Ambassador Robert Y. Lormia, Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged Liberians to aspire in the pursuit of freedom and liberty. He noted that once Liberians have freedom and liberty, they will cherish and maintain the freedom and liberty for the future generations.

Speaking as a Keynote Speaker at the National Strategic Leadership Conference 2015 in Payneville recently, Ambassador Lormia implored Liberians to open their minds to the dictate of the universality of global commonality and obligation to promote unity, integration and peaceful co-existence. He noted that there is no place in this country for promotion of extremism and eventual genocide.

Ambassador Lormia recalled that the forefathers of Liberia came here in pursuit of freedom and Liberty. He furthered that when the founding fathers of Liberia came to this shore, they came with one religious faith (Christianity). Among their first prioritized duties were the constructions of churches to worship their God.

The Ambassador-at-Large noted that it is therefore no doubt that the best and convenient public structure to house the Independence and Constitutional Convention was the church; the Provident Baptist Church. "From the onset of our political development, it was the church that provided schools to educate our people; health facilities to cure people from illnesses and prepared the environment in which morality, discipline and respect were imbibed in our people", added Ambassador Lormia.

Speaking on good leadership, Ambassador Lormia highlighted Mr. Edward Wilmot Blyden, a Liberian statesman who inspired insightful leadership style not only in Liberia, but in Africa and the world as a whole. "Mr. Blyden was an extraordinary Liberian; a rare quality of a human Liberia was blessed to have.  Mr. Blyden was a brilliant, a true patriot and a nationalist par excellence.  He served as Educational Commissioner of Liberia to Britain and America and Secretary of State of Liberia (now Minister of Foreign Affairs), Government Agent to the interior in Sierra Leone, Ambassador of Liberia to the Court of St. James", Ambassador Lormia said.

The Ambassador-at-large stressing that although the church has inspired a cordial, peaceful cooperating and collaborating relation between the state and the church, he openly and respectfully disagreed with members of the Christian community calling for the return of Liberia to its Christian heritage. He encouraged Christians to focus on evangelizing and expanding their faith in remote places in accordance to the Lord's Command instead of looking for a protective shield, stressing that asking for legal backing was weak and lazy.

Ambassador Lormia advised aspiring Liberia's leaders to build and not destroy; command respect and not instill fear; promote unity and recognition and not division and strife. He urged Liberians to be mutually respectful of one another.