Failure not an option

The new Standard bearer of the ruling Unity Party, Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai says failure can never surface as an option for him in the pending 2017 presidential and Representative elections, with the support of former standard-bearer President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and “hundreds of thousands of partisans and sympathizers” on his side.

Delivering his acceptance speech in Gbarnga, Bong County on Saturday, 9 July, Mr. Boakai assured that the promise of Liberia is one that offers hope and optimism, stressing the need to perpetuate and embrace all Liberians that promise.

In expressing gratitude to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Mr. Boakai said her leadership has marched Liberia from a pariah state to the spotlight of an important world and regional actor.

He called on his partisans and supporters to sound the rallying call for “us” to assemble battle-ready and confident as ever, indicating with confidence that the battle to bring the Agenda for Transformation into the lives of Liberians, to touch and transform the communities, villages, towns, and cities here is winnable.

He vowed that pledges which are made so eloquently are meant to be kep, even though Mr. Boakai acknowledged that the expectations of the Liberian people are high. “They expect more from us, and rightly so! We cannot and must not just dismiss the cries of indignation and attack from some of our people.

As a famed American President once said, we must not indulge in cursing the darkness, but moving the extra step of turning on candle that can guide us through that darkness to a safe and sane future,” he said.

In effort to remind Liberians about some successes scored by the UP-led government, Mr. Boakai recalled that it was this administration that in less than six years in its first term secured waiver of the country’s crushing debt of US$4.5 billion accumulated by previous governments over decades, adding that with a mix of prudent policies and steady nerves, Liberia was navigated to economic stabilization and national development, averting a foreign diplomat’s prediction that the war’s devastation would throw Liberia back 100 years.

“Today, many young people born in the 1990s hardly understand what destruction and devastation the nation suffered. The modern paved road from Monrovia to Gbarnga which has cut travel time by more than 50% compared to that in 2005 is just one example,” he contended.

The Vice President and ruling party’s standard bearer said he has a responsibility to pick up the baton from President Sirleaf and boldly and confidently march on, announcing that the UP is opened to serious discussions with other political institutions that honestly share its noble vision and the cause to build Liberia.

“But we will neither be distracted nor countenance any risk of derailing our Platform by customary passions and mere sentiments of political debate,” said Mr. Boakai. He called on Liberians to start shifting their concern to what the future of the country should look like; cautioning that the global village that is known as “our” one world is rapidly changing.

“All around the world, we are witnessing the shifting of the balance of power. We are seeing and feeling the effects of climate change and global warming. Terrorism is a threat that requires our utmost concern,” he noted.

He concluded that if one takes a critical look at the issues affecting Liberia domestically and on the international front, there can be no arguing the fact that the country needs a seasoned hand with scores of years of impeccable public service record at the helm of this country.

By Winston W. Parley-Edited by George Barpeen