Former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida has revealed that Nigeria’s intervention in Liberia’s civil war was driven by the need to safeguard the economic and political stability of West African nations.
In his latest memoir, A Journey in Service, Babangida disclosed that as Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) during the crisis, he mobilized regional leaders, particularly Ghana’s then-President Jerry Rawlings, to support Liberia.
He emphasized that Nigeria, given its strategic position in the sub-region, possessed the necessary demographic strength, human and material resources, and military expertise to take action. With major world powers showing little interest in the conflict, Babangida said Nigeria had no choice but to step in and prevent further humanitarian disaster.
“The end of the Cold War diverted the attention of major Western countries from crises and conflicts in parts of Africa. The United States, whose direct interest Liberia was, occupied centre stage in the drama and consequences of the end of the Cold War. As it were, history had thrust on Nigeria a responsibility to look out for our neighbours in the face of a self-inflicted political and economic crisis. It was Nigeria’s moment, and we seized it, converting adversity into national success.
“As a leader, I have always believed that national power is meaningless if it cannot be projected to stabilise the nation’s immediate neighbourhood. Liberia allowed our administration to do two noble things simultaneously: restore peace in a neighbouring country in difficulty and project our national power in an area of immediate national influence.”
According to Babangida, “As I watched the Liberian situation degenerate into a carnage that had consumed a fellow African country in an avoidable civil war, I felt a compulsion to use the mechanism of ECOWAS to intervene in the Liberian crisis, which had degenerated into a bloody civil war. The casualties of both Liberians and other West Africans were mounting by the day.
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“Law and order had been lost while the contenders for power supremacy were consumed in a contest for just power. As a the Chairman of ECOWAS, I urged my colleagues to agree to set up a mediation mechanism with a monitoring mechanism that had a military capability to enforce the will of the sub-regional body. This led to the setting up of ECOMOG as a monitoring and enforcement monitoring mechanism.”
Babangida recalled in his book that the internal political and historical complexities that produced the Liberian crisis were too nasty to engage attention, but stressed that it was the responsibility of ECOWAS’s regional authority to intervene to seek to restore order, save lives, ameliorate the humanitarian disaster, and stabilise the strategic equilibrium of the West African sub-region.
Although he noted that many political watchers in the sub-region misinterpreted the military intervention in Liberia, alleging that the regional leaders were trying to protect the interest of the then Liberian leader, late Samuel Doe, unknown to them that he was thr obstacle to the peace of the country.
Babangida on pages 182 to 191 in his autobiography wrote: “When we decided to intervene militarily in Liberia, some observers misinterpreted it as an attempt to save Samuel Doe, which was far from it. I was fully aware that Doe was an obstacle to peace. He was bitterly divisive and was detested by key political figures in Liberia. But he was still in power. We needed to convince him to extract himself from the scene for peace to reign. But we needed to combine political pressure and an appeal to his self-interest. I often spoke with Doe about the need for a more negotiated crisis resolution to enable a political solution.
“Unfortunately, Doe was too inexperienced to understand the complexity of the situation he found himself in. He seemed more interested in clinging to power even though he had largely lost his hold on power. In the ensuing confusion, he came to a gruesome end. All that we could do was to extract his assailant, Yormie Johnson, from the Liberia scene and grant him temporary exile in Nigeria for saner Liberians to proceed with the task of the political resolution of the conflict.”
The former maximum leader maintained that the commitment of ECOWAS to the peace in Liberia was aimed at restoring order and end the bloodletting and humanitarian disasters enveloping the country.
“The ECOMOG intervention was in pursuit of these larger objectives. We intervened and stabilised the situation. Hostile forces like Charles Taylor were isolated and stopped in their tracks.
“In pursuit of these objectives, I must acknowledge the singular support of my friend, President Jerry Rawlings. He shared my vision of regional stability and the responsibility of countries like Ghana and Nigeria, which had the resources and stature to act as agents of stability in the sub-region. His military background was an asset in the operational aspect of the ECOMOG. “
Admitting that though the civil war in Liberia did not end before he “step aside “, Babangida recalled that, “we had laid the foundation for the return of peace, order and democracy in that country. Above all, we had primarily ensured that the resolution of the Liberian crisis would not be achieved on the battlefield. Our message was clear: those interested in contesting for power in Liberia should seek peaceful means.
“The administrations after ours retained the ECOMOG initiative and used it as a basis for the complete resolution of the crisis and the eventual return of democracy and democratic order to Liberia. Nigeria even had the responsibility of training and equipping a new Liberian national military force at the end of hostilities.”