Monrovia – The Bishop Emeritus Matthew T. Gueh of the Evangelical Congregational Church in Liberia, has told the President-elect George Manneh Weah and Vice President-elect Chief Jewel Howard-Taylor and other leaders, including the lawmakers, to avoid issues that will procrastinate the development of Liberia.
Report by Bettie Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
Preaching on the theme, “What you Ought to Do, Do It Now,” at the Thanksgiving and Intercessory Service for the inauguration of Ambassador Weah and Veep-elect Howard-Taylor, Bishop Gueh warned the nation’s leaders that Liberians won’t spare them if they fail them.
“The thing about ‘I have just taken office let me settle down’ should be a thing of the past. You already know the problems that Liberia faces; that is why you campaigned and the people voted for you. Don’t not procrastinate. You will have to begin work now, not tomorrow,” he emphasized.
According to the clergyman, Liberia is good at setting record of being the first but that feat has never benefitted the nation holistically.
He got some in the audience murmuring when he presented a counter thesis that Liberians should refrain from saying their country is a “sovereign nation” and should begin to say “a suffering state.”
According to him Liberia was not truly sovereign as it has not grown since it declared its independence on July 26, 1847—170 years ago.
“Liberia has refused to grow; we have been jumping. Every time we jumped, we come right back down at our same position. Among countries on the dark continent of Africa in 1847, we jumped up and say we have independence, but we can’t show any product.
Sometime ago, we boast of having the largest rubber plantation in the world, but we can’t show a single, finished rubber product that is done in Liberia. We again jumped and say that we are the largest iron ore producing nation in the world; again then we didn’t show a single iron that we made from the ore. We were just jumping and not growing.”
“We produced Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as the first democratically elected female President in Africa, but where are we? Liberia always makes history. By 1995, we produced yet the first African to become Europe Best, Africa Best and World Best, but with all this history, we didn’t partake in the World Cup,” he stressed.
The Bishop told the audience, which included representatives of foreign missions accredited to Liberia that on Monday, January 22nd, Liberians will be jumping and boasting again of making another history: for being the first nation in the world to elect to their nation’s highest office a former footballer.
However, this milestone, he urged Liberians and Liberia to grow and stop jumping.
Bishop Gueh, who it seems is a very good friend of the incoming President, Mr. Weah, told the incoming leadership that Liberians will be expecting everything too soon and there should no excuses for not meeting the expectations.
He jokingly told the incoming leaders and the congregation that when one has a dream of one’s mom’s passing in one’s dream and comes to pass in reality, when one goes back to bed and have the same dream than one’s dad is about to pass, too.
“Please Mr. President-elect, we don’t want to have that dream again. In past regimes, we dreamt and Liberia was not developed.
“Under your regime, we don’t want to have that dream, because we want development and everything else now.”
“West Point can’t afford to wait; Grand Gedeh can’t wait; New Kru Town can’t wait; we are expecting everything now.”
He warned Mr. Weah that he shouldn’t go to the Executive Mansion and began to do ‘cry baby.’ “I rather advise you not to go there because that place is not a place to cry baby.
“We are not going to spare you; you already know all the problems that is why you ran and won the elections. We are expecting everything now that’s why we voted you ‘the country giant.’ When corruption and messy education see you, they should run.”
During the campaign period of 2017 elections activities, President-elect Weah, then candidate Weah, who ran on the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) ticket, was dubbed by his supporters “country giant.”
Bishop Gueh urged the President-elect to use his country giant strength and position to bring positive changes, including tackling corruption and the messy education system.
“We are very tired; our hopes are almost dead. There is a reason for which you have been brought to this throne, so don’t make us regret choosing you,”
Preaching from the Bible book of Numbers 1:1-5, 16-18, the Bishop told the new leadership that excuses of “the challenges are many,” won’t suffice because Liberians can no longer afford to hold unto, “Don’t expect too much too soon.”
He warned the incoming administration to avoid procrastination and delay in order to implement a positive agenda for the country.
“Do it now for Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, Grand Kru and West Point, New Kru Town, they can’t bear to wait any longer.”
It was a colorful ceremony, which was interspersed with prayer for the 15 political sub-divisions, beautiful gospel selections from the combined inaugural choir and some Liberian kids, including visually impaired Semah Weifur.
The visiting Ghanaian Archbishop, Nicholas Duncan Williams of the Action Faith International, Accra, Ghana, prayed for peace, reconciliation and thanksgiving.
Archbishop Duncan asked God that no Liberian should ever again take gun against another Liberian. He also prayed that reconciliation and peace will exist amongst leaders so as to move the nation forward to higher heights