Voinjama District, Lofa County – Lofa County Senator Steve Jorgbor Hamadu Zargo Thursday congratulated the citizenry with a call on them to co-exist peacefully.
He urged Lofians (citizens of Lofa County) to remain broad-minded, accommodating and living with one another peacefully, irrespective of their political diversity.
In his Independence Day message delivered in Voinjama when he served as orator, Senator Zargo said elections were over and citizens should embrace each other for the sake of the county.
Zargo said citizens should work with the new leadership of the county as was done during the leadership of the Unity Party government.
“During the 12 years rule of Madam Sirleaf we worked with the leadership of the county, especially me (Zargo) despite the fact that I am a member of Liberty Party and that’s the same I want the citizens of Lofa to do for the George Weah-led administration,” he said.
Zargo, who is the chairman of the Lofa County Legislative Caucus, said though there is no member of the CDC in the caucus, they are prepared to work with President Weah in fostering development not just in Lofa but Liberia.
“The CDC-led government doesn’t have a lawmaker in Lofa but it doesn’t mean we as lawmakers of the county should be an obstacle to the government,” he added. “We are prepared to work with all those appointed by the president, despite not being consulted.”
Zargo said the joy of being independent people can’t be qualified as it brings limitless freedom and a high sense of self-worth.
He declared that Liberia still has a “huge potential to flourish and be great again”.
But, he called for eternal vigilance to safeguard the country from “ethnic jingoists and religious fundamentalists” working to dismember it.
Zargo said the continued unity of Liberia is germane to the realization of its full strength and called on well-meaning Liberians to lend their “voices and ideas to the cause of Liberia’s unity by drowning out the voices of the few divisive elements whose stock-in-trade is belligerent posturing.”
“The development of Liberia calls for the collective growth of everyone. It is not the president or your lawmakers you elect. We as citizens must take matters in our hands,” he said.
Zargo added that there was a need for Liberia to remain united, saying there was more to gain in being together as one nation than dissolving as different independent entities.
The senator said it was important for Liberians to realize the fact that the country’s diversity is a strength in itself, which makes the country a truly special place.
He said a moment of reflection and retrospection would reveal the need for citizens to be thankful to God for His grace, blessings and mercy over the country.
‘Let’s rewrite the constitution’
Zargo used the occasion to suggest the need to change the Liberian constitution to address some of the issues that divide citizens of the country.
He said his suggestions stemmed from the vision of the founders of the Liberian state was to create a social formation based on the exclusion of members of various African ethnic groups that were already occupying the “Green Coast” when the freed slaves who were repatriated from the United States arrived in the early 1820s.
“The history of our country and the attending exclusionary and social injustice policies on which it is anchored serves as a sufficient reason we need to rewrite the constitution,” he added.