The history of Liberia especially from 1980 is as revolting as Lucifer himself. Before this dark year, all was largely well and peace was in abundance. Samuel K Doe, a well trained Master Sergeant in the Liberian Army took advantage of civil protests following increase in rice prices by the Tolbert Govt in 1980.

He led a small group of mutineers to the presdential palace and Killed the incumbent, President Tolbert, a reknowned reformist and somebody slit open his belly! The sergeant took power by the gun. Soon after, he openly executed all but 4 of the former regime's cabinet. Among the spared is the current lady president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Samuel later won acrimonious and highly rigged elections in 1985.

In 1989, an armed rebellion exploded into the first civil war in the country, masterminded and led by Charles Taylor, a US jail-breaker who had been trained in Libya by Qaddafi. A second civil war was to erupt 10 years later in 1999, two years into Taylor's presidency.

In Sept 1990, Prince Yormie Johnson, leading a violent breakaway faction of the insurgent forces, captured president Samuel Kanyon Doe as he made his way to the poorly established ECOMOG HQ with only staff officers and no security escort. The small motorcade was ambushed and Doe captured, suffering a gunshot in the thighs. The rest must have been executed.

Prince Johnson took the captive president to his makeshift HQ and directed the entire torture episode. He ordered his rag tag troops to cut off Doe's ears and feed him. His fingers and toes were also severed. The poor president was locked overnight in a bathroom, where he banged his head on the wall, knocking himself unconscious and died of severe bleeding before dawn.

The following morning, the Prince came back to resume the torture..........Doe was decapitated and paraded in the streets of Monrovia. The dimwit then declared himself president, but just that, a declaration. The country degenerated into a sea of chaos and a killing field as Taylor consolidated his forces. Some semblance of peace was born when Taylor won the 1997 elections BY A LANDSLIDE!! The countryside erupted again in 1999.

Prince Johnson is currently the senator for Nimba county of Liberia. In October (2011), he is contesting for the top seat!!!

@simonkabz,

Liberia is just a tiny piece of west africa.
You are talking of the past which is a common mistake black africans make.

What is more important is the future of Liberia !!!

@ Mr Young, thank you for ua reply, bt I beg to differ with it entirely.

1. Whatever happened in Liberia during the dark era (1980-2005) also happened in Nigeria, CIV, Guinea, G. Bissau, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone....almost the entire Guinea region. Therefore mine was just a specific example.

2. This you know: YOU CANT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING IF YOU DONT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE COMING FROM-lest you end up obliviously going back to where u came from lol! By looking into the past, I wanted fellow wazuans to experience some adrenaline rush, get a feel of what dangerous politics really means, and what it breeds.

Its important to note that Kenyans have never experienced a militant regime, or a massacre (5000+), or a malignant armed uprising, or absolute lawlessness (disintegrated police/army) or a civil war (this one we escaped by an eyelash). West Africans know all these like we know the KICC or the unga prices.

Well, it is said A WISE MAN LEARNS FRM THE MISTAKES OF OTHERS. In this light, I want to beleive we shall be careful what we wish for as Kenyans.

Yaliyondwele sipite

Yaani Liberia was having elections in 1927? What went wrong with the country? They should be a powerhouse in Africa by now.

Surprisingly, most Liberians think that they are way ahead of the other African countries