Wanted: Liberia’s Charles Taylor

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has never pretended to enjoy sheltering Liberian strongman and former president Charles Taylor.

While negotiating the terms of Taylor’s refuge in Nigeria, Obasanjo rounded on those criticising him for protecting a man wanted for war crimes in Sierra Leone.

Removing Taylor from power was priority number one, maintained Obasanjo with the support of, among others, President Thabo Mbeki. The morality of it all took second place to the need to stop 14 years of war in Liberia. The Nigerian leader believed he also had the support of the United States.

But last week Washington drafted a Bill channelling money for the redevelopment of Afghanistan and Iraq and a $2-million reward for the capture of ‘an indictee of the Special Court for Sierra Leone”.

The Bill does not name Taylor, but a US spokesperson, Richard Boucher, acknowledged the former Liberian leader was the target.

‘How we move to make it effective as a reward, to achieve an end that we all share, which is for criminals to be brought to justice, those are the issues being looked at right now,” Boucher said. ‘I would advise people to chill out a little bit and let us get you the answers on these things.”

Obasanjo’s government is in no mood to chill out on this issue. Refusing to be told whether to take Taylor in, it equally refuses to be told what to do with him now he is there.

‘Any attempt to forcefully take Taylor from Nigeria will be a violation of our territorial integrity. Obasanjo’s spokesperson Remi Oyo said this week. ‘We don’t expect that from a friendly nation.”

Taylor’s security was immediately beefed up. He has not left his home since last weekend.

Hawa Yakubu, who heads the transport and communication committee of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States, argues that trying Taylor now could bring fresh fighting to Liberia.

Yakubu said there were well-founded fears that a trial would cause Taylor’s loyalists to pick up arms and go back to the bush.

She said the problem in Liberia had remained even after Taylor’s departure and there were still pockets of crises and disaffection.

Yakubu also said that Taylor has not made things easy for Obasanjo since arriving in Nigeria in August, reportedly carrying $100-million in cash and negotiable bonds.

He barely heeded warnings that his refuge could be compromised if he interfered in Liberian politics. Obasanjo said bluntly: ‘He must keep to his word or the terms of his exile could be revoked.”

Assurances from Liberia’s then interim president Moses Blah that ‘there is only one government and one president in Liberia” were taken with a pinch of salt as Liberian ministers and businessmen have been visiting Taylor in exile.

The exiled leader has apparently been instructing his former military commanders, who are continuing to clash with rebels from both Liberals United for Reconstruction and Democracy and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia.