He was one of the country's most acclaimed politicians who became interim president in the 1990s as part of efforts to stop the bloody war launched by now-jailed former President Charles Taylor.

Taylor and his NPFL rebels did not recognise the Sawyer leadership and prevented him from venturing outside the capital Monrovia throughout the four-year interim period.

In post-war Liberia, Sawyer, a university professor and lecturer of political science, served as chairman of the Governance Commission.