By D. Moses Wantu
President Joseph Nyumah Boakai and Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti. The two major forerunners of Liberia’s Foreign Policy.
It was Monday, February 10, 2025, Liberia announced to the world that she is interested serving again for the second time as a non-permanent member on the United Nations Security Council. It can be recalled, the last time Liberia served on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member, was in the 60s, when Ambassador Nathan Barnes Represented Liberia. Before delving into the significance of the campaign launched by the Liberian government, I would want to explain very briefly the meaning and function of the UN Security Council.
The United Nations Security Council is a very power organ of the United Nations. It is occupied or comprises of five powerful countries, namely United States, Russia, France, United Kingdom and China. It has nine non-permanent members, among the nine, Africa has four countries, namely Sierra Leone, Angola, Somalia and Algeria.
I strongly believe that given Liberia’s contributions in the liberation struggle for many African colonies and her role in the creation of world bodies ( the League of Nations in 1920, and the United Nations in 1945, including sub-regional bodies like the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1973, the Mano River Union (MRU), as well as the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS) in 1975 , Liberia should be given a special desperation to serve on the UN Security Council as a permanent member but with limited powers and privileges.
This is why every Liberian should join effort to welcome the campaign launched by the President of Liberia, Joseph Nyumah Boakai and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dean of the cabinet, Madam Sara Beysolow Nyanti in ensuring that this dream becomes a reality.
Recounting on the numerous contributions of Liberia in seeking social justice, global and sub-regional peace, Liberia in years passed had built an admirable legacy by committing her human and material resources to liberation struggle.
The contributions of Liberia as part of the United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Congo in 1960s had spoken volumes to Liberia commitment. As we speak, Liberia has just completed another peacekeeping mission in Mali.
Where Liberia could not send man power, she sent material support. African liberators were welcome into this country either for refuge or for support, and President William VS Tubman was magnanimous enough to receive and accommodate them.
All of these happened because Liberia was considered the beacon of hope for many struggling African colonies. Research has shown that the late Nelson Mandela in his liberation struggle came to Liberia as a guest to President William VS Tubman in the 1960s. Mandela who later became President of South Africa had led a revolution against the Apartheid regime, and Liberia played a significant role for South Africa to be free from the hands of white minority rule.
With all these great achievements, one will be convinced that Liberia should be given a special dispensation not only on the UN Security Council, but also OAU, which has now metamorphosed into African Union (AU), ECOWAS and MRU respectively.
Liberia as a nation-state has done lots in search for global peace to be treated as one of the underdog or underprivileged nations.
Recounting on the role of Liberia in fostering global peace,
Liberians have shown patriotism for this nation from time in memorial. One of such persons is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Madam Sara Beysolow Nyanti as the chief architect of our Foreign policy with the advised and support of Ambassador George Wallace and others who are working in restoring more dignity to the struggling image of Liberia out there.
Liberia serving on the Security Council of UN is an added advantage to echo Liberia’s voice in any part of the world because it will promote the country’s positive image and open doors of opportunities for the people and government of Liberia. Liberians have played pivotal role in global financial institutions and Governance. One of such is Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Ambassador Angie Brooke Randolph.
The role of these women resurrected Liberian women courage, determination and confidence to join in partnership with their male counterparts fighting for women’s rights and to ensure that women are considered in decision-making in every aspect of social life in Liberia. As we speak, Liberian women are brave to enter any gathering to present their case.
Making women decision makers today is not the free will of men, but the adherence to the protocols, conventions, treaties, and resolutions of world bodies such as the United Nations which Liberia have signed up to.
These measures have built the confidence of women in their quest to advocate and protect themselves from the hands of cruel people who have thought women belong to the kitchen.
Strategies as a way forward
Our quest as a nation-state to secure a seat on the Security Council of UN in its 2026-2027 term requires collective effort and our government must ensure to uphold what is required of a member state, such as rule of law must be respected, tendencies of democracy must be observed, basic human rights must be protected , etc. To have this campaign message articulated adequately, the steering committee should establish a secretariat that will gather information about Liberia’s roles in the liberation struggle during the Coldwar Era.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should post writers who will monster the courage to showcase and market Liberia’s contributions to the world so that our credit will not be buried.
We can organize few days symposiums in our various missions and invite the foreign Ministers of those receiving countries to speak and form part of our campaign.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to engage in a complete rebranding process of the Foreign Service architecture. We need to revise the foreign policy Handbook where Ambassadors should be serving by tenure. Liberia needs to do away with concurrent diplomatic representations as though the country is suffering from diplomatic brain drain.
Diplomatic gains of Liberia have been buried because we have been putting square pair in round holes, instead of square pairs in square holes.
Our Foreign Service policy needs to move from one dormant state to a progressive one. Every mission must be evaluated and every Ambassador must outline their achievements on a periodic basis. By this, there would be competition among various missions and something wonderful will emerge.
It is important to note that the days of dinner-diplomacy have gone. Every Foreign mission globally is making every effort to maximize the interest of their state in making sure their country benefit from diplomatic partnership. Liberia is by no exception. We need Development Diplomats and Writers in all our Foreign missions.
Development Diplomats are those Liberians who are trained in diplomacy to look out for investment and sell the country’s economic potential to attract investors, while Writers are there to promote country’s positive image and work with Development Diplomats in a coordinated approach.
About the Author:
Moses Wantu is a trained diplomat and a career Journalist. He served the Legislature as the Deputy Director of Press, Assistant Director of Press and Director of Protocol Department from 2006 – 2024 respectively. Prior to taking up the above mentioned assignments, he wrote for the Democrat Newspaper, The Tribute Newspaper and the Analyst Newspaper respectively.
He also served as a classroom teacher and duly elected community chairman (Battery Factory, Darquee town community). He is married with several dependents (biological and adopted ones) He is a devoted Christian. He is a candidate for Master of Arts (MA) Degree in Inte
