George Weah and the future of Liberia

It is now official. 1995 World Footballer of the Year, George Weah has been declared winner of the just concluded Liberia’s presidential election. It will be recalled that Weah topped the first round of voting earlier in October but did not secure the 50 percent needed to win outright majority, thus necessitating a runoff.

With this development, Weah, a serving senator from the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) whose main opponent in the election was 73 years old Vice President Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party, is set to replace President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is stepping down after the constitutionally mandated two terms of twelve years. This is the nation’s first democratic transition since 1944 and Weah is poised to be the 25th President of the country.

Weah, 51, has a lot of support among the youth who strongly believe in him and his change agenda. Being a former international footballer who has committed a vast proportion of his personal fortune to the development of his nation and her extremely impoverished citizenry, Weah’s acceptance among the youth is simply electrifying. The spontaneous euphoria that greeted his announcement as President elect is a true demonstration of his widespread acceptance by his countrymen.

Equally, Weah had become more mature politically since he was beaten by Sirleaf Johnson in the 2006 presidential runoff. 12 years after, Weah had learnt the rope and this is quite evident in the various alliances he was able to garner in the latest election. He has become more politically educated to make calculated decisions that have significant electoral consequences. It is clearly a reflection of Weah’ political development over the years that he was able to beat the vastly experienced Joseph Boakai and the ruling party.

Now, what should be considered paramount is what the future holds for Liberia in the immediate post Sirleaf Johnson era. Liberia had passed through so much trouble and crisis that it cannot afford to slide into anarchy once again. The country’s economy is almost in ruin, no thanks to years of highly destructive civil war. The county has actually made slow progress on jobs, unemployment, education, rural development, healthcare and attracting foreign direct investment. Equally, infrastructure across the country remains quite in a deplorable state.

Therefore, whenever he is eventually sworn in as the country’s next President, George Weah and his team must be prepared to tackle an economy that is already tattered by lower commodity prices for its main exports of rubber and iron ore and a rapidly depreciating currency as well as living standards that remain among the worst in the world. They must be ready to come up with creative strategies through which the fortune of the country’s economy could be positively transformed.

The task of rebuilding the nation’s battered economy and critical infrastructure would no doubt be a gigantic one, but with the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders in the country as well as the goodwill of the international community, in the not too distant future, Liberians should be able to smile again.

Tayo Ogunbiyi, Lagos.