Senator Jeremiah Kpan Koung Acceptance Remarks Of As Vice Standard Bearer And Running Mate to Hon. Joseph Nyumah Boakai of the Unity Party
April 28th, 2023
At the headquarters of the Unity Party
Broad Street, Monrovia, Liberia
President-in-Waiting His Excellency Honorable Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr.,
My Fellow Liberians, Partisans and well-wishers,
I want to thank Almighty God, My Mother Esther Markar Koung and my Late Father Adams Sunday Koung, my dear Wife and Children, my entire Family and everyone assembled here today.
I extend special thanks and appreciation to Sen. Prince Y. Johnson, founding father and first Standard Bearer of Movement for Democracy Reconstruction.
I know why many of you are here and why many of you are tuned to this announcement of the running mate of Hon. Joseph Nyuma Boakai. You have all decided to vote Hon. Boakai as the next President of Liberia and I am proud to join all of you to be part of the new Liberia.
Honorable Boakai, I ACCEPT THIS HONOR TO SERVE OUR COUNTRY. This is a dream to me but I am here for one simple reason: I LOVE LIBERIA, I THINK LIBERIA AND I AM DETERMINED TO WORK WITH ALL LIBERIANS TO BUILD LIBERIA.
You are supporting change because you cannot afford another 6 years of decay, division, hate and backwardness. You anxiously look forward to a future of hope and promise. You want government to work for you. You want government to be accountable and honest and you want government to protect you and your family. Many families continue to cry out for justice without any ear to listen. We want to be a government that listens and dispense justice without favor.
We cannot afford 6 more years of this government which cannot understand and is still learning to lead. A government that is indifferent to your many cries!
We have painfully watched more than 5 wasted years of a government that has no vision, no perspective, a pro-poor agenda that has inflicted and distributed poverty and a President and his officials who expand and increase personal wealth at the expense of the majority.
Amb. Boakai and I are determined to turn this country around. We want every child unborn to dream of a country that will offer quality education, HealthCare and employment. We want parents to know that there is a government that will account for their missing children, solve the mystery of disappearances and questionable deaths. We want businesses to have an environment of certainty. We want a respectable government which will not be chastised by the international community.
We have watched more than over 5 (five) wasted years and the time has come for a new generation of leaders to take a deliberate and radical stance to reverse the backward direction of our country.
Honorable Boakai and I have a history of working hard and we intend to put our people to work. In our conversation about our country we both exchanged ideas on how the generation left behind by the mismanagement of the country can become part of our national renewal.
I have joined Honorable Boakai to make this campaign about ordinary Liberians presenting a plan that will rescue our country. We will lay out a plan and offer opportunities to restore your dignity regardless of which party you are. We want you to join our team, join our efforts to reverse the ugly direction of our country.
We cannot wait any longer as we painfully watch our youths being decimated by drugs, young girls as pawns of sexual abuse, human trafficking and illiteracy.
I am humbled to be selected and want to be tutored by a man whose life of integrity and honesty is exemplary.
I don’t know about you but I was just about 11 years old when the war started in Liberia in 1989. I saw first-hand the impact of war on our country especially the youths of our country. I sold fish, sold gas, became a taxi driver, a businessman, representative and now Senator of Nimba County. My story is the story of many. It is the Liberian story but my story must offer hope as I commit myself to work so that every young boy and girl can do better. To all young people, I commit and owe you my best and will work for you. Trust me as one of you!
My selection is a manifestation of Hon. Boakai’s commitment to transition national leadership to a youthful generation whose success can be an example to others.
On this day and with my hearts, I submit to the wisdom and experience of my Big Brother Hon. Benoni Wilfred Urey, my Sister and fellow Senator of Grand Bassa County, Hon. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, Hon. Abraham Darius Dillon and many of you whose commitment and loyalty to our country made all this possible. We pray that we all collectively work to end a long journey we started.
In a small country like ours, I have made friends across the country but there are also those who disagree with me. To all my friends, I plead that you join Honorable Boakai and I to make our country work for all of us. To those who have reasons to disagree with me, I plead for your cooperation so that we all can rescue Liberia. I am only human and as human, we err. In our disagreements, we still have one thing in common: LIBERIA. Let us work for Liberia.
LET’S LOVE LIBERIA, THINK LIBERIA AND BUILD LIBERIA!!!!!!!
MAY GOD BLESS THE WORKS OF OUR HANDS!!!!!
