By Tajeu Shadrack Nkapapa
President Barack Obama has mourned the death of his colleague President Jimmy Carter who died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday 29th December 2024 at 100 years old.
President Carter who was a Democrat, became president in January 1977 after defeating the incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
His single term in office was characterized by significant achievements, notably the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, which contributed to a degree of stability in the Middle East.
According to President Barack Obama the late President Jimmy Carter was a committed member of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. He said that in all his adult life Carter would always prepare on Sunday mornings to teach Sunday school.
“Some who came to hear him speak were undoubtedly there because of what President Carter accomplished in his four years in the White House the Camp David Accords he brokered that reshaped the Middle East; the work he did to diversify the federal judiciary, including nominating a pioneering women’s rights activist and lawyer named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench; the environmental reforms he put in place, becoming one of the first leaders in the world to recognize the problem of climate change,” Barack Obama said in a statement.
“Others were likely there because of what President Carter accomplished in the longest, and most impactful, post-presidency in American history monitoring more than 100 elections around the world, helping virtually eliminate Guinea worm disease, an infection that had haunted Africa for centuries, becoming the only former president to earn a Nobel Peace Prize, and building or repairing thousands of homes in more than a dozen countries with his beloved Rosalynn as part of Habitat for Humanity,” Obama added.
Barack Obama added that Jimmy Carter was elected in the shadow of Watergate and he promised voters that he would always tell the truth.
President Obama further said that Jimmy believed some things were more important than reelection, things like integrity, respect, and compassion.
Obama and his wife Michelle also send their thoughts and prayers to the Carter family, and to everyone who loved and learned from him.