Renowned Liberian educator, statesman and intellectual, Bai M. Gbala, has left this world. The public intellectual who influenced politics and governance for decades answered to the unpleasant call of death on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, in Liberia. He was 86-year-old.
Bai Gbala passed away one day after the inauguration of Joseph Boakai, as the 26th President of the Republic of Liberia, the man whose presidential bid he publicly backed in 2017.
In a statement of endorsement issued that year Gbala said Boakai has “wisdom or reservoir of knowledge, educational qualification, sound training and varied work experience that make him the appropriate individual for the presidency at this era.”
The Grand Gedeh Association in the Americas, the group he pioneered along with his contemporizes joins Liberians, home and abroad to mourn his passing.
The Association in a Press Statement issued on Friday, January 26, 2024, expressed deep sadness and grief over the passing of the statesman, reflecting on his indelible legacies left behind in the Liberian body politics, especially his county of birth, Grand Gedeh County.
“The Association would like to convey sentiments of deepest condolences to his family and friends . We are confident that God will sustain them during their period of bereavement,” it said.
The 86 years old, was one of Liberia’s leading esteemed state actors, political figures, and pounding democratic voices in Liberia. He was one of Liberia’s acclaimed politicians with a huge command in leadership, intellectualism, and peace advocacy since the 1970s on-wards to his old age.
Late Hon Bai Mason Gbala was a key player in democratic activism in Liberia, rendered services to the people of Liberia during the regimes of Samuel Kanyon Doe, Charles Gangkay Taylor and as well as the Interim Government of National Unity.
Veteran Bai Mason Gbala was the ardent proponent of the government’s decentralization program in Liberia, and lead architect of the document presented at the Unity Conference Center in Banjor outside of Monrovia in 1997.
The fallen Progressive was a founding member and president of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas, ULAA. The passing of the Gedeh’s Veteran leaves a deep void in the hearts of the nation, his county and diaspora community.
Indeed, Liberia at large, Grand Gedeh County in particular, and the family have lost a great leader, a hero and a mentor . He was a caring father, who was always available to be of service to others. In mourning, the association pays special tribute to the memory of the fallen veteran . May the Lord Almighty grant and rest the gentle soul of Hon. Bai Mason Gbala, in eternal bliss!
