K E Y N O T E A d d r e s s delivered By Honorable Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. Vice President of the Republic of Liberia at the SPEAKERS’ BUREAU OF THE WILLIAM V.S. TUBMAN UNIVERSITY under the auspices of the Institutional Advancement Division, William V.S. Tubman University Campus, Harper, Maryland County on April 25, 2016

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K E Y N O T E A d d r e s s
Delivered By
Honorable Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr.
Vice President of the Republic of Liberia
at the
SPEAKERS BUREAU OF THE WILLIAM V.S. TUBMAN UNIVERSITY
Under the Auspices of the
Institutional Advancement Division
William V.S. Tubman University Campus
Harper, Maryland County
April 25, 2016
Honorable Members of the Maryland County Legislative Caucus Present;
Superintendent Betsy Kuoh Toe and other Officials of the Historic County
of Maryland;
Mayor George Prowd and other Municipal Leaders of the City of Harper;
President Dr. Elizabeth Davis-Russell and the TU Administration;
President Isaac George and Distinguished Members of the Faculty Senate;
President Mark Toe and Esteemed Members of the Student Body;
Special Honored Guests and Well-Wishers;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is so good to be here again after nearly three years! I believe it was in late April
of 2013. I see a lot of wonderful changes, tremendous improvement, an army of
students so eager all over the Campus, a campus bustling with activities and a
University full of life! Thank you for the warm and very enthusiastic welcome all of
you have given me and members of my delegation since our arrival here a few
days ago.
I especially want to thank your most outstanding and fabulous President, Dr.
Elizabeth Davis-Russell, for all she has done so much to make this historic
Institution not just a success, but the pride and joy of Maryland County and
Liberia.
I know we are literally just a couple of months away from a poignant and
sentimental transition that is before Tubman University--marking the eve of the
retirement of TU President Dr. Elizabeth Davis-Russell, which we are told comes in
June. Since it is highly unlikely that I will make it here for that auspicious
ceremony, let me take a moment to say to you, Dr. Russell, a big thank you for
such diligent service to country.

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The words of gratitude expressed by the President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on
behalf of Government during your investiture ceremony, effectively captured our
appreciation for your service to this county, this country, and our people. You are
also such a motivating character not only to the struggling female population of
our own dear country but, even further, to all women who aspire to challenge the
proverbial glass ceiling. This is particularly so for women who seek to lift
themselves out of the traditional state of marginalization which so commonly turns
out to be the lot of the majority.
You have indeed served well this nation and people. And nothing pleases me more
than being able to convey to you, your flowers as you still count among us very
much alive and kicking.
Let me say again as I said to you in my April 20, 2013 address on the TU Campus
that it is to a luminary as you, that the famed Indian Literary Giant, Nobel
Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, would say,
“I slept and dreamed that life was happiness.
I woke up and saw that life was service.
I served and learnt that in service happiness is found.”
Dr. Davis-Russell, you have done your part, and we wish you well.
And today I need not tell you how honored I feel to join this rostrum of esteemed
speakers of the Speakers Bureau of the William V.S. Tubman University.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen from Academia and the larger
community,
I remember that it was a beautiful evening when we arrived on campus, and today
as we headed to this program, I noticed the robust activities around here. As I
looked on the faces of the students, I noticed that you are energetic, enthusiastic,
full of zeal and anxious to learn. Each of you looks ready to be inspired by your
professors and each other.
Then I reflected for a moment on the future of our country and what the years
ahead will look like for my grandchildren and your children’s children. I asked
myself if we are on the right trajectory to securing the future of our country and
those coming after us. Are we doing those things and setting up systems that
secure our role in the comity of nations? Some of you are shaking your heads—
maybe not physically--and suggesting that we need to do more.
You know, the thing about the future is that it is inevitable. Whether you prepare
for it or not, it is bound to come upon us. And these days, the future comes at us

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at a much faster pace than ever before. We live in an age of accelerating returns,
in which technological advancement moves at an exponential rate.
In ten years, no industry will look like it does now. In twenty years many, if not
most, of today’s jobs will be completely obsolete.
But you, young people and students should not overlook or underestimate your
own importance to the future of our society and also the part you are expected to
play to make it a success. To prepare for the future you need to shape it for
yourselves-- or someone else will determine what the future means for you. You
have the intellect, guts and imagination to design systems and advance solutions
to make this country a success.
The time to start preparing for the future is always in the present. As we take a
thoughtful look around us today, we cannot avoid the specter that is approaching
us in the next few months; this whirlpool of democratic interactions that we are on
our marks for.
The role you play in the events of the next several months, especially the
democratic exercises that we are launching into, will determine in large measure
how much value and stock you put into this country’s direction and future.
In that regard, I would like us, for the next few minutes, to have a conversation
that will be as relevant as it is meaningful, on a modest and straightforward topic,
“The TU Student Community and Our Democracy: A Call to Think Liberia,
Love Liberia, and Build Liberia.”
Aware of the essentiality of good leadership to any thriving democracy, we all do
agree that those we position at the helm, as a matter of necessity, must be
imbued with the serenest of qualities. They must be driven by pristine virtues that
motivate, invigorate, and correctly embolden the citizens to strengthen their faith
in the direction of the nation.
The process of Thinking Liberia, Loving Liberia and Building Liberia begins with
asking ourselves if we honestly are patriotic. Have we been true to this country?
Have we given to it all that we could? Have we treated it better than a vacation
spot? Do we really love this country? What is patriotism? Is it love of one's
birthplace, the place of childhood's recollections and hopes, dreams and
aspirations? Is it the place where, in childlike naiveté, we would watch those that
we call leaders kick it around?
Someone rightly defined Patriotism as a demonstrative attachment to a nation
which an individual recognizes as their homeland. This attachment, also known as
national feeling or national pride, can be viewed in terms of different features
relating to one's own nation, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical
aspects.

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Another aspect of thinking Liberia hinges on selecting leaders that also, as the
definition suggests, have a demonstrative attachment to this country. The key
word there is “demonstrative attachment.”
Someone whose actions in the past have shown that they deeply care about this
country. But more often than not many of us fall for those frivolous attributes in
leaders that we choose who end up producing results that are counter to our
dreams and inimical to our national advancement.
One such attractive temptation that has regularly shown in our selection process is
the undue consideration for the depth of the pocket of the one seeking our favor.
This tendency becomes even more worrisome when no thought is given to the
source of the wealth and the circumstances surrounding its accumulation.
Yet still others are driven by their consideration of familial, ethnic, sectional, and
or religious affiliation. In all this, the critical question of competence is almost
always compromised.
Evidently, we do find, and have found, mounds of pitfalls in selections that are
grounded in the use of these sorts of yardsticks. And this is what leaves our
governance system and our national coffers hemorrhaging time and again.
By truly Loving Liberia, you are bound to endow yourself with the acumen to
identify that true leader who exemplifies the highest qualities of honesty, humility,
foresight, level-headedness, integrity, and importantly, loyal and faithful to
country. Your laser search must find not the minutest shred of greed and avarice
in his/her fiber.
The call to THINK LIBERIA, LOVE LIBERIA AND BUILD LIBERIA thus
becomes as imperative as it is meaningful. Thinking Liberia above self-serving
interests is a pursuit that is not Rocket Science but is equally not a piece of cake.
It carries with it a huge demand to be selfless and more broad-minded in thought,
more humanistic in mind, and more altruistic in heart.
If LIBERIA is the key factor that occupies your mind when you take your actions
steps in your political interactions, you are bound to be immune from the
trivialities that only go to lower the bar.
If you are thinking Liberia while in search for a suitable leader, you cannot avoid
giving greater consideration to the life the contenders have lived long before
casting their nets for the highest office in the land today. You sure will probe their
deeds of years long before today, their demonstrated demeanor in positions of
power and wealth, as well as their consideration for the common people.

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In a political landscape like ours, as in many others, it is not uncommon for the
field to be flooded with all manners and variants of personalities clamoring around
for support. And in stepping forward to seek your support, many do perform
cosmetic make ups on themselves to help present them in the most attractive
light.
Fully indulged in THINKING Liberia and LOVING Liberia one cannot resist that
huge urge to be a part of efforts at BUILDING Liberia. And when Liberia is built it
stands to benefit all. Hence my call to all of you to THINK LIBERIA, LOVE
LIBERIA, and BUILD LIBERIA.
To you--this army of promising students--I should give you the forewarning that
building in those virtues that make one a good and contributing citizen are not as
easy as we would want it be. It takes sacrifice—at times even self-denial—and
self-discipline. In real life the road leading to vice and evil is usually well paved
while the one to goodness and Godly reward is found to be rugged and thorny.
It is sure not that easy to eschew theft in the midst of kleptomaniacs. In classes in
which you sit there is always that heavy weight of temptation to cheat, particularly
when peers engaged in the act. It takes a huge dose of self-restraint, self-
confidence, self-pride, and that profound sense of justice to stave off greed and
not allow it to drive you to inflict harm and grief onto others.
I should commission you to go out there and take on the difficult challenge of
serving as harbingers of good citizenship, displaying the highest virtues in your
interactions with your peers and your seniors. In your love for Liberia, let your
actions and utterances stimulate positive responses in others of your age group.
Always take the higher ground.
I pray you are very much aware that you can only be ready for this role by
preparing yourselves within these walls and in your communities. Avoid short cuts
that border on bending or dodging the rules only for your personal gain.
Try to earn whatever you get, never indulging in practice of accruing things by the
employment of unsavory means to the detriment of your law-abiding colleagues.
Avoid envy which breeds undermining. Always know that you do not reach success
by standing on the corpses of others. Be dutiful and help in the position you hold
so that your deeds serve as the thrust that sends you up to higher levels. Avoid
greet as greed poisons everything it touches.
Always strive to ensure that the measure of your success is determined by your
level of preparation. It is in that context that I always quote Henry Hartman, the
Iconic American Graphic Designer, who so cogently noted that, “Success always
comes when preparation meets opportunity.”

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Let us bear in mind that our greatest and most valuable treasure is this one
LIBERIA. Let us give her the best leader we can find—that valuable gift that
believes in the letter of spirit of thinking loving and building Liberia, nothing more,
nothing less.
And so must we, ladies and gentlemen. We need to look at this old issue of
selecting our national leaders in a new way. Not simply for today but to make our
tomorrows more rewarding, more fulfilling, more compelling because of the
changes we make today. With your help we can think anew, we can take
deliberate and careful action to select a president and other leaders and act anew
on the new issues before us today."
More than 450 years before the birth of Christ, The Chinese Philosopher,
Confucius, said: 'What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do,
I understand.'
Well, let us do it together. We've heard what we have to do. We've seen what we
need to do. Now is the time to do it and together we can. Do it! Let us think
Liberia; let us love Liberia; and let us build Liberia.
Thanks you. God bless us all. God bless Liberia.