We arrived in
Monrovia after a 3 hours flight from Jos and as
usual, the ineptitude of the Nigerian armed forces came to the fore
immediately we landed. The
Nigeria air-force personnel were in
charge of the airport and knowing fully well that those two Boeing 747s
were coming with troops, never arranged for the steps that will be used
to get us down from the plane until we arrived. After waiting for them
to run frantically around for an hour to find a solution, and with the
pilots becoming fidgety about the possibilities of any one of the rebel
groups launching a sudden attack, a local ladder was brought for the
troops to use by the air force personnel. The cargo bay was also opened
and some passed through this to come down with all the attendant risks.
It would have been comical if it was a film but it was the reality.
Soldiers and officers alike had to hang from the ladder and come down
gently while holding on to their weapons. I could see the pilots who
were whites looking on incredulously while this tragic comedy was
played out. I was alarmed because I shared the concerns of the Pilots
about the possibilities of an attack while the planes were sitting
there for hours. Imagine being trapped in a Boeing 747 right in the
open while some doped-up rebels use the plane for target practice.
We
eventually managed to alight from the plane, retrieved our luggage and
formed up for address by our Commanding Officer, Lt. Col. Bawa. We were
also divided into two groups right away and informed that half of the
battalion will move that night to
Sierra Leone to beef up the troops there. Some soldiers selected to stay in
Liberia swapped their positions with other soldiers slated for
Sierra Leone; their main reason being that the women in
Sierra Leone were said to be more ‘interesting’. Since I was not familiar with either
Liberia or
Sierra Leone and had never encountered the ‘interesting’ women in both countries, I decided not to swap my place in
Liberia with anyone. We also had to wait interminably at the airport for the trucks to arrive to transport us into the city of
Monrovia or what was left of it after the long civil war.
Monrovia is at least 50 kilometers from the
Robertsfield
Airport and the truck ride took almost two hours because of the bad road.
We were dropped at
Caldwell area of
Monrovia which was the battalion headquarters
late that night and as they say in the army ‘we were on our own’ with
no arrangements for feeding or accommodation made for the soldiers. The
officers were of course invited to the mess where they had their
dinner, showered and rested properly while some of us ‘rested’ and
spent the night outside under the stars and drank gari since we had no
Liberian money on us and unfortunately, the Naira is not a legal tender
in Monrovia.
The Fula (Cousins of our own Fulani brothers in
Nigeria) traders and some Nigerians resident in
Monrovia capitalized on our predicament to
exchange our naira notes for Liberian dollars at very extortionate
rates the following morning but we had no alternative because the
rumble in our stomachs was enough warning to make us forget about
negotiating better rates. We continued to sleep outside and in old
vehicles around the headquarters waiting for the rotating battalion to
pack out and move to the airport before taking over their rooms and in
some cases, their girlfriends.
We
were finally posted to our various locations after five days of just
strolling around and I was posted to C Company and transferred to
Parker Paint Check Point on the outskirts of
Monrovia. Our main duty there was to stay at the check-point and ensure that illegal arms and ammunition did not enter
Monrovia. It was a very interesting assignment as it opened my eyes to the endemic corruption in
Liberia during Charles Taylor’s rule
and how corruption came to be accepted as a way of life for Liberians
who prided themselves on their honesty. Motorists plying the roads
offered unsolicited bribes to security personnel including ECOMOG
troops on check-point duty as matter of fact. My interactions with the
drivers revealed that our colleagues whom we changed at the check-point
had already worked out an agreement with the drivers wherefore; every
driver knows what to pay to be left free for the day. I stopped this
practice at our check-point and it was gratifying to see the looks of
incredulity and relief on the faces of the drivers when told to drive
through the barrier without giving ‘something for cool water’ as bribe
is known in Liberian parlance.
My first Impressions about Monrovia and Liberian People
I was shocked at the level of destruction in the city of
Monrovia when we arrived. There was hardly any
building that was not affected by the shelling and most walls were
pockmarked with bullet holes. Most of the houses that were abandoned by
the owners had also been comprehensively looted in turns by the rebel
groups that happened to be in control of Monrovia at various times and
later on allegedly by Guinean soldiers who were famous for their
looting style that involves the removal of everything removable from
the abandoned houses. As a result of this, most houses were just empty
shells since the roofs and windows have been removed and taken across
the border to
Guinea. There are check-points after
every five hundred meters mounted variously by the Liberian National
Police, State Security Service (SSS), National Bureau for
Investigations (NBI), National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL),
Immigration, Liberian Customs and various ECOMOG battalions (Ghanaian,
Nigerian, Senegalese).
I was shocked at the despotic nature of the government of
Liberia under Charles Taylor popularly
called ‘Papay’ by Liberians who are afraid to say anything negative
against him in public for fear of being arrested or molested. Charles
Taylor was more or less a prisoner in
Monrovia and hardly traveled outside the city to other areas of
Liberia. Even on days when he ventured out of his house in Sinkor area of
Monrovia, all roads along his planned itinerary
would be closed for hours on end for ‘security reasons’. Charles
Taylor’s convoy was something else to see (It comprised of at least 40
vehicles all zooming at breakneck speed through the city with security
officers, regular police, NPFL, NBI, Immigration, Customs and a myriad
of other people whose functions cannot be exactly determined hanging
from the vehicles) and my belief was that his Security officers must
have learnt their acts from their Nigerian counterparts. There was no
discipline among the NPFL since the real army, the Armed Forced of
Liberia (AFL) had been emasculated for not supporting Charles Taylor
during the war and could not be trusted for ‘security reasons. Security
was a recurring decimal in all aspects of Liberian life under Charles
Taylor and every act of illegality justified by it. You could be
arrested and detained for security reasons and your shop could be
looted also for security reasons.
I
cannot recount how many times we had to intervene with the ‘security
officers’ from myriad security organizations on behalf of Nigerian
civilians living in
Monrovia to recover their confiscated goods or
money. I remember vividly taking part in a lighting strike against some
miscreants around the ‘Red light’ area of
Monrovia who had swooped on Nigerian traders and
looted their goods and cash. The Liberian equivalent of Nigeria’s Area
boys live in an enclave called ‘Sugar Hill’ in the same Red Light area
and their abode was well-known by Liberian security agents but never
raided because most of these boys were former NPFL fighters who fought
on Charles Taylor’s side during the war. They were demobilized but not
reintegrated and having no other means of earning a living except by
force, they organized themselves into gangs and were responsible for
all crimes committed around Red Light.
After
receiving the plea for assistance from the Nigerian traders who are
mostly Igbos, we stormed Sugar Hill immediately that night and arrested
about forty miscreants. As luck would have it, the confiscated items
were about being shared among the criminals when we stormed their den,
making it very easy for us to recover not only the goods but the cash
they stole from the Nigerians. The criminals did not willingly hand
over their loot and it became necessary to use our rifles to threaten
them and after they were subdued, subjected them to some lashes of
koboko to refresh their memories. The guys that were arrested were
handed over to the Liberian National Police but were back on the
streets within two days.
Our
presence in the area was beneficial to the majority of Liberians since
the fear of ECOMOG was the beginning of wisdom for all criminals. Those
unfortunate to be arrested in our area of responsibility were given
something to remember us by. Since Liberians are not used to being
flogged, the easiest way to break the zeal of Liberian criminals was
through flogging with horsewhips (Koboko). Once a Liberian see the
koboko, he will usually turn to jelly and ready to do whatever it will
take to avoid the lashes. Several adolescent criminals in the area
became reformed after receiving beatings and as a mark of appreciation,
the community elders used to support us with batteries for our
flashlights and a factory owner at Parker Paint became our patron as a
mark of appreciation after we assisted his security officers foiled a
robbery attempt on his factory which would have made him lose close to
two hundred thousand United states dollars in cash if it had succeeded.
The robbers were arrested and handed over to the Liberian National
Police and prosecuted possibly because the victim of the robbery had
enough muscle to push the case through and frustrate the efforts of the
Police to scuttle the case as usual.
Liberians
speak a variation of Southern plantation English known as ‘Liberian
English’ with an accent not totally dissimilar with American English. I
t was really difficult for us to grasp it but fun once you understand
the basics. The average Liberian is also very clean and emphasis is
laid on personal hygiene. In spite of the just-ended civil war and the
glaring poverty, it is very difficult for a Liberian to go out in the
morning without taking his bath, brush his teeth, use deodorant and
polish his shoes. The nursing mothers are a sight to behold when they
launder the nappies of their babies. The nappies would be washed with
Clorox (Bleach) and looks very white. The currency is Liberian dollars
but
United States dollar is also legal tender and you can buy virtually anything with US dollars in
Liberia including pepper and bread.
The standard of living in
Liberia before the war was comparable to what the average American family enjoyed in the
US. We still saw the refrigerators, gas
cookers, electric ovens, washing machines, television sets, deep
Freezers and other household items that had become decorations in
Liberian homes due to lack of electricity and unaffordable gasoline
prices. It was very shocking to us that almost all families had all
these ‘luxuries’ while in
Nigeria, they would be seen as symbols of affluence. The Liberians reminisced about those days when they used to travel visa-free to
America for holidays or visit with their relatives. During the early days of the war, lots of Nigerians were able to travel to
USA posing as war-displaced Liberians. The visa free travel process was only stopped in 1994.
The
women are very fashionable in the Western sense of the word, liberated
and outspoken, a consequence of the American influence on Liberian
attitudes. Most Liberians are also very honest in relative terms and
they believe that your word should be your bond. It is also very
difficult to see fake products in
Liberia since the Liberians have access to import almost everything from
America free of charge. Corner shops
are stocked with talcum powders, deodorants, body lotions, soaps, body
sprays etc all made in America and available at reasonable prices.
Nigerians are especially loved because of the association of Nigerians
with the exploits of the ECOMOG forces. It was widely believed then in
Liberia that all Nigerians are capable of fighting and never afraid of death.
Encounters with Liberian Women
Nigerian
soldiers might be admired for their courage and the relative security
they provided for Liberians but this did not change the notion that the
army is a place for never-do-wells as far as Liberians are concerned.
The educated Liberian ladies keep away from ECOMOG soldiers and will
not be seen dead dating them. This was not difficult to accept since
lots of ‘Colonels’ and ‘Generals’ then in the NPFL were stark
illiterates or at best, semi-literates. The AFL that had educated and
professionally trained officers had already been rendered useless and
with that went the respect that Liberians ever had for men in uniform.
Most of the ladies dated or married by Nigerian soldiers that served in
Liberia were illiterates or
semi-literates. It was very difficult to see any Liberian lady who
completed high school (Secondary school) who will agree to date ECOMOG
soldiers except where the soldier could be a meal ticket or a means of
financing her education.
I
had my own share of the Liberian women but it never crossed my mind to
think of marrying any of them for their obvious lack of education.
Beauty has nothing to do with level of education and since most
Liberian women are very sophisticated regardless of their educational
qualifications, it was not difficult coping with this deficiency. I am
trying to be very frank here by admitting what I did while there and
will like to mention for the record that less than a quarter of one
percent of Nigerian soldiers that served with ECOMOG in
Liberia and
Sierra Leone refrained from having
girlfriends while in these countries. This should also be understood
from the point that the average length of service with ECOMOG was two
years without leave and that it was very difficult to keep your ‘thing’
out of ‘active’ service for two years as a ‘normal’ human being.
The
attitude of Liberian girls was a novelty to the Nigerian officers and
soldiers and it was really difficult to believe that a girl could tell
you without shame what she wanted you to do to her in graphic detail.
Their way of expressing themselves freely without reservations was also
strange and compared to Nigerian girls, Liberians are very honest and
straight-forward. A Liberian girl will tell you that you were the best
lover she ever had or the worst without shame or compare the length of
your manhood with those she had ‘tasted’ before without any
embarrassment. They are also very jealous and some of our soldiers
still have marks on their bodies to testify to the jealousy of
Liberia girls. One of our soldiers
actually lost an eye to the insane jealousy of a Liberian girl who
attacked him with a high-heel shoe. The said soldier was caught
sleeping with the friend of his girlfriend. The soldier returned to the
barracks in
Nigeria and claimed the injury was due to ‘rebel attack’. The elderly soldiers had more than a nice time in
Liberia and all sorts of noises could
be heard in the nights from their rooms while they are being ‘worked’
on by the Liberian girls. Most elderly soldiers also returned
empty-handed to
Nigeria after their service with ECOMOG because they spent their allowances ‘enjoying life’ in
Liberia.
Lots
of Liberian girls and women gave birth to children for ECOMOG soldiers.
It was estimated by Liberian Social Service department and Child
Protection agencies that the ECOMOG soldiers left about fourteen
thousand children in
Liberia at the end of the ECOMOG mandate.
Nigeria topped the list followed by the
Guineans and Senegalese. The least implicated contingent were the
Ghanaians who, because of the level of discipline imposed on them and
the fact that their allowances were never given to them in Liberia,
never had the will nor the means to run after the Liberian ladies as
vigorously as the Nigerians.
Living and Dying for $150 US Dollars
The motivation for all of us to go to
Liberia was the opportunity to earn a
‘fortune’ of $150 US dollars a month and not because we loved Liberians
or believed that the killings in
Liberia should stop. The meager
allowance of $150 US dollars a month was at least the equivalent of my
four months’ salary and also a means of buying some of the ‘nice’
things that our colleagues who returned from ECOMOG duty in
Liberia bought. Part of the monthly allowance was also used to supplement our feeding in
Liberia since the food given to us was
never enough and we were responsible for our toiletries. I saved as
much as possible and forgot about some things I considered
non-essential. Our monthly allowances were also the sources of conflict
between us and our Liberian lady friends since the ladies never
understood why we choose to be ‘hiding’ our money instead of spending
it. The Liberian ladies were also shocked at our ‘bad’ habit of cooking
soup and warming it for three days since Liberians cooked their soup
and eat it the same day.
The Beginning of the End
The mandate of ECOMOG in
Liberia was essentially clashing with Charles Taylor’s agenda for total subjugation of
Liberia and perpetuation of himself in
power. The cracks started appearing with the attempts of ECOMOG to curb
the excesses of his ‘Security Officers’ who are mostly drunk,
drug-crazed and illiterates. I have recounted above how we had to be
intervening with these officers when they harass Nigerians and other
civilians for no just cause except to cite ‘security’ reasons. Plans by
Charles Taylor to import weapons into
Liberia were also being curtailed or
challenged by ECOMOG and accusations started flying around that ECOMOG
waned to take over the government of
Liberia and undermining the security of
Liberians. ECOMOG soldiers were withdrawn from the various check-points
and replaced by Liberian Security Officers who were overjoyed to be
back at their cash points. We were withdrawn back to Free Zone area
near the port where we spent the better part of two months doing
nothing except sleeping, servicing our Liberian girlfriends and going
on duty near the beach guarding nothing in particular but getting.
I
was happy with my usual routine and was hopeful this would continue for
the foreseeable future until one morning in July when I was informed
that I had been selected for escort duty to
Sierra Leone. I packed my kit and
readied my weapon for the journey. I handed my few belongings to my
friend for safe-keeping and since my current Liberian girlfriend at the
time was not around when I was departing, I left her a note to tell her
about this sudden turn of events but promised to be back within a week.
Unfortunately, I never went back to
Liberia till six years after as an Expatriate staff of an international NGO.
We departed that afternoon for Bo Waterside which is the common border between
Liberia and
Sierra Leone. My impressions about
Sierra Leone and the adventures we had there will be narrated in the next part of this series.
The Writer can be contacted at tapper972000@yahoo.co.uk . The Research effort (Nigeria’s
Defence Expenditures and their Impact on Armed Forces Personnel
Welfare: A case Study of Biu Military Cantonment, Borno State 1985-1995) referred to can be obtained from the
University of
Maiduguri library.
Your Comments
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=Robot;283248>The naration continues with the experiences in Liberia....Read the full article.
And I can say is Nigerian soldiers got a raw deal from the Nigerian government but they also had a great time in Liberia looting and refusing to adopt safe sex. I can say they are partly responsible (along with Nigerian prostitutes in places like Italy) for bringing HIV/AIDS to Nigeria soil.
Good narrative. I think it raises a lot of issues. For example, why do soldiers on national duty have to undergo hardship as described here? Is it that there was no money allocated for the purpose or that some ' officer' had decided to make savings? In spite of the atrocities we heard about that were perpetuated in Liberia, the people were not ' used to being flogged'. That is a decent society where arm bearing public servants do not take it upon themselves to inflict inhuman and degrading and cruel treatment on fellow citizens. It is a shame that our ' experienced soldiers' had to teach them a new way to violate their citizens. The question of sexual harrrasment and sex crimes in conflict situations. Our dear writer may not know it, but using food and other necessecities as prize to get sexual favours from civilians that soldiers are supposed to protect is criminal in itself. One could go on and on.
The role of ECOWAS in all of this also comes into focus. What guarantees are available to protect civilians in conflict situations from their 'ECOWAS Protectors'? May God help us in this part of the world.
The motivation for all of us to go to Liberia was the opportunity to earn a ‘fortune’ of $150 US dollars a month and not because we loved Liberians or believed that the killings in Liberia should stop. The meager allowance of $150 US dollars a month was at least the equivalent of my four months’ salary
I don't get this. Is this a joke or typo or what? Which year are we talking here and how can US$150.00 be more than the four months salary of a nigerian soldier? I want to believe this is just a typo and that you have wanted to write US$1,500.00 instead.
Do you want readers to believe that as at the time of ECOMOG adventure in Liberia that your salary per month was about the equivalent of US$35.00. I still do not believe this please unless you or someone else clarify this for me. Nonetheless, a very good, sincere and narrative write up by the write.
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