New army must serve with patriotism

The National Security Advisor to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Dr. H. Boima Fahnbulleh has emphasized that if soldiers of the new Armed Forces of Liberia must succeed in their duties, they must first exhibit patriotism.

“When I was in the army, patriotism was what we exhibited to achieve our goals; I left the army with the sense of thought that the army will always be courageous in every aspect of its duties, the Liberian army in the late 80s, and 70s was a force that people could rely on, it was an institution that affected the Liberian society.”
The Security Advisor made these remarks on Tuesday,7 February at the Monrovia City Hall in Sinkor, Monrovia in an symposium marking the observance of the 60th Armed Forces Day under the theme; “AFL Contribution to Peace, Stability, and Development.”

Official celebration of Armed Forces Day is on Saturday, February 11.
The symposium was conducted under the auspices of the Ministry of National Defense, and brought together members of the Diplomatic Corps, the 53rd Liberian Legislature, heads of various securityapparatus, including the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, Liberia National Police, UNMIL, and Civil Society Organizations, among others.

Serving as keynote speaker, Dr. Fahnbulleh said the military stresses discipline and collective responsibility because the society moves in that direction, and as history teaches, the human society has the tendency to result to contradiction, not by superior forces, but by the discipline and recklessness of the marginalized social forces, saying “This is why it is absolutely necessary to detect society in timing with the development, discipline of the men and women in arms.”

He said when one cannot have the opportunity where men and women in uniforms display more values of their countries,it is a recipe for disaster, and “you must advert the slide of others; in that vein, there is a need for you to stress discipline, patriotism of good citizens, because it is the deals that you shall stay in the military through capacity building, and training.”

Dr. Fahnbulleh noted that the army is a party in existence, and also a party in a mood of existence with the courageous spirit to fight. He explained that the army exercises discipline, because this is a group that keeps that works in order, adding that the army develops nationalism that passes over tribalism and identifies with every man and woman by his or her capabilities.
The army exudes patriotism; because only patriots are willing to give their lives in defend of their country, saying “I want to pay homage to the men and women in our army, who have taken upon themselves to defend the people.”
He pointed out that the army and other security forces are usually charged with the responsibility of ensuring peace and stability at all times as well as protects the sovereign rights of the people.
“Our emphasis here is the army as the institution that not only guarantee peace, and stability, but provides the mirror for reflection with resource accountability, discipline, self-commitment to the national efforts towards development, while the army in the developing society must let it shine brilliantly in order to attract the patriots and convince them to stand to others whenever the peace of sovereignty is threatened by hustlers”, the National Security Advisor concluded.Editing by Jonathan Browne