Paynesville – Alexander B. Cummings, the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) has lashed at the government for failing to provide the needed opportunities to Liberians, especially the youth who he says are working diligently to build their capacities to achieve their dreams and ambitions.
Speaking at 17th Commencement Convocation of the United Methodist University at the Samuel K. Doe Sports Complex Tuesday, Mr. Cummings said every Liberian does not need to work in government.
He added that those who are ready to work hard, as well as disciplined and invest in themselves, they must be enabled to own and participate fully in their country’s economy, and have their interests prioritized in the management of and benefits from the natural wealth of the country.
According the ANC strongman, those who have the responsibility to guarantee equality in opportunity are not doing well to ensure the wellbeing of the citizens.
“Too many of our citizens, like you, our graduates, who now hunger for, and have earned the right, to the opportunities they need to lift themselves and their parents out of the claws of poverty, are finding the opportunities unfairly restricted and difficult to come by,” Cummings said.
He added, “Yesterday, the same people who called and agitated for change, who promised a new dawn of equality of all Liberians, are today committing the same wrongs, and worsening the already difficult conditions of the country, and our people.”
Unlike the expected change, ANC political leader said the nation is governed in a way that excludes individuals from the rights and privileges to which all citizens ought to be equally entitled to.
“Rather than change, we continue to see opportunities which are conferred by citizenship reapportioned not based on equality in citizenship but a warped sense of partisanship and the corruption of cronyism,” Mr. Cummings said.
“Too many of our citizens, like you, our graduates, who now hunger for, and have earned the right, to the opportunities they need to lift themselves and their parents out of the claws of poverty, are finding the opportunities unfairly restricted and difficult to come by.”
Alexander B. Cummings, Political Leader, Alternative National Congress
He added, “Perhaps the failing of the nation, and the lack of equality in opportunity to all of our citizens, are best exemplified, in how our leaders are placing and prioritizing the interests of citizens of other countries over the interests and concerns of Liberians.”
According to Cummings, if Liberia cannot care for Liberians, if Liberians cannot find at home, in the land of their birth, the best chances to succeed in life, no country will care for Liberians.
“It may seem harsh, but our nation is bound to remain poor, rent-seeking, and continue to beg for handouts and budget support to pay public officials and civil servants; we will continue to be ridiculed for celebrating donations of hand-pumps and a few transport buses, all of which a more responsible and less-wasteful government ought to provide for its people,” he said.
Mr. Cummings added if the Liberian government continues to look to other countries for feeding and direct their course of development and national decision-making the sense of its independence will be undermined.
“Our young people will continue to look to escape for greener pastures and away from the harsh realities in the incompetent and corrupt management of the nation’s resources at every available opportunity; our best minds will feel compelled to abandon service to their country; our hospitals and clinics will continue to be without the essentials for needed diagnosis and treatments of the sick,” he said.
Mr. Cummings added, “Our public officials will continue to leak scarce and needed resources out of the ailing economy to travel abroad to get treated; indeed, our people will continue to endure the unbearable hardships just to get by, unless and until we seriously attend to reset the priorities of national leadership, be soberly honest about the choices we must make, and recommit to doing the required hard work, and be willing to undertake the needed sacrifices, to turn ourselves around.”
Also, at the event Mr. Cummings received an Honorary Degree by the faculty of the United Methodist University.