PHOTO: Dr. Sawyer, former Liberian Interim President
By Joe Bartuah
NOTE: On February 16 and 17, 2022, I lost two of the gentlemen I admired a lot in the Liberian society. At about 10:30 p.m. on February 16th I checked my Facebook page and saw a series of postings about Dr. Sawyer’s passing and on the morning of February 17th as I was literally drafting this tribute, I received a call that my buddy, Joe Teh had succumbed to his ailment.
Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer, you came from a humble background, but through your relentless resilience, strides and perseverance, you meritoriously worked your way to the proverbial mountain top, an exemplary accomplishment that is destined to inspire the current generation of young Liberians as well as posterity. Your earthly debut was on June 15, 1945 in Sinoe County, Liberia. At a tender age, you prudently chose the path of academic excellence and scholarship as a conduit for contributing your quota to the betterment of your country.
As a result, your scholarly prowess was exhibited from the onset. When you were graduating from high school in 1962, you scored the highest grade point in the national exam at the time. Due to your superb academic performance, you received a student exchange travel opportunity through the U.S. embassy in Monrovia and on your visit to the U.S., you had the priceless opportunity of meeting with President John F. Kennedy at the time.
Four years later in 1966, you graduated with flying colors from the University of Liberia. In order to better prepare yourself for the onerous national duties ahead, you subsequently matriculated to the Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, where you meritoriously earned your Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Political Science. Of course, being a consummate patriot with an unquestionable love for your country, you immediately returned home and became a young Professor at your Alma Mater, the University of Liberia. It was from the walls of academia, under the exemplary leadership of the late Dr. Mary Antoinette Brown-Sherman that your brilliance began to sparkle across the country.
In the late 1970s when the True Whig Party still had a stranglehold on Liberian politics, you came with the original broom, because you were intent on metaphorically sweeping the filths of corruption and ineptitude that were pathetically besieging the Monrovia City Hall at the time. In furtherance of your patriotic desire, you announced that you’ll be an independent candidate in the then anticipated Monrovia mayoral election of May 1979. To the utter surprise of the power brokers at the time, your candidacy instantaneously aroused the passion, vigor and interests of so many Liberian youth in national affairs, their interests which had hitherto been decimated by the 27-year autocracy of William Tubman.
As a result of the enthusiasm generated by your announcement, when the leadership of the True Whig Party stunningly realized that you were a formidable force to reckon with, they abruptly postponed the election, because the ruling party was both the umpire and a player in the same game. Even though the mayoral election was postponed, you conspicuously exposed the vulnerability of the True Whig Party, which had by then been in power for more than a century.
With your passing on February 16, 2022 at the John Hopkins University teaching hospital in Baltimore, I’m certain that friends and foes will agree with me that Liberia has lost one of its finest gems, who actually made tremendous contributions to the preservation and continuity of our national sovereignty. Friends and foes will also remember you as an exemplary statesman and compatriot, because when it was time to work in the best interest of our common patrimony, you never hesitated to put your exceptional skills and inspirational leadership acumen at the disposal of your beloved Republic of Liberia. In your 76 years of life, you worked assiduously and gave all you could for the betterment of our country.
You were like a veteran sailor who on two crucial occasions, was urgently called for an emergency service and you ably helped in rescuing our troubling ship of state when it was perilously sailing on a turbulent sea; or better still, you were like an astute military tactician, a fearless General who was dispatched to the battlefront when his military contingent was in distress, on the verge of defeat. Professor Sawyer, on each of those crucial occasions—December 25, 1980 to July 1984, as chairman of the Commission which drafted our current Constitution, and August 1990 to July 1994 as President of the Interim Government of National Unity, you swiftly went into action and your gallant presence, your forward-looking perspectives on pertinent national issues and your capacity to cordially work with other compatriots of varied backgrounds resulted in deriving positive outcomes for national advancement.
As chairman of the Constitution Commission, you helped in crafting the new organic laws for Liberia and head of the first Interim Administration, you spearheaded the restoration of some semblance of sanity in Monrovia and its environs. As Interim President, you worked tirelessly for peace, because your foremost concern was to derive a better outcome for the country. However, when the leader of the main rebel group at the time probably misconstrued your sincere pursuit of peace as a sort of power struggle, or perceived your strides for peace as an opportunity for gimmick, you decided to give peace a chance by stepping aside.
Even though you played multiple roles in helping to steer the direction of Liberia, it’s your core role as a teacher, an educator, a university professor that will most likely be an enduring epitaph of your life. Not only that you taught hundreds of students in the classroom for decades, within and outside of Liberia, but you also helped in inculcating virtues in our society through your exemplary lifestyle and the affable persona. Even now that your earthly journey has ended, your professorial prowess remains immortalized, through the many books you wrote about Liberia, because students of today and future generations of students will continue to learn from the fountain of your intellect.
Thank you, Dr. Sawyer for a job well done and farewell.