Monday, 19th December 2011
Welcome to this Press Briefing
- The President will on Tuesday, December 20, perform the ceremony marking the lighting of the National Christmas Tree. The ceremony will be held on the grounds of the Executive Mansion beginning at 7:00 p.m. All senior government officials, including members of the National Legislature, the Supreme Court, the Cabinet, the Diplomatic Corps, the Clergy, the Traditional Council of Chiefs, officials of civil society organizations, among others are invited.
- President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will also, this week, receive in audience a number of Ambassadors-designate. The Ambassador of Namibia, Ms. Selma Ashipala Mausavyl, and the Ambassador of Greece, Mr. Dionyssios Sourvanos, will present their Letters of Credence on Tuesday, December 20, at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., respectively. Other ceremonies will follow on Thursday, December 22, when the Ambassador of Switzerland, H.E. David Volgelsanger, and the African Union Ambassador, H. Oluwatoyin Solaja, present their Letters of Credence to the President at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., respectively.
- Let me now address mounting speculation in the press regarding reports that President Sirleaf is about to ask her Cabinet to resign ahead of next month’s Inauguration. Contrary to such reports, the President’s Cabinet will not be resigning as is being speculated. The President will announce her new Cabinet at the appropriate time, most likely following January’s Inauguration. I cannot share with you what the composition of the President’s Cabinet will be because I do not have that information.