Addressing a recent graduation exercise at the Gboveh High School in Gbarnga, Bong County, Simeon Freeman observed that the President’s job creation scheme is “already falling short on affording deserving young Liberians a chance to earn a living.”
He described this alleged “stance taken by the President as the creation of a system of class welfare.”
Freeman argued that “the intent of such system is to keep the majority undereducated, deprived and hopeless. The President's youth empowerment scheme is meant to enrich her loyalists with lucrative government jobs and opportunities. Those unable to withstand the challenge will surrender and be humbled. Those resisting must be punished. Out of millions of young and capable men and women, few loyalists are preferred and enabled.”
“For President Sirleaf,” the former MPC torchbearer continued, “generational change means enabling only young loyalists. This way, she is transferring national leadership to poorly prepared sycophants who are unfit to lead anywhere.”
Freeman: “A centrally located government University – University of Liberia – was established when Liberia’s growth rate was 2.1% and a national population of about a million. Today, we are 4 million people, a growth rate of 4.2% with one Government University in the city. Community colleges being established in rural Liberia are expensive.
“The courses being offered replicate the same obsolete pattern of the University of Liberia, undermining the possibility of being hired. If graduates of Universities in the city, earning Bachelor’s degrees are unable to secure a job, how much more will graduates of rural colleges, offering only Associate degrees in the same disciplines?
“No concrete or systematic approach is being advanced but empty promises from a President that has no history of keeping her promises. One day, Monrovia will be relocated to Zekepa; another day, a government of inclusion will be formed. Nobody forces her to say the things she says. We do not write her speeches for her. We do not compel her to say the things she says.”
He continued: “A generational thinker does not exploit the current but preserves it for the future. A generational thinker endures difficulties today, to leave behind better situations and circumstances for generations yet unborn. A generational thinker is that Gboveh graduate who refuses to break the chairs in the class simply because he/she is graduating today, but is mindful of the fact that juniors will also need to occupy those very chairs. A generational thinker uses a public toilet and cleans it, mindful that as they did not wish to occupy a messy toilet, they will not leave it messy for other users.”
