Dillon Trumpets Need For Transformational Change -Rallies US-Based Bassa Citizens to Adapt Appropriate Attitude

Citizens of Grand Bassa County residing in the United States of America under the aegis of the United Bassa Organization in the Americas (UNIBOA) have been urged to embrace transformation which embodies change of mindset and attitude for the purpose of making meaningful contributions to their organization and the Bassa speaking communities back home.

Senator Abraham Darius Dillon of Montserrado County, made the call on Saturday, March 5, 2022, when he served as Keynote Speaker at the 5th Inaugural program of UNIBOA held in Louisville, Kentucky, USA under the theme “Transformation for Expansion”.

Though he did not speak from a prepared text, Senator Dillon’s speech resonated with the people and was continuously punctuated by applauses at the colorful event attended by sons and daughters of Grand Bassa County.

In line of the theme of the program, Senator Dillon told the new leadership of the organization that if they wanted to transform and expand the organization, the leadership should plan with the people and not for the people because when the planning is done with inputs from the people, they give all the needed cooperation and support.

He said when the reverse is done, there will be resistance from the people; there will be lack of cooperation and support.

He acknowledged and commended Bassa citizens living in the United States who, according to him have what it takes help Liberians back home, to begin to make tremendous impact in the lives of ordinary citizens back home.

“I look in this room and I am amazed, excited and happy that Bassa speaking people are making headway in the United States of America,” he exclaimed. “I look in this room, I see professionals, I see men and women, mothers and fathers, people who are established. Transformation was made possible by the American Dream. The question is, what is the Liberian dream? What is UNIBOA’s dream?”

Senator Dillon who referred to transformation as change, said Liberians have spoken about change, craved for it but have not been able to ask the hard question of the kind of change; and the country will continue to ask for change will never reach the desired results of what the people want.

The warned: “It seems to me that we have not yet defined what kind of change we want, and how we can all together make that change possible. If we want to transform our country, we have to be disciplined. Discipline is the hallmark for transformation. One must have focus, one must have a vision, one must have a goal, what we are seeking to achieve with our transformation.”

Senator Dillon who was overwhelmingly elected twice as Senator of Montserrado County, thereby uprooting the supremacy of the ruling party from its traditional stronghold of Montserrado, brought out his own story how out of obscurity and not knowing that he would have been a stakeholder in the body politics of the country became a Senator of the country’s most populous county by sheer focus and decision to be transformed from the first sole purpose of seeking greener pasture.

He continued: “When I asked you across the globe to pray for me to become senator, it was not for Grand Bassa County, but for Montserrado County, the most populous county in the republic. I saw in me and myself, Wilfred Dillon and Hannah’s son, coming from Grand Bassa County, coming to Montserrado County in search of change, transformation and greener pasture. Never ever dreamed or thought that I would be part of the body politics of Liberia one day.”

He said he got his inspiration to contest the senatorial race and make a difference after praying to God to give him the courage and order his steps to challenge the insinuation where some Liberians have consigned him that “everything is okay” when in fact nothing is working well for the country.

Senator Dillon said he refused to accept being a citizen of a country where every time the citizens go to election for a change and when change comes the very people say it is okay with the country when it is not true.

He lamented: “I went ahead and told myself that I may not be the best person, but I refuse living in a country when things are said to be okay and they are not. No system, no discipline, you find lawlessness, no hope for older people for retirement, no hope for the babies as to what life they will grow up in, no hope for the young people who believe the only means of survival is to shout battle cry.”

Dillon, who is affectionately called the Light, as reference to how he flags up national issues in the Liberian senate, had the audience spellbound to ask few rhetorical questions.

“How can I continue to be a citizen of a country where we resolved it is okay to be so? When we travel out of Liberia we see the same work, we discipline ourselves. How is it that Liberians can be disciplined immediately when they leave and the “Liberianness” enters us as soon as we arrive at RIA.

“How is it that at 2 am in the developed world we respect the traffic when the red light is on but at 12 pm in Liberia when people see the redlight, they just pass? Then we say no system working?.

“How can we Liberians in developed world dare put a car on the road without a driver’s license and without that car being registered but we go to Liberia and say it is okay.

“How is it possible that my brothers and sisters, my fellow Bassa speaking citizens that when we go to parties in the developed world, we refuse to drink because we are drivers in America and the developed world but back home in Liberia, we the same people , we will make sure we are charged before we go behind the steering?”

He said some Liberians are not taking the country seriously as others do because the country itself does not consider its own children or citizens as other countries do, citing how Ghanaians despite all difficulties still feel that Ghana is the best.  He told the audience to their pleasure that he has been fighting over the years and will insist that the dual citizen bill is passed, stressing, “once a Liberian, a Liberian”, to the delight of the audience.

Among other things, Senator Dillon lamented that with the expansion of the budget in this fiscal year, he expected expansion in the wellbeing and wealth of Liberian businesses as well adding that in the current budget, the government will be spending millions on goods and services but unfortunately that will not reflect in the fortune of Liberian owned businesses.

He said foreigners are always the beneficiaries of the government’s transaction with the private sectors to the detriment of the Liberians in their own country. He said it is a matter of urgency that the government gives priority to the Liberian businesses so as to be competitive in their own economy.