Liberia’s transformational development requires a complete paradigm shift. That shift impels us to look beyond the traditional places where we get our leaders.
A movement away from an over reliance on academic qualification is vitally necessary.
Although academic qualification is somewhat necessary, given what it portends, it is indeed not enough. Liberia needs leaders with doers’ imperative mindset.
What do I mean by doers imperative?
I’m talking about people with credibility and integrity. People with passion and desire to roll up their sleeves and increase productivity for the Liberian people.
A doer is someone who’s honest and trustworthy, someone who respects the rights of others and follow the rules and laws. Someone who is compassionate respects the property of others and takes full responsibility for his actions.
Liberian truly needs doers. A doer knows what he wants and willing to make short term sacrifices to honestly achieve the desired end results. Doers are patriots.
As the former US President Obama said, “a true patriot is someone who’s armed with a brilliant mind, a big heart, and an insatiable desire to give back to his country, someone who devotes his life to empowering people and making government work better for all of its citizens.
A patriot works tirelessly to give citizens a louder voice in the society and pushes for more transparency in government and to ensure opportunity for all.”
Liberia needs doers who wouldn’t make excuses when they don’t achieve their goals – but instead look at the issue square in the eye and accept it as a challenge and an opportunity to improve.
The quote; “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything” is spot on with the doers’ mentality. Doers believe in an idea or vision that is bigger than the person they see when they look in the mirror.
Doers are people who elevate their God given talents to be the best in the world and effectively use their honestly earned resources to give back to the poor and less fortunate people.
Doers despise the status quo and have a true intolerance for the idea of accepting things as they are. To be told they cannot make a difference or make change is the equivalent of slapping them in the face. Doers love their craft and are committed to improving themselves and the world.
Doers believe in having automation and systems to work effectively and would be extremely wrathful to know that people travel from Lofa, Nimba, Maryland, Sinoe counties to Monrovia just to register their vehicles.
Doers value smart work over hard work. Oh Yes, Doers believe that to succeed, one must be willing to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to achieve your dreams and achieve the life you see for yourself and the world. Doers never give up, because failure is another stepping stone to success.
After over 170 years of independence, I’m in total agreement with President George M. Weah that the time has come to effectively transform our nation.
We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are. Like doers, we need to transform our nation in making critical and informed decisions, balancing the budgets, control spending, eliminate waste, improve infrastructure, create jobs, develop the agriculture and agribusiness and change the people’s mindset about work ethic and the importance of hard work.
In his presentation at the Ministry of Information, Hon Samuel D. Tweah Jr, Minister of Finance and Development Planning indicated that the transformation of the Republic of Liberian requires strong leadership with a doer mindset.
To paraphrase the minister: It was time to eliminate the endless cycle of consultations and become result oriented like doers and invest in education and the agriculture and agribusiness as the catalyst for ending poverty.
The opportunity is undeniable for Liberia, but with opportunity comes responsibility and the need to invest heavily in both social and economic infrastructure.
In terms of social infrastructure, Liberia needs to direct significant resources towards health and education. Growth and development will only occur in conjunction with a healthy and skilled population.
With a transformational mindset, Liberia could be on the brink of major rejuvenation and how this is handled will shape the future of millions of hopeful Liberians. The doers’ imperative is urgently needed to effectively transform the nation to economic self-sufficiency.
With our new President and his passion and pro-poor, pro-Liberia mindset, today is the most critical time for doers to effectively transform our beloved nation and people.
Doers cannot overstate the importance of agriculture to Liberia’s determination to feed itself, maintain and boost its growth rates, create more jobs, significantly reduce poverty, and grow enough cheap, nutritious food to feed its citizens, export its surplus crops, while safeguarding the nation’s environment.
Regardless of our political, ethnic or religious affiliations, our paths are all interconnected. It’s time we get past our differences and focus on our unity, and come together with a doer mindset, in order to effectivity transform our beloved nation and people.
About Author
Rufus S. Berry II, Financial Expert and Anti-Corruption Advocate,
[email protected], [email protected]/+231-886-362332 or +231-770-301071