The Political Leader of the People’s Liberation Party (PLP), Dr. Daniel E. Cassell, says the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government is insensitive to the plights of the masses.
Dr. Cassell observed that Liberia is currently on the wrong trajectory due to the government’s failure to adequately tackle and address barrage of challenges confronting the nation and its citizenry as evidenced by its failure to address extreme hunger, poverty and the growing wave of corruption in the public sector.
He said many public officials continue to acquire ill-gotten and unexplained wealth, while vast majority of the Liberian people continue to linger behind in poverty.
Dr. Cassell made these comments at a thanksgiving and honoring service held at the First Presbyterian Church in Monrovia on Sunday, October 17, 2021 maintaining that “corruption is excessive to the core and seems institutionalized by the very people who are ruling over the nation.”
“The government is callously insensitive to the plight of its people. While poverty is skyrocketing and extreme hunger and curable diseases are painfully decimating the precious lives of our people by the day, the “Governors” of our country are acquiring luxurious condos, exotic homes, expensive vehicles, flying private jets, and living garishly,” he expressed.
He indicated that it is appalling that while teachers, nurses, police, army, and regular civil servants are grossly underpaid and cruelly subjected to massive salary cuts under the guise of the infamous “Harmonization Scheme”, officials across all branches of the Liberian government are handsomely paid and given “grandiose benefits in addition to their huge salaries.”
He observed further that in present day Liberia, the barbaric act of ritualistic killings have become pervasive and capturing the news headlines.
Dr. Cassell pointed out that Liberia and its citizens remain faced with multiple problems and challenges because God’s wrath has fallen upon the country due to sheer wickedness and other negative vices in the land.
“God is never happy with a nation in which wickedness and shedding of the blood of the innocent for ritualistic purposes are normal practices, and the citizens are consumed by fear, hopelessness, and continual misery,” he wondered.
He reminded Liberians, particularly government officials to be cognizant of the fact that leaders who don’t acknowledge God and seek his wisdom and guidance are certainly bound to waver and fall.
Despite the multiple challenges as a result of poor governance, Dr. Cassell urged Liberians, especially public officials to submit to God noting that it is wicked to steal the resources of the country and impoverish the masses who are the legitimate beneficiaries.
He added that it is also barbaric for the “elite few in power to live in gross opulence while the masses of our people perish in the abeyance of deprivation, dehumanization, mortification, and subjugation.”
Dr. Cassell further questioned the rationale behind the branding of Liberia as a civilized nation in the midst of the lack of a sound and competitive education system and a standardized healthcare system, inadequate electricity and water supplies, among others.
He maintained that Liberians cannot even survive when they should be living well in their own country emphasizing that Liberia will continue to be a perilous place to live if the hands of the people who govern over the land are involved with wicked, unscrupulous, and despicable acts.
According to him, Liberia is currently at a critical juncture in its national existence and the urgent need for real and sober leadership cannot be overemphasized.
Dr. Cassell then called on religious leaders in Liberia to “stand up against the wickedness and the debauchery obtaining in our country.”
He said Bishops, Pastors, Prophets, Prophetesses, and Imams should use their holy pulpits to loudly slam the bad governance and poor leadership obtaining in the country.
He added that religious leaders should also summon the courage to call out the perpetrators, no matter who they are.
“The Church of Liberia must once again be the ‘Moral Conscience’ of the Liberian society. The legacies of Bishops Michael Francis, Harris Brown, Arthur Kula, Fr. Robert Tikpo, Mother Dukuly, Shiek Kafumba Konneh, and others must be preserved and pioneered onward,” he intimated.
“These were great people of God who fearlessly spoke truth to power and rose to become acclaimed bulwarks of social justice in our country. We heard their piercing voices pitched aloud against misrule, repression, corruption, impunity, partisanship, injustice, tribalism, regionalism, nepotism, and other vices that permeated the Liberian society at the time,” he maintained.
He observed that in Liberia today, the Churches and Mosques are shockingly silent in the face of reigning evils.
Dr. Cassell emphasized that those Pastors, Bishops, Imams and others were called to be “God’s stewards and to do the work of God”, few of them have turned to POLITICIANS, adding that “let the Church and the Mosque be the Church and the Mosque.”
He used the occasion to commend Liberians for being resilient despite all that is obtaining and the perennial trauma they continue to encounter on a daily basis.
He said Liberian should remain standing and fighting for genuine change in the society.
Dr. Cassell emphasized that citizens should continue to stand in the service of the Lord, seek his wisdom and guidance in order for the Lord to be their “Dependable Helper in our collective and unyielding search for a better Liberia that works for all our people, not the elite few at the helm of power”.
He said citizens should envisages a new Liberia where leaders are humble servants and power is used to honor humanity, and a nation where the government MUST ensure that every citizen finds hope and possibility in the place they call home with equal rights and opportunities being the national mentality.
Dr. Cassell added that Liberians must remain hopeful and steadfast that their nation will be a place where leaders are accountable to the people love abounds with will and courage, and nationalism and patriotism rules.
He, however, commended Rev. C. Wellington Morgan, Elders and the entire Church Membership for holding a special thanksgiving and honoring service to enable him, his wife Mrs. Bendu Coleman Cassell and PLP Organizing Chairman Tapple E. Doe appreciate and give thanks and praises to God for delivering them from the deadly Coronavirus.