Liberia: Memo to the President - Congratulations, Madam President

16 January 2012
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Your Excellency:

Today, January 16, 2012, is your day, as it was your day in January 16, 2005. It is also the day of the Liberian people – a day of renewed hope for a better future. In all, you and the people will renew the pact of socio-economic growth, political amity, and personal opportunity that you had signed six years ago. We congratulate you for this political feat, especially having done so through daunting challenges, which you overcame through careful planning and the garnering of support unparalleled in the history of the Liberian presidency. We congratulate also, your able and committed Vice President, Mr. Joseph Boakai, who stood by your side in the thick and thin of Liberia’s politics of the self. Just as the Liberian people met voluntarily at the polls in inclement conditions, sometimes at the risk of their personal security, to reelect you overwhelmingly, we have no doubt they will support the programs of your administration more than ever. The opposition too, we hope, will see reason to support you. We think this phase of your national leadership will produce a legacy of cooperation across political, class, religious, and ethnic boundaries. We take cue from the political realignment that occurred naturally after NEC announced that there would be a presidential runoff. Parties, mainly LP and NUDP, whose leaders had been at your throat throughout your first administrative term, suddenly rushed to your support when they had to choose between opposition solidarity and steady national leadership – when they had to choose between politics for its own ends and the larger interest of the Liberian people. There is bound to be a replay of this scenario, again and again, throughout your second term, provided though, you will nurture it not in effort to efface multipartysm, but to promote national growth through diversity.

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