‘WE NEED YOU’ -Gongloe Passionately Plead with Diaspora Citizens

MONROVIA – Far more adult Liberians in the diaspora, principally in the United States, Europe and Asia, are employed and well-off than the same percentage of adult citizens on the homeland; so says researchers. This clearly makes the diaspora citizens more suited, more positioned, to contribute to the country’s economic growth and viability. More so, they are quite genuinely supportive, with their remittances and investments back home. That is why when Liberia’s longtime human rights lawyer and politician, Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe was availed the opportunity to speak to a group of them, specifically in Australia, he made a copiously passionate plea to them not to forget their common patrimony. The Analyst reports.   

Saturday, July 26, 2025 was a moment of critical reflections for all Liberians, including those out of the country; and as they celebrated, the issue of the country’s sad tragedy of continued underdevelopment despite its rich natural endowments in its 178 years of existence as a nation state was sobering, defying the stupor of ecstatic celebrations and jamborees.

Nearly all key speakers were keen to brutally invoke the national conscience. Liberia People’s Party Standard Bearer in the 2023 elections got his voice echoing 8,571 miles away from his country, to a reasonable size of Liberians in Australia, a relatively well-development country.

As he faced the group of citizens, their country’s sad history dominated the mind, that he became intentionally prosaic and poetic—perhaps for extreme emphasis’ sake—as he spoke to them.  

He said:

A few years ago, I served as keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Liberian Students’ Union of China through the media.

Today, I speak to the people of Liberia residing in Australia and across the world — through the media again.

I could not be present in Queensland, Australia due to some challenges. But no distance, no ocean, no border can separate me from you because we are tied together by blood, by struggle, and by hope.

I greet you on this great day, the 178th birthday of the Republic of Liberia!

The first independent Republic in Africa!
A land of liberty!
A land of promise!
But also, a land betrayed by its own leaders!

Today, I come not just to celebrate — but to challenge you!
To challenge all of us to wake up, stand up, and take back our country from the hands of greed and failure!

On this day, I have chosen to speak to the Liberian citizens and people of Liberian descent residing in Australia — and the greater Liberian diaspora — on the topic:

“From Raw Materials to Real Development: A Time for Transformational Leadership.”

Given the level of underdevelopment and poverty that have existed in Liberia since its independence, I am compelled to begin this speech by asking the question, what kind of country is this?

A country that declared its independence in 1847.
A country that started exporting palm oil, pepper, wood, and piassava. Even before its independence in 1847, in 2025, 178 years later is still exporting raw logs, raw rubber, raw iron ore, and raw gold! Raw diamonds,

Raw! Raw! Raw! Every export raw!

Let me ask you this question:
Why is Liberia not a furniture exporter?
We export logs, but import chairs.
We cut down trees, but buy desks from overseas.
We mine iron ore, but import products made from iron ore.

Why is Liberia not building a steel plant instead of another iron ore concentrator?
Liberia had a concentrator and pelletizing plant before its civil conflict.
The breaking news should be a steel plant, not a concentrator.

Why is Liberia still importing sanitary gloves when we produce natural rubber?

Why is Liberia not adding value to its gold and diamonds?

Until Liberia changes the quality of its exports, Liberia will remain underdeveloped and poor. There will continue to be high level of unemployment because we export job, high-paying jobs by exporting raw materials.

And in such a country, reconciliation, unity, and lasting peace are impossible.
Because mass poverty creates mass hunger, a country with many hungry people is obviously an angry nation. And anger is the main source, if not the only source  of violence, thereby undermining internal peace and security.

Let me tell you something, my people:
The problem is not God.
The problem is not the soil.
The problem is not the rain or the sun or any other natural condition. The problem is man-made
It is problem of poor leadership!

Look at Our Neighbors — Rising While We Crawl

Let’s look around us:

1. Ghana is making chocolate, textiles, and refining its gold.

2. Ivory Coast is exporting processed rubber, cocoa butter, choclate, canned pineapple, and electricity!
3. Botswana is 70% desert, but is stable, clean, and prosperous by exporting meat and polished diamonds.
4. Rwanda is landlocked, but it is packaging coffee, building tech hubs, and running clean cities as well as attracting tourists from all over the world; turning the history its civil war into a tourist attraction, while we are struggling with the issue of accountability for war crimes committed during our civil conflict.
5. Cape Verde has no forest — but it has electricity, transparency, and working systems.
6. Mauritius and Seychelles have no minerals,  but they’ve built thriving tourism and banking systems.

So what is wrong with Liberia?

We have beaches from Cape Mount to Cape Palmas.
We have rivers and forests and fertile soil. In fact we have 40% of the remaining tropical forest in the Gulf of Guinea.
We have iron ore, gold, diamonds, rubber, oil palm, and wood, amongst others !

We have great sunshine and high rainfall, something lacking in some countries that are more developed than Liberia.

 God has given us everything — but we are poor.

Why?

Because our leaders over the years have turned government into a business to enrich themselves — not to serve us!

Let me now turn to the Diaspora: Liberia’s Missing Engine for Transformation

Let me say this to every Liberian in Australia, in the United States, in Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East, Canada, China, Latin America and other parts of Africa— we need you!

We cannot build a better Liberia without you.

You are the ones who send money every month to pay school fees, hospital bills, and rent.
You are the ones keeping most families alive in Liberia.
You are the silent backbone of this nation, but we no longer want you to be silent!

You are not just remitters,  you are reformers.
You are not just donors,  you are developers.
You are not just supporters, you are citizens with a mission.

Look at Rwanda’s diaspora.
Look at Ghana’s diaspora.
They are returning with knowledge, skills, capital, and vision.
They are investing in businesses, building hospitals and supporting innovation.

Why not Liberia? Why not now?

You have seen what good roads look like in Australia and other parts of the world.
You know what functional hospitals feel like.
You’ve lived under governments that fear their people — not the other way around!

Come help us change Liberia, but not from a distance.

Join us to build the Liberia we all dream about.
A Liberia that keeps its talent, not  exports it.
A Liberia where you can come back, build a life, and say:

“This is my home. I helped to build it.”

We don’t need just your money.
We need your voices, your votes, your values and your presence.

Come join us. Let’s rise together.
Because a better Liberia is not a fantasy — it is a responsibility and possibility.
And the time is now.

We Threw Away a Good Plan for national development many years ago!

More than 40 years ago, President William R. Tolbert said:

“The soil is our bank.”

He promoted:

1. Self-reliance

2. Import substitution
3. Export promotion
4. Rural development

He wanted to move Liberians from mat to mattress.
He said: “Not aid, but trade. “President Tolbert had this vision long before President Trump!

That vision was right then and it is still right today! But leaders who came after him threw this vision away.

But we threw it away!

We threw away good ideas — because we were hungry for power, not hungry for progress!

No more!

We should no more trash good ideas for political convenience!
We will take the wisdom of the past and use it to build the future!

A Real Policy for Real Change

That’s why we said in 2023 in our Ten Point Agenda for a Better Liberia— and we still say today:

Let’s reduce taxes for companies that operate far away from Monrovia!

Why? We need to do so in order:

1. To grow the rural economy!

2. To stop people from rushing to Monrovia!
3. To reduce urban high rate of crime in Monrovia and other cities!
4. To spread jobs and opportunity all across Liberia!

That is how we will build a balanced nation,  not just a capital city with tall buildings in the city and a poor and undeveloped countryside!

And yes  it is still possible with a visionary, honest, people-oriented leadership that respects the rule of law!

No Agenda Will Work Without Integrity

You can write Vision 2024, Vision 2030, Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development and any other development you name it!

But if there’s no accountability — it will fail!
If there’s no rule of law — it will collapse!
If there’s no integrity — it will just be another slogan!

Because the truth is that you cannot build a new Liberia with the same old mindset!

Stop Celebrating Mediocrity

My people, let me say this with all honesty:

We must stop encouraging our leaders to be satisfied with low performance.

Too often, we say,
“At least this government is trying.”

Trying?

Trying is not enough when children are dying from preventable diseases!
Trying is not enough when students sit on the floor with no books!
Trying is not enough when civil servants go months without pay!

Trying is not enough, when other countries are building clean cities, digital governments, and exporting technology .
No! We cannot settle for leaders who simply “try.”

We must expect results — not just effort.
We must expect excellence — not just excuses.
We must say: “Trying is not leading. Delivering is leading!”

Liberia can do better — and we must stop settling for less.

What I Stand For

When I ran for president in 2023, I didn’t promise the Liberian people rice and T-shirts.
I promised the Liberian people:

1. The Rule of law

2. Accountability
3. Jobs from production, not from handouts
4. A government that works — not one that which steals

Because, government is a place to serve — not to steal!

Say it with me:

Government is a place to serve — not to steal!

Let Us Rise! Let Us Sweep!

My people, this July 26, let’s stop celebrating independence like a routine.
Let’s use it as a reset — a new beginning!

Let’s say:

1. “We will no longer sit while thieves run our country!”

2. “We will no longer cheer incompetence!”
3. “We will no longer be fooled by big speeches and empty promises!”

We will rise!
We will organize!
We will mobilize!
And yes — we will sweep this country clean!

That’s why I carry the broom.

Not as decoration — but as a tool  to call the attention of all Liberians to the need for the transformation of Liberia!

We will sweep out:

1. Corruption,
2. Dishonesty,
3. Selfishness, and
4. Greed

And we will sweep in:

1. The Rule of law,
2. Vision,
3. Service,
4. Productivity, and
5. Dignity

A New Day Is Coming!

Liberia is not a failed state — it is a betrayed state.
Liberia is not cursed — it is blessed, but badly led.

Now is the time to stand up!
Now is the time to rise!
Now is the time to say:

“We are tired  watching others move forward while we move backward!”
“We are can no more accept being poor in a rich land!”
“We are ready to lead — and we will lead!”

Happy Independence Day, my people!
May God bless you.
May God bless our struggle.
And may God bless the Republic of Liberia!

A better Liberia is possible!

I thank you!