SUAKOKO, Bong – On Friday, Cuttington University awarded President George Weah an honorary doctorate degree during the university’s 57th graduation ceremony.
The Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa was conferred on Weah for his achievements and “selfless services to humanity and the well-being of the people of Liberia,†according to a decree read before the conferral of the degree.
Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Vice President Joseph Boakai, and the former Sierra Leonean vice president, Victor Foh, have all received the honor from Cuttington, according to Mohammed Kwenah, a local media practitioner who has covered the university in the past few years.
The school graduated 704 students from its junior college, undergraduate, and graduate programs in a ceremony attended by Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, Agriculture Minister Mogana Flomo, and other government officials.
The president served as the keynote speaker at the ceremony, where he urged graduates to use their education to innovate new ideas for a better Liberia.
Weah said building a new Liberia requires people with new thinking and innovations to help the government lift the country from its current underdeveloped state to a more prosperous nation.
“I want to speak to the spirit of determination and perseverance that is in you; in this country, we are building a stronger and better Liberia and it will take people with new ideas, new ways of approaching our issues,†Weah told the graduates.
He called on them to always stand up and persevere in challenging situations and be prepared to make “extraordinary efforts” to achieve their goals.
Speaking earlier at the convocation, the university’s interim president, James Tamba, encouraged the graduates to communicate, consult, and collaborate with those they would find along the way in their professional lives. Tamba described these as “giant words to success†for leaders.
“I challenge you, go up the balance against all forms of corrupt practices, self-defeating tendencies that tend to retard one’s ambition and progress,†Tamba said.
Tamba appealed to Weah and the government to help the university meets its financial obligations to enhance the school’s quest of providing quality education to Liberians.
“Your Excellency, Cuttington University needs you more than ever before. We need you all and sooner to help us at this critical hour in order to keep us at the standard with which Cuttington has been locally and internationally known since its establishment in 1898,†Tamba told the president.
The university currently faces a financial crisis, a situation that resulted in delayed salary payment to employees and a reduction in power supply to the campus during the just ended semester.
Featured photo by James Dorbor Sao
