The President/CEO of Liberia Christian Association of the Blind (CAB), Sir Beyan G. Kota, says the organization remains committed to championing the cause of the blind and visually impaired citizens of the country, noting that blind people are not “outcast” as is being negatively perceived by some elements in society.
Kota intoned that the CAB has been faced with mammoth challenges in speaking for the voiceless (blind) since its establishment yesteryears by ensuring that their rights/dignities are respected and they have access to quality education; however, government and society in general nowadays continue to play lip-service to buttressing the program activities of the CAB across the nation.
He also decried the lack of support from the Government of Liberia (GoL) and the public in general for the organization’s National Resource Center for the Blind, a center that provides free education and moral upbringing for the blind and visually impaired citizens.
On the issue of CAB captured in the national fiscal budget, as was done by previous Liberian governments, the CAB President/CEO said since the inception of the current administration the organization is yet to receive its subsidy from government.
Against this backdrop, Kota is calling on the CDC-led government, through the Ministry of Education (MOE), to begin to meet up with its obligation by including the CAB in the national budget, as has been the case over the years.
The CAB boss expressed his disgust to the media minutes after the official celebration of the National White Cane Safety Day program on October 15, 2021, organized by the CAB and held on the theme, “Using the Cane, Meeting the Needs, Realizing the Rights and Addressing the Challenges”.
Earlier on, a prelate, Rev. Luther Tarpeh, who served as guest preacher during the occasion marking the National White Cane Safety Day, spoke on the topic, “Leadership that Matters for the Nation Building Process”, said Africa is somewhat plagued with a leadership dilemma, which continues to stall the growth and development of the Continent.
Rev. Tarpeh, Proprietor of Best Brains Academy, an institution that is molding the minds of youth to become nation builders, attributed the economic stagnation facing many governments in Africa to the lack of patriotism and bad leadership traits on the part of rulers ascending to leadership positions and not putting the interest of the people first, above personal aggrandizement.
“This tendency of bad governance has and continues to keep some African nations underdeveloped, as most of their citizens, including Liberians, currently live below the poverty belt,” Rev. Tarpeh asserted.
He said that Africa, especially its oldest republic, Liberia, needs people of integrity to push the Continent’s developmental agenda forward, but not rascals or self-centered individuals wanting to amass wealth at the determent of those they are supposed to be governing.
Rev. Tarpeh voiced that, if the nation state ought to take its rightful place among the comity of nations, the need to build integrity in Liberian youths, including children of disability at the CAB, cannot be over-emphasized.
On educational matters, Rev. Tarpeh said the system is not only faced with challenges but is also in total “mess”, and recommended the cleaning up of the mess by government and stakeholders of the sector.
The Best Brains Academy Proprietor noted that the downward trend of Liberia’s educational system is retarding the capacity of the student populace to compete with their counterparts in the world of academia.
He further maintained, “At the level of higher institution of learning and grade schools, the educational system is very poor.”
At the same time, the Best Brains Academy vision bearer said he wants authorities of MOE to shut down schools where teachers are allegedly bent on sexually abusing female students for grades, while on the other hand extorting money from male students for underserved grade points.
“These unpatriotic practices by some teachers in the educational sector in exploiting students must at all costs be stopped and those involved checkmated or weeded out of the teaching profession in Liberia,” Rev. Tarpeh underscored.
For his part, Sekou Korleh, a senior manager at the National Port Authority (NPA) who served as proxy for the Managing Director of the entity, Dr. Bill Twehway, said celebration of National White Cane Safety Day was pivotal, and called for concerted effort by the government and society to support the program activities of Liberia Christian Association of the Blind.
During the occasion, Korleh passionately made a donation of L$100,000 to the CAB authorities on behalf of the management of the NPA.