The political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Alexander B. Cummings, has urged graduates of the United Methodist University (UMU) to believe in themselves and in their dreams and ambitions in order to achieve it.
Mr. Cummings said that the UMU graduates have proven to themselves and the country that challenges can be overcome, goals can be achieved, and in the end, success has come because it will come to all who are willing to discipline themselves and work hard enough to achieve it.
Delivering the institution’s commencement speech, the ANC standard bearer stressed that in all endeavors of life, success is not a measure of where you were born, to whom you were born, nor is it a measure of the name of your family, noting, “As your graduation now proves, success is really a measure of discipline, hard work and determination.”
He explained that where the human capacities of nations are weak, that nation is doomed to be poor and that the wealth of said nation is not measured in the heights of buildings but in the capacities of its citizens.
According to him, this is why, when poor families sacrifice to send their children to school and when they graduate, the families expect that their children will not lack equality in opportunity to better their lives in a country in which they are equal citizens.
He added, “The harsh truth is that those on whose shoulders we have assigned the responsibility to guarantee equality in opportunity have not governed well enough to do so for all of our 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.”
Commenting on the government performance, Mr. Cummings indicated that the same people who called and agitated for change as well as promised a new dawn of equality of all Liberians are the same individuals who are today committing the same wrongs, and worsening the already difficult conditions of the country and its people.
He maintained that rather than change, Liberians continue to see the nation governed in a way that excludes one citizen from the rights and privileges to which all citizens ought to be equally entitled, emphasizing that Liberians also 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 mentioned that 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.
“This is unconscionable, and for any nation on earth, it is wrong and unacceptable. In spite of our superficial differences in identities, the fact is that 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 more and no country will provide more for a Liberian success,” the ANC leader alluded.
He averred, “This does not mean that every Liberian will work in the government. But it means every Liberian, to the extent that they are ready to work hard, as well as discipline and invest in themselves, they must be enabled to own and participate fully in their economy, and have their interests prioritized in the management of and benefits from the natural wealth of the country. At the heart of it, this really is why nations exist; to provide the best possibilities for all of the citizens.”