By Othello B. Garblah
Death is inevitable, they say. It will surely happen to everyone, -meaning it cannot be avoided. Death visits when it is least expected. Death comes in many instances as a shock, leaving mixed feelings and many unanswered questions when it takes away our loved ones.
Often, people say a person was aware of his or her death before passing on to the afterlife. Still, those are mere speculations because if the person had known, they would have put their houses in order, as King Hezekiah did in 2 Kings 20:1 and Isaiah 38:1-10.
A former Liberian playwright, Wilton G. S. Sankawulo, once wrote that nobody knows when he will die. That statement holds despite many empirical data and predictions about life expectancies in countries around the globe, with Liberia’s life expectancy at 65.25 (UN report).
This was obvious on early Thursday morning, November 28, 2024, when Liberians woke up to the shocking death news of warlord turned politician and preacher Prince Y. Johnson.
The late Johnson had returned from his native Nimba County a day before his death, where he dedicated a hall at his university in honor of former Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, a late African dictator he had held in high esteem.
Sen. Johnson may have had big plans and dreams for the future, including the university or even planning his retirement with his grand children in mind. But death had its own plan for Sen. Johnson.
The shocking death news of Sen. Johnson the day after his return from Nimba shows that death remains an unexpected guest to the living.
No one is promised tomorrow.
There is a common saying that no one is promised tomorrow, so live as if today is your last. Why the importance of this statement is overlooked in many conversations that saying holds.
Living one’s life as if there were no tomorrow could be interpreted in many ways. However, one interpretation that stands tall among the rest is living a life leaving a memory for your loved ones and people you interact with every day. For some, these memories are fond, while for others, they are nothing but bad memories.
In the case of the late Sen. Prince Johnson, he comes across as a hero and a villain at the same time, depending on which side one belongs.
For his kinsmen, he was a hero—a man who revenged the blood of Nimbaians against former junta leader Samuel K. Doe.
In their memory, the events of the 1985 Nimba raid by soldiers loyal to slain President Doe after the failed coup in 1985 and the 1990 Lutheran Massacre pictured him as their liberator. Some would also argue that a fraction of Americo-Liberians also saw him as a hero for killing former President Doe.
But for others, he remained a villain. They have no heroic memory of him except for the pain and agony he put them through when he slaughtered their loved ones in cool blood during the country’s decades of civil war for alleged crimes they did not commit.
For those who live in pain and agony, seeing him suffer unto death through, say, conviction by the War and Economic Crimes Court would have been viewed as sweet revenge.
But as it is now, Sen. Johnson will no longer face a War and Economic Crimes Court, and neither will those wishing that he rots in jail like former President Taylor, who is serving a 50-year jail term in a UK prison, ever see that come to pass.
No, Sen. Johnson is gone. He died a peaceful death, contrary to what many of his victims would have wished.
The Lesson Learned.
Life is a gift from God, the Almighty. He has promised no one how long he or she will spend here on Earth before transitioning to the unknown. Live it as if there was no tomorrow. Live at peace with every man. Love your neighbor as yourself because he dwells near you for security. Owe no man anything. And above all, love God and honor him, for this is your greatest service.
To be given life is the greatest gift every person and living creature received, or will receive, from God, the Almighty. Life is years of opportunity to develop a relationship with God and others and serve the Lord and other people.
“It’s a life where we walk out the plans and purposes for which God created us: loving God, loving others, and making disciples of Jesus. Yes, we must die to ourselves and our desires, but in so doing, we realize how much they only led to our unhappiness and dissatisfaction,” one writer wrote.
