My Fellow Citizens, I want to first express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all Liberians and friends of Liberia alike, for the beautiful celebration of the country’s 175th Independence Day on July 26, 2022.
I am also grateful to neighboring heads of state and other dignitaries who joined us to mark this very important milestone in our nation’s history including President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau, President Mohammadou Buhari of Nigeria, and President Adama Barrow of The Gambia.
I also seize this opportunity to thank the government and people of the United States of America for the historical gift of solidarity and to President Biden for his invitation to join him in Washington DC in December to discuss peace and development along with other African leaders.
Fellow Liberians, the main purpose of my address today, is to denounce in the strongest terms, the violence which was perpetrated by some youth in the early hours of July 26, when Liberians at home and abroad were just preparing to celebrate such an important day for the country.
Violence is totally unacceptable. I have stressed in all my public engagements the need to maintain the hard-earned peace that we now enjoy. This is a cause for which I have lent personal sacrifice – as an Ambassador of peace. So if you claim to love me or follow my political ideology, you can not do so with violence.
Anyone or group that has my image on a banner in support of me and my Government has to be peaceful, respectful, and tolerant. You cannot support a man of peace by being violent. I also want to stress, as the founding father of the Congress for Democratic Change, now the Coalition for Democratic Change, that we do not have any CDC-COP within our organization.
When you come to join us, you become a CDC partisan of peace, democracy, and development. Therefore, I have mandated the Ministry of Justice and the entire national security apparatus to immediately arrest all those involved in the violent incident on July 26, 2022, and ensure that they face the full weight of the law.
I have also instructed the Minister of Health to ensure that all those who sustained injuries during the violent attack be given the best medical treatment at the expense of the government. Liberia remains a country of laws. Despite our political differences, we are one nation, one people united under God’s command. God Bless Liberia.
