The former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, now leading senatorial candidate of Margibi County, Nathaniel Falo McGill, has called on the opposition community to give President George M. Weah the chance to lead the country to a new dawn, which he said the President has already embarked upon and only needs a little more time to land the citizenry in the promised land.
Making remarks on Wednesday, August 30, 2023 in Kakata at a political rally commemorating the Coalition for Democratic Change’s 2023 victory campaign tour in the county, McGill called on Liberians to narrow their choices in the 2023 general and presidential elections, as it is clear that no Liberian is as fit as President Weah to lead the people into a new Liberia. He emphasized that none of the opposition candidates has what it takes to lead the country to where President Weah is taking it.
“So, we want to tell the opposition to wait. Wait for 2029, but for now just wait for President Weah to do his 12 years and take us to the new Liberia—the promised land he wants to take the country to,” he told the opposition.
“The President is in this race not because of himself but because of us. We are talking about the young people who don’t have the opportunities to go to school then but whose future can now be secured with what the President has done and what he still intends to do for the country,” McGill stated.
Cautioning the citizens not to take a gamble on someone who has not got the experience and dexterity to lead and take a decision in times of crisis, McGill, in apparent reference to former Vice President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, the leading contender against President Weah, said there is a big difference between serving as a VP for 12 years and someone who has led the country as President for almost 6 years “because of the complexity in the critical decision-making process the President must take in time of crisis”.
He said experimenting with the office on someone who does not have the experience for the presidency, which is a herculean task, will spell disaster for the country, comparing it to a story of a mere passenger who thinks he can pilot a plane in flight, taking a swipe at Boakai, likening him to the passenger.
“You don’t have the experience, just like someone who served for 12 years as VP, whose only work was to recognize someone in session to speak or not to speak.
“Then you say you want to remove the pilot, the man who has been leading the country for close to 6 years now? The complexity of being a President is not the same as being a VP.
“If you are VP for 12 years you do not know how to solve complex problems such as when the nation has crisis, you have no idea,” he said.
McGill, who formerly served under President Weah for a little over 4 years and is now a candidate for the Senate under the platform of the CDC, said he does not want to be seen as someone who is there to praise the President, but he knows what the President stands for and what he has in store for the country to change its development trajectory.
He stated that the task of building Margibi can only be executed by people who have the county at heart and who will be close to the leadership of the country, such that the county will have all reasons to blame them if it does not have what it should have to change the lives of the people.
“Mr. President, I can’t praise you, but what I told you, like all Margibians, and what I will continue to tell you, is about the new Margibi we want to build: don’t blame the President when things are not going the right way.
“I told them that if the President does not build your new roads, hold me responsible. If the President does not rebuild the CH Rennie Hospital, hold me responsible.
“I told you that as your senator, who will be working with the VP who is the President of the Senate, and also working with the President that I know very well, everything will be possible,” he said.
The senatorial hopeful, while prevailing on the citizens to turn out and massively vote for the President, highlighted some positive attributes of the President which he said were developed down the line while he was growing up, and which have shaped his perspective of seeing life as a giver.
“Mr. President, you made emphasis that the new Liberia you want to build: as a child growing up in Gibraltar, you don’t want any Liberian child to go through it.
“You had to go in the ghetto to pick empty bottles and sell them to go to school, but when you took over the first decision you took was to make education free at higher public institutions in the country.
“Mr. President, you know my story, how some of us used to beg for scholarship to go to school, but you said no one will ever beg for scholarship again, that the country will take the responsibility so that the young people can go to school and prepare themselves for a better future,” he said.
He assured that the second term of the President will see a lot of interventions for the young people, especially in the area of education. “There is a WASSCE payment initiative, but I can tell you that come the next academic year there will be no fee for high school students in the country,” he stated.
He then urged the citizens to turn out and vote the President in the first round, as going to the second round will cost the government a lot of money, which he put at $105 million, a huge amount that will divert the government’s attention from looking at critical sectors of the country, such as rebuilding the CH Rennie Hospital.