WEAH SWORN IN AS LIBERIAN PRESIDENT
MONROVIA - Former international football star George Weah was sworn in as Liberia's new president yesterday, in the country's first transition between democratically-elected leaders since 1944.
Weah, 51, took over from Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who spent 12 years at the helm, steering the West African nation away from the trauma of a civil war.
He was sworn in as president by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Francis Korkpor.
The ceremony took place at a packed sports stadium near the capital, Monrovia, with several African heads of state in attendance, along with friends and former colleagues from Weah's football years.
Crowds queued for kilometres to reach the stadium, singing, dancing and waving the Liberian flag as they waited.
Weah has vowed to make prosperity and job creation the hallmarks of his presidency.
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking a mere 177th on the 188 countries in the Human Development Index compiled by the UN Development Programme.
Expectations are sky-high among Liberians that Weah will deliver on his promises of jobs and better schools.
"Today is one of the most exciting days of my life," said Benjamin Bee, a 21-year-old student at the University of Liberia as he waited in line with thousands of others.
"The man I'm supporting now, President Weah, is an icon, he is my role model. Today is not just an inuagural programme for us Liberians, but signifies that Liberia has found itself."
Weah played for a string of top-flight European teams in the 1990s and was crowned the world's best player by FIFA and won the coveted Ballon d'Or prize, the only African to have achieved this.
After losing his first run at the presidency to Sirleaf in 2005, he has spent the last 13 years attempting to gain the political credibility to match his wild popularity at home, becoming a senator in 2014.
Sirleaf will be remembered for maintaining peace after the harrowing 1989-2003 civil war left an estimated 250 000 dead. But extreme poverty remains pervasive and Liberia ranks near bottom in international rankings for health, education and development.