Celebrating President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday!

It was early 1985 some six month after my graduation – I was still finding my feet, and assessing my next move and Sudan was going through a turbulent time. The Nimeiri government over night has changed from a moderate secular autocratic rule to an Islamic fundamentalist repressive rule. My father, appointed in 1971, Special Assistant to the president was the last hope the West had of a moderate ally inside that government. So when President Gaafar Nimeiri – in a fanatical haze – ordered the execution of the scholar Mahmoud Mohamed Taha, our house suddenly turned into an operations room and phone calls from all over the globe were dispatched to my father’s home office.

One such call came from the man who I can proudly say has shaped my politics with his optimism and relentless can-do attitude with his selfless pursuit to better the world around him. The man dubbed the greatest communicator but was also the great liberator who changed the world by reaching fearlessly across boundaries never once caring who received the credit as long as humanity and the common people were the beneficiaries.

After the best part of five years in Bloomington, Indiana studying for a double major plus of course campaigning and attending every possible GOP event hoping for a glimpse or an encounter of my political hero – that afternoon in January my father received a call from the President’s office in the White House – to discuss the execution of Mr Taha. My moment came at that end of the call when daddy passed the phone with a huge smile and said Reagan want’s to say hello!

Today I was honoured to be invited to the unveiling ceremony of the statue of the greatest US president of our life time – the man who quietly and decidedly changed our world to the better – gave freedom and liberty to millions in Eastern Europe – and restored America’s confidence – the late great 40th US President Ronald Wilson Reagan – will forever live in our minds, hearts and the world’s history!