The President of the Republic of Liberia, H. E. Dr. George Manneh Weah, has by proclamation declared Wednesday, July 26, 2023, National Independence Day to be celebrated throughout the Republic as a national holiday.
The Proclamation calls on all citizens and foreign residents within the territorial confines of Liberia to observe the day as such.
The Proclamation is in consonance with the Patriotic and Cultural Observance Law of 1956, setting aside July 26th each year to be observed as a public holiday to be known as “Independence Day”.
According to a Foreign Ministry release, all government offices and business houses are to remain closed during the observance from 6 o’clock ante meridian to 6 o’clock post meridian.
According to the Proclamation, the official festive celebration will take place in the City of Monrovia, Montserrado County, under the theme, “Giving Our People Hope for a Violence-Free, Fair, Transparent, Inclusive, and Credible Elections”. And an indoor program commemorating the day will be held at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion on Ashmun Street, Montserrado County, commencing at Eleven O’clock ante meridian, with Chief Zanzan Karwor, Chairman of the National Council of Chiefs and Elders of the Republic of Liberia, serving as the National Orator.
The Proclamation further invites and requests all citizens, in solemn cooperation with all prelates, priests, deacons, evangelists, imams, elders, and other members of the sacerdotal order, regardless of religious creed, to gather together with one purpose in their respective places of worship across Liberia, especially in the city of Monrovia, on Friday, July 21, and Sunday, July 23, 2023 to offer thanks and praises to God for His blessings, showered upon the nation, and to beseech Him for His continued goodness and beneficence towards Liberians and peoples around the world.
The Proclamation states that it is in grateful recognition of the blessings and miraculous deliverance which His Almighty Hand has extended to Liberia as a nation and state, in which the nation has been unworthy of, to give thanks, adoration and praises to Him for saving the nation and to commemorate the brave and timely decision of the nation’s forebears on July 26, 1847.
The Proclamation adds that, after due deliberation on the future of the settlement and facing colonial challenges and threats, the Founding Fathers did publish to the world the historic and immortal instrument known as the “Declaration of Independence” by which the Commonwealth of Liberia became presented to the comity of nations as a free, sovereign and Independent state, thereby warding off encroachment from any colonial powers and becoming the “First Independence African Republic”.
