To enlighten minds of citizens across the country, a group of scholars under the banner, Liberia Rising Project has conducted a one-day community dialogue on the December 8th national referendum in the Borough of New Kru Town, Montserrado County electoral district#16.
Giving an overview of the Liberia Rising Project, an executive of the project Jacob Jallah, a former assistant minister during the regime of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said, the initiative came into existence as a result of group of scholars coming together to find amicable solutions to some of the problems confronting the country.
“Every time we came together as friends to share fun and discuss, we always thought to remind ourselves that Liberia’s future squarely rests on the shoulders of those we considered as next generation”.
He said the agenda and vision of the Liberia Rising Project is to give every citizen ideas to rethink and contribute to the forward march of the country.
According to him, following 14 years of civil unrest in Liberia, that saw former President Sirleaf taken power for two consecutive terms, and subsequently turning over to current President Weah, they gathered themselves as patriots and introduced the project to give every citizen ideas on how to make political decisions.
“We as young people can’t always allow ourselves to be used by politicians”, he said, adding that politicians are only interested in using the ordinary people to take state power by allowing them to damage the image of any sitting government.
Also speaking, Harry ArtoeGkornean, one of the executives of Liberia Rising Project said they embarked on creating awareness for citizens to begin to think on how they can contribute to national development instead of allowing themselves to be used to cause chaos.
“We as young people, it’s now time that we ask ourselves what can we do to contribute to the growth and development of this country.”
He said normally, people would sit and think it is the responsibility of national government to provide for its citizens, saying while it’s true but we as citizens have a responsibility, and that responsibility must begin with how we think, so it is against this backdrop that Liberia Rising Project came into being.
Meanwhile, citizens in the Borough of New Kru Town have applauded organizers of the project and the decision to have gone to the district.
By Lewis S. Teh
