By D Abraham Cooper
Grand Gedeh County – At long last, slain former President Samuel Kanyon Doe has been given a befitting burial, as 35 years after he was gruesomely murdered during the country’s first internecine conflict that claimed approximately 250,000 lives and wantonly destroyed millions of dollars’ worth of private and public properties, the Government of Liberia, over the weekend accorded him and his wife, who died late May this year, state burial rites in their home, Grand Gedeh County.
In a solemn and historic moment, following the exhumation of the remains of ex-President Doe and a military escort accorded the vehicle elaborately adorned in national colors conveyed the separate coffins bearing the corpses of the late Liberian leader and his deceased wife from the capital Monrovia via road to Grand Gedeh, Liberian president Joseph Nyuma Boakai led the nation in a state funeral proceedings in memories of Samuel Kanyon Doe and former First Lady Nancy Bohn Doe.
Officially held at the Zwedru City Hall, Grand Gedeh County, the historic event was attended by scores of Liberians from the Diaspora and at home including members of the Doe family, an array of government officials, as well as religious and traditional leaders.
Speaking at the occasion, President Boakai emphasized that now is the time for reconciliation and for all Liberians to heal from wounds inflicted in the past, as well as to retrospect on the past and forge ahead toward national healing and renewal.
Eulogizing former First Lady Nancy Bohn Doe, President Boakai noted that her unexpected passing, while she was preparing for the reburial ceremony of her fallen husband, deepened the nation’s sorrow, but he pointed out it also amplified the meaning of the moment.
He reminded Liberians that a prosperous Liberia cannot be built on what he called broken foundations, urging that peace and reconciliation reign among Liberians.
The Liberian Leader emphasized that the ceremony represented more than a symbolic gesture, indicating that it was a defining step in the nation’s collective effort to heal from years of conflict and build a peaceful and inclusive generations to come.
President Boakai used the occasion to express profound appreciation to the Reburial Committee headed by Education Minister Jarso Marley Jallah, who along with several officials of government, members of the Grand Gedeh County Legislative Caucus, as well community leaders in Grand Gedeh, successfully planned and executed the solemn state-organized reburial and burial exercises of ex-President Doe and former First Lady Nancy Doe.
Events of the joint state burial of the fallen former president and his late wife got underway in Grand Gedeh, with a night of wake-keeping in Toe City last Wednesday, followed by a second wake-keeping in Zwedru City the following evening, while on Friday, 27 June, the remains of ex-President and Mrs. Doe were taken to the Zwedru City Hall for funeral service, and thereafter taken to the Samuel Kanyon Doe Compound, in Zwedru, where they were interred in close proximity to one another.
Following the interment of the late former president and his deceased wife, President Boakai briefly visited Tuzon, the hometown of Samuel K. Doe, where the Liberian leader was welcomed by members of the Doe family including his children, Celue; Mamie; Junior; and Varney, as well as Senator Zoe Pennue, the late former president’s nephew; along with Doe’s sisters; community elders; and traditional leaders; who hailed President Boakai for the visitation and termed the moment as a one they have long awaited, which they claimed signifies a deserving recognition.
