Her Excellency Dame Marcella Liburd GCMG, JP issued a call to nation-building to all citizens and residents of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Speaking at her installation ceremony as the fifth Governor-General of the Federation at Government House on Saturday, February 4, 2023, Dame Liburd said one doesn’t have to have any great qualifications or achievements to serve.
“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve,” she quoted Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr as saying to his congregation in Atlanta, Georgia on February 4, 1968.
“You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart of grace and a soul generated by love,” Dame Liburd said.
“As I reflect on the call to service, I invite all our citizens and residents to come and do the hard work of heart and soul as defined by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. if we are to build our country on greatness,” she said.
The newly installed Governor-General said that she knows what it is to serve and that she understands that her new position is a call to service to the nation with distinction and integrity.
“I am fully cognizant of my role as Governor-General and in the spirit of my Oaths, I affirm my commitment to serve all of my countrymen and women and my beloved country with humility, selflessness, excellence and integrity,” Her Excellency Dame Liburd said.
“This land is ours. I, therefore, call on us all as patriots and responsible citizens and residents to work together, Kittitians and Nevisians, to build together and to pray together. You, our citizens and residents, have a major role to play, also have a major role to play as builders of our country, for it is the faith and determination of our people on which our country depends…let us bury old hatreds and look to new hope as we come together, Kittitians and Nevisians alike, to make our vision and the transformation of our nation a reality,” she added.
Her Excellency called on all citizens and residents to espouse the values of honesty, hard work, tolerance, fair play, loyalty, and patriotism, which she said “have defined our progress and our character throughout our history.”
