Liberia at fever pitch as icon kicks off his presidency
As the morning sun beat down on a small training stadium in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, a steady trickle of black SUVS with tinted windows appeared in the heavy humid heat, meandering between the stands and the pitch before coming to a halt in precise formation.
George Weah, the president-elect and former World Football Player of the Year, had already alighted in his bright red kit. Then, out stepped his team, the Weah All Stars, streaming on to the pitch to play their final game before the former AC Milan star’s long-awaited inauguration.
The invite-only match against the Armed Forces of Liberia, packed with diplomatic corps and press, was a muted affair in comparison with the campaign trail, which attract the kind of diehard supporters who propelled the country’s biggest star to power.
Standing outside the gates of the ground, clinging to a Liberian flag, a ticketless Benjamin Karr, in his 20s, gave a taste of the kind of adoration and hope that has propped up the former footballer so far. “He’s going to bring healthcare, good education and infrastructure and development, and we need it to come for our youth to work. He will do that because he loves the country and he loves the people,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
On the streets of the capital, Liberia is in thrall of its superstar presidentelect, voted in three weeks ago and due to be inaugurated today in the first democratic transfer of power in the country since 1944. Flag-sellers still line the streets as optimism runs high and for months Weah’s party headquarters have been a riot of colour and noise, more akin to a festival than a political base. But behind the jubilation that a national icon is taking over, there are reasons to be cautious: Weah faces a tanking economy, a fraught coalition tarnished by the country’s dark history and an increasingly sceptical press, to whom he has given almost nothing away. For a man who has given his fair share of interviews since becoming the only African ever to have won the coveted Ballon d’or football award and Fifa World Player of the Year, he has become surprisingly elusive. Journalists from around the world have arrived for the inauguration party and left with nothing – with the BBC among those to suffer abrupt cancellations from Weah’s office. In rare, short comments to the press pack before the game on Saturday, Weah remained tight-lipped. “I believe that, with the help of the Liberian people, I will be successful,” he declared, before taking his place up front.
Some believe his phobia of the media could be a fear of making statements on which he finds himself unable to deliver, leading to unwanted repercussions at home. He is inheriting an economy that has suffered from shocks caused by a slump in global iron ore and rubber prices, as well as the Ebola outbreak in 2014-15, which saw the death of more than 4,000 Liberians. The Liberian dollar is depreciating rapidly in value against its US counterpart, which the country also uses, meaning life is getting increasingly expensive and the poorest are hardest hit.
And this is where Weah’s popularity is most concentrated. Supporters are convinced that he will bring jobs and reduce the cost of rice, the staple food, by half. Quite how he will bring about the desired changes is unclear.
In The Telegraph’s many failed attempts to pin down Weah for an interview, one source within his camp said: “We have a strategy and we have tactics, and one of our tactics is to tell no one our strategy.” Another reason for Weah’s elusiveness could be a lack of confidence in his own leadership abilities. Unlike Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former World Bank economist and the first elected female head of state in Africa, who defeated Weah on two occasions before stepping down, he is not considered an intellectual. Nor, by his own admission, is he a gifted orator. Friends were surprised when he stated his intention to run for the presidency in 2005, feeding the theory that he has been propelled to the top by others keen to profit from his poster-boy popularity.
As Weah looks to name his cabinet today, perhaps the most immediate issue is the fragile coalition. Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change is joined by the National Patriotic Party led by Jewel Howard-taylor, the vice-president, and founded by her ex-husband. Charles Taylor served as president from 1997 to 2003 after leading a rebellion against the government of Samuel Doe. Taylor is serving a 50-year prison sentence in HMP Frankland in County Durham for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. No one has ever faced trial for the atrocities committed during Liberia’s civil war, which ended in 2003, and “reconciliation” is on the lips of many.
The third partner in the coalition, the Liberia People’s Democratic Party,
‘Weah represents those who are down the drain. He’s their role model, and we have to let the people’s voice be heard’
is headed by Alex Tyler, the former House of Representatives speaker implicated in a bribery case involving British company Sable Mining.
Whatever the outcome, Weah’s presidency is an anomaly in Liberia’s chequered history – and not just because of his celebrity status. Politics in the country has traditionally been dominated by the minority Americoliberian elite who are descended from freed American slaves. Weah’s humble beginnings and his native ancestry could not be further from the norm.
“He represents those who are down the drain. He’s their role model, and we have to let the people’s voice be heard,” one Monrovia resident Renee Murray told The Telegraph.
Christian Grant, another young Weah supporter, is also optimistic. “I think there will be a brand new Liberia and that’s our dream,” he said. “Things will improve and children will go to school. Job facility will flow. That’s what we expect our president to do and we know that he will do more than that for us.”