We, the Liberia Restoration Party, are a movement to restore Liberia to God. This is the speech I gave when I accepted the nomination.
"I am honored to stand with you today, and I accept your nomination to contest as the Presidential nominee of the Liberian Restoration Party in the 2023 elections.
I do not seek office for the purpose of disparaging others, and I oppose self righteous indignation.
My interested is to address pertinent issues so as to improve the lives of each and every Liberian.
For those of you who wake up in the morning without knowing where your first meal will come from, I want you to know that your interest is my interest. I have been part of a feeding ministry for years, Feeding Peter's Kids, headed by Pinky Bemah. We have fed over ninety thousand children, and even adults over the years, and still, it seems that the more people that we feed, the greater the demand. I support a government policy that will provide at least one meal a day for each Liberian. Why is this important? Because a hungry individual is a disadvantaged individual, and there is no possibility of growing a nation when its citizens are hungry. According to a recent world bank report, over two million Liberians are unable to support themselves. So, it starts with insuring that our people can eat, and we have seen an example of a government that fed its people. When FDR was President, there was a Great Depression, and he opened soup kitchens as one of the solutions to the problems that the United States faced.
With respect to the economy, Liberia must become a bread basket, not only engaging in agriculture to feed ourselves, but also to feed the world beyond our borders. There is a UN report that predicts a tremendous demand for food in the future, and we only use five percent of our arable land.
With respect to the economy, we must encourage manufacturing, the service industry, technology and climate. We must explore joint ventures with international companies that are engaged in businesses that we need. We are a nation of around five million people, and in a robust economy, we will easily absorb our citizens. This means that we will eventually need to import people, an attractive economy will do that. We cannot wait until the demand happens to formulate an immigration policy; we have to be clear now about how we want to absorb others and what our policy will be as it relates to the path to become a Liberian citizen. Ideally, we want peace within our borders, peace with our neighbors, and peace with the world at large. At some point we may likely be a melting pot boasting of an array of different nationalities living peacefully together.
Most of us have lost love ones because of an inadequate health care system, maybe there was no oxygen, or the equipment at the hospital or clinic did not work, just simple things that people should not die from, I will work tirelessly to have a health care system on par with developed nations.
Even though we have some fine and fair minded judges I believe that our judiciary needs improvement. The components to be a judge should be competence, character, and compassion. I do not support selective justice; a witch-hunt is counter productive. Show me a nation that is just, fair, and compassionate and I will show you a nation with a bright future.
I believe that a strong and truly independent judiciary will greatly enhance security, and ultimately deter crimes against women, raping of children, and other heinous acts of violence.
Government is responsible to secure the lives and property of its citizens. Fortunately for us, we are traditional allies with the United States, because I would engage them on security from the standpoint that vulnerable and insecure nations threaten the security of secured nations.
Infrastructure development must happen in all fifteen counties simultaneously, and that can happen through private sector initiatives. There is a correlation between accessibility to clean drinking water, accessibility to affordable electricity, and poverty. The more inaccessible clean drinking water and affordable electricity is to our citizens, the poorer they will be. It's that simple. I will make sure that clean drinking water is accessible. I will make sure that affordable electricity is accessible.
I support BOT's (Build, Operate, and Transfer) as a way to build roads nationally thereby helping our farmers transport their produce. Moreover, roads and infrastructure encourage other areas of development.
We must place great emphasis on the well being of our children, let them be children again, growing up in an environment that fosters love, innocence, discipline, integrity, and responsibility. Broken children, become broken adults, and broken adults create a broken nation. We must resource our youths, providing opportunities in education, sports, the arts, and fine arts, understanding that a nation's children and youths are truly its future. If we build our children, if we build our youth, if we build men and women, collectively, they will build Liberia.
There is no administration that can craft a policy that will change the hearts and minds of its people. I believe that the church must play that role. Godly men and women must lead by example. A Christian nation starts in the hearts and minds of its people. Are we obedient, are we humble, are we compassionate towards each other, are we tolerant of others whose views and religious beliefs differ from ours, and are we prayerfully dependent on God?
Liberia is headed into an era unprecedented in our history, an era of equality, unity, integrity, growth acceleration, transformation, and restoration.
This new and vibrant Liberia will be a microcosm of the best that democracy in the Western Hemisphere has to offer.
The redemption of Liberia is upon us.
And the choice is clear, inclusion and coexistence or exclusion and nonexistence, that is the choice before us today if we want to build a nation.
Food for all. Resources for all. Liberia for all.
Thank you.
