By By: The People News Online
MONROVIA — Human rights lawyer and Liberian People’s Party leader Cllr. Taiwan Saye Gongloe has called on the government to either organize meaningful national programs for Unification Day next year or remove it from the list of non-working holidays, saying the current approach wastes millions of dollars and erodes public understanding of the day.
In a statement Wednesday, Gongloe said he produced a video ahead of Unification Day on May 14 to explain the holiday’s history and purpose to younger Liberians. He said he checked across the country afterward and found no government-led commemorations, including at the Unification Monument in Vanjamanwata.
“I called all over today, all over Liberia, and I got no information on governments celebrating Unification Day anywhere,” Gongloe said.
He said the holiday was established in 1960 under President William V.S. Tubman to unite the descendants of settlers and indigenous Liberians, with the slogan “Pele, we are one people, one destiny.” When he was in school, he said, schools and ministries held programs nationwide.
“The Ministry of Local Government, Information and Education should have had programs all over the country,” he said.
Gongloe said the lack of official observance is leaving younger generations uninformed. He cited a conversation with a friend whose daughter, a third-year university student, asked what Unification Day meant.
“Today, I’ve asked young people, what is the meaning of Unification Day? Nobody knows. College students,” he said.
He argued that declaring holidays without programs hurts the economy and serves no national purpose. He estimated that millions of dollars were lost Wednesday when businesses and offices closed.
“When you declare a holiday, millions of dollars are lost. It must be for a national purpose,” Gongloe said. “Since the Liberian government has holidays that are not being celebrated, but are now taking our economy back, losing millions of dollars, then let’s declare Unification Day and other working holidays.”
Gongloe contrasted the muted observance of Unification Day and August 24 with the government’s celebrations of Armed Forces Day and Independence Day. He said the omission was striking given President Joseph Boakai’s recent peace award.
“You cannot have sustainable peace without unified people. We needed to have programs yesterday,” he said.
“If the government has decided not to be celebrating some holiday, then cut it off. That’s my view to the Liberian people,” he added.
Gongloe concluded that Liberia cannot afford to treat holidays casually. “Let us not waste time. It’s time to develop Liberia. Every day is important. Every minute is important. And we have a holiday. It must be meaningful.”
