Hon. Deputy Speaker and Distinguished Honorable Members of the House of Representatives of the 54th National Legislature:
I am indeed grateful to the Almighty God, the Great Arbiter of all Human Events, for His grace and sustaining power that has crossed us over into the year 2022.
Admittedly, the year 2021 was one of many challenges, but with the help of our merciful God and that of you, my Distinguished Colleagues, along with the collaborative support of the other two Branches of Government, as well as the International Community, we did tackle those challenges and turned them into immeasurable successes.
I wish to begin by not only recognizing but also applauding the overwhelming support I received from you, Honorable Colleagues in the best interest of our Nation and People, despite the many political linkages and/or persuasions. You will all be remembered as exemplary national assets… for you have demonstrated to be desirable role models. Let us continue in this direction for upward growth and a deeper concretization of our democracy.
As we begin another year of service for our people and Nation, it is once more incumbent upon us to put the interest of our Nation first and above all other interests. We collectively need to erect perceptible and durable platforms of constructive aspirations, genuine hope, tangible possibilities, and realistic optimism. We are under obligation to initiate this task for this generation and the next. With such cause in mind, I am of the strongest conviction that you, my esteemed Lawmakers, will become modern architects of the Nation’s transformative agenda.
Hon. Deputy Speaker and Distinguished Colleagues, having ended the year 2021 with more human-sensitive legislations been enacted, with others still in committee rooms, we wish to further plead with you, my Honorable Colleagues, that we, with speed and efficiency, endeavor to ensure that that significant legislation or laws yet to be passed are fast-tracked.
To all international parliamentary bodies, including, but not limited to, The ECOWAS and The European Parliamentary bodies, we intend to be more focused and are now fully prepared to constructively work with you during this 2022 and beyond in order to serve the cause of our human existence…
For our various constituencies and constituents, we wish to once more assure you of a better Legislature in this 2022 as your trusted deputies or representatives. We faithfully promise to do our utmost best to ensure that our Nation is positively transformed into an oasis of hope and palpable optimism.
We also pledge to maintain the spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and coordination with the other two branches of Government for a stable, peaceful, prosperous, just, and safe Liberian society, where the rights and responsibilities of all are properly balanced.
To conclude Esteemed Colleagues, may I leave you with an abbreviated version of President Theodore Roosevelt’s
“Strength and Decency” Speech, delivered on 6 August 1903 at The Society of Holy Name of Brooklyn and Long Island at Oyster Bay, as food for thought.
It Reads:
“It is peculiarly incumbent upon you who have the strength to set the right example to others. I ask you to remember that you cannot retain your self-respect if you are loose and foul of the tongue, that a man who is to lead a clean and honorable life must inevitably suffer if his speech likewise is not clean and honorable. Every man here knows the temptations that beset all of us in this world. At times, any man will slip. I do not expect perfection, but I do expect genuine and sincere effort being decent and cleanly in thought, in word and indeed. …. I hail the work of this society as typifying one of these forces which tend to the betterment and uplifting of our social system. Our whole effort should be toward securing a combination of the strong qualities with those qualities which we term virtues.
I desire to see in this country the decent men strong and strong men decent, and until we get that combination in pretty good shape, we are not going to be by any means as successful as we should be.”
This is a timeless caution! May we accept the good from it and in it that we, in time, become practical reformers.
Long live the Honorable House of Representatives! Long live the resilient and peace-loving people of Liberia, Long live Liberia, this Glorious Land of Liberty! Wishing us all God’s manifold blessings and good tidings! HAPPY NEW YEAR!