Monrovia – The political leader of the opposition political party, Movement for Progressive Change (MPC), Simeon Freeman, has told Liberians to stop complaining about bad leadership whenever they elect people in office.
Freeman, who doesn’t mince his words when he speaks on national issues, said every Liberian has the opportunity to scrutinize a person before making such a person a leader.
The tough-talking Liberian businessman turned politician was not specific and did not point out which leader he was referring to in Liberia, but he told students of the Liberia International Christian College (LICC) in Ganta, Nimba County that people need to be careful as to how to elect leaders including lawmakers among others.
Speaking at a program marking the induction ceremony of the newly elected leaders of the LICC, Freeman, however, urged leaders to be examples and change the dynamics for which they were elected.
He disclosed that the problem Liberia is faced with today is that the country has a serious leadership problem and that it is influenced by Liberians and not the leaders themselves.
“If the people that you elect are not already leaders and they become the leaders, it becomes a problem. The legislature is responsible for the passing of the budget and making the lives of the people better but they are not doing it, yet you will still elect them to be your leaders. Stop crying because you are responsible for making bad leaders,” he said.
Freeman noted that Liberians are noted for putting squared pegs in round holes, something he says brings about disastrous outcomes.
According to Mr. Freeman, if an individual, who is already in leadership position but refuses to adequately play the role of a leader, it creates problem for the leader and those he or she leads. “When you are a leader and the opportunity arises to be the leader, then we will not have all of these miscarriage of development we have in Liberia find,” he said.
According to him, Liberians refused to elect good leaders into offices, saying, in many respect such persons elected as leaders don’t know what to do when elected because they are selfish.
“If the people that you elect are not already leaders and they become the leaders, it becomes a problem. The legislature is responsible for the passing of the budget and making the lives of the people better but they are not doing it, yet you will still elect them to be your leaders. Stop crying because you are responsible for making bad leaders.”
– Simeon Freeman, Political Leader, Movement for Progressive Change
“They are not a leaders. Here is this selfish guy who mobilized resources to be elected and becomes the leader; this dull and not so smart guy in society, who has mobilized resources and qualified to be the leader because of the human marks that are set to be the leader.”
He continued: “To be a leader means you seek to control energy within yourself; it is not about your ideal of the world, it’s how you think the world should be, it is our simple effort, for example, you eating too much and you getting fat, the thing is, do you have a courage to even stop yourself from eating and getting fat, you need to be selfless as a leader,” he said.
He further stated that to be a leader, one does not necessarily have to be leader, to become the leader. “You just have to decide to be a responsible person firstly to yourself, control yourself, regulate yourself and determine that which is good and give that good to the rest of the world,” he said.
He said everybody blames the leader, “If you want to be a leader of a particular country or county there are marks or guidelines set by the National Elections Commission that can qualify a person and that person can mobilize the resources and run a successful campaign and win election to make that person the senator or the representative but it is possible that person cannot be a leader.”
He said Liberians many times blame the presidency when there are national problems, saying, “It shouldn’t be the presidency problem alone, you should also blame the legislature for some of our problem, they are the ones that pass the budget,” he noted.