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Your Excellency Mr. President, Your Excellency Mr. Vice President, Honorable Senate Pro Tempore, Honorable Deputy Speaker, Distinguished Members of the Legislature, Your honor Madam Chief Justice, and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court,
Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Leaders of Political Parties, Members of Our International and National Partners, Clergies and Imams, Our Traditional Leaders,The Women of Liberia, Members of the Fourth Estate, Fellow Liberians, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.
Your Excellency Joseph Nyumah Boakai, Sr., distinguished colleagues, this day carries profound significance, as it reflects our shared commitment to service and progress. We honor God, who ordains our roles, and we seize this moment to reaffirm our unity, reimagine our collective future, and renew our dedication to the values that guide our leadership.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the launch of the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development (AAID) has inflame great hope and raised expectations among our people. As we open for the second session of our six-year journey, we embark on the full implementation of this transformative agenda, promising a new chapter of growth and opportunity for Liberia. Essential to the implementation of this Agenda, are quality data for evidence-based decision-making. In this light, we urge the leadership of the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) to validate, finalize, and submit the 2022 national population and housing census report to the Legislature to enable us establish the threshold for constituency demarcation and delineation, according to Article 80 d of the Liberian Constitution which states “Each constituency shall have approximately equal population of 20,000, or such number of citizens as the legislature shall prescribe in keeping with population growth and movements as revealed by a national census; provided that the total number of electoral constituencies in the Republic shall not exceed one hundred”. And this should be done every 10 years, the last time the constitutional requirement was met was in 2008.
Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I encourage the passage and approval of key laws that are crucial to driving impactful transformations aligned with the ARREST Agenda. We request for the concurrence of the Senate to enact on The Presidential Transition Act which seeks to establish the arrangements and mechanisms for the proper management of the transfer of political power or administration from one democratically elected President to another democratically elected President.
We also requesting for the concurrence of the Senate to enact The Liberia National Tourism Authority Act. When passed into law, this Act will help leverage the tourism potential of Liberia for investment, employment, growth, and national development. In this same vein, again we are kindly requesting the concurrence of the Senate for the enactment of the Legislation to establish a Commission for the Elderly. This Act has been with the Senate since 54th Legislature. Finally, distinguished Colleagues, I want to encourage that we highly prioritize and fast track the passage of The Ministry of Local Government Act to be sent to the Senate for concurrence. This Act is intended to decentralize the Government Activities. Meanwhile, we also intend to prioritize and finalize the issues with The New Election Law this legislative year.
Fellow colleagues, we are steadfast in our mission to meet and exceed the expectations of our citizens, honoring the trust they have placed in us. Let us work collaboratively to ensure a brighter, more prosperous future for all Liberians. Thank you for your attention, and may God bless the works of our hands and our nation.
