Africa-Press – Liberia. Liberia’s Vice President, Jeremiah Kpan Koung, who is the National Unification Day Orator this year, says the government is under obligation to change the negative narratives engulfing the country.
Vice President Jeremiah K. Koung assures Liberians that the government has a responsibility to change negative narratives that contributed to Liberia’s senseless fourteen-year internal crisis and disjointedness of National Unification and integration.
Serving as keynote speaker on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, during the 64th celebration of National Unification and Integration at Centennial Memorial Pavilion in Monrovia, VP Koung said the occasion was not only to celebrate the 64th Anniversary of National Unification and Integration but also to salute Liberians for keeping the Nation peaceful, irrespective of their political, ethnic, and religious differences.
This year’s National Unification and Integration Day was celebrated under the theme: “Healing the past, uniting the present, and embracing the future through Arts and Culture.”
Accordingly, The Vice President urges Liberians to reflect and let it be known that the bonds that tie them together as a people are much stronger than the elements that intend to divide the nation.
He observes that Liberians have come a long way on a journey replete with challenges, ranging from the struggle for national independence to the integration of Indigenous Liberians into society to the struggle for the establishment of multi-party democracy and cumulating with a bloody civil war that tore the fabric of the nation.
He adds that throughout these years, despite the multitude of challenges, the people of Liberia have continued to demonstrate their resilience in the quest for national unity.
“Although our history informs us about the long-standing divides between “Americo-Liberians” and “Indigenous Liberians,” which contributed to a fourteen (14) year civil war, our government has a responsibility to change these negative narratives. I am, therefore, honored to represent His Excellency Joseph Nyumah Boakai, Sr., President of Liberia, and to speak directly to the hearts and minds of the Liberian people.”
He says there are no “Americo-Liberians” or “Indigenous Liberians”; rather, Liberians are one people with one common patrimony, striving to achieve a shared destiny and a better Liberia for posterity to inherit.
He discloses that for more than six (6) decades, successive Liberian Presidents have made proclamations declaring May 14 as National Unification and Integration Day.
However, Mr. Koung underscores that the rationale behind this year’s celebration is to arouse Liberians’ national consciousness on the importance of unity and integration for maintaining peace and attaining sustainable development.
“Today, Liberia enjoys a representative democracy, in which the voices of all Liberians are heard through the ballot process. It is with a sense of pride that I can today report that Liberians live in a society where the exclusion and deprivation of basic individual rights suffered by people based on their ethnicity are a thing of the past”, VP Koung announces.
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