian Government for making good on its pledge of US$20 million towards the total US$45 million cost of the elections.

He assured the visitors that the NEC is working around the clock to have all the major problems, including those omissions that weren’t on the voters roll updated, and solved before the Election Day.