That George Weah’s Victory And Liberia’s Stability

After 12 years of waiting, following an embarrassing ridicule of his presidential bid in 2005 as an uneducated politician, former FIFA World Footballer of the Year, George Weah, has finally emerged the 25th President of Liberia on the platform of the opposition Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), having convincingly won the December 26, 2017 presidential run-off poll. He beat the incumbent Vice President, Joseph Boakai of the ruling Unity Party, garnering 61.5per cent of the votes against his rival’s 38.5per cent, to become the first opposition Head of State in Liberia since 1944.
The 51-year old former winner of the much-coveted Ballon d’Or and senator from Montserrado County, defeated his 73-year-old opponent in a landslide victory in results released in Monrovia, last Wednesday by the National Elections Commission (NEC), putting Weah ahead as the second president of Africa’s oldest republic since end of the second Civil War in 2003, with 720,023 votes against Boakai’s 451,088 votes.
With the results, Weah scaled a landslide victory to become a successor to outgoing Nobel Peace Prize winner and first female President in Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who bows out this month after 12 years as president and the first to peacefully hand over to opposition politician in Liberia’s history.
Joseph Boakai had already accepted the outcome of the election and congratuated Weah.
While The Tide joins other well- meaning citizens of the world to congratulate Weah on his well deserved victory and the people of Liberia for a successful poll, we also commend Boakai’s maturity, show of sportsmanship and realisation that the peace, stability and future of Liberia depend on his willingness to accept defeat with equanimity while shunning taunts to plunge the once war-ravaged nation into unnecessary political crisis, violence and killings.
We are particularly glad that Boakai harkened to the appeal of former Nigerian President and co-leader of the United States’ National Democratic Institute (NDI) International Elections Observation Mission to Liberia, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, during a pre-run-off election meeting in Monrovia, penultimate Tuesday. We recall that Jonathan had reminded Weah and Boakai that “In any election, there are winners and losers. Only one presidential candidate will be declared winner. The other should accept the election results to avoid a political crisis, especially if there are no good grounds to challenge the outcome”.
Indeed, we are excited that Boakai has pledged to play any responsible role required of him to help the Weah administration consolidate on the gains already made by the Johnson-Sirleaf government.
The Tide urges other 18 defeated presidential candidates in the October 10 general elections, including opposition leader, Mr Charles Brumskine of the Liberty Party (LP) who had gone to court to challenge alleged fraud and irregularities in the conduct of the polls; former war-lord, Prince Johnson of the Movement for Democracy and Reconstruction (MDR); as well as business mogul, Alexander Cummings of the Alternative National Congress (ANC); among others, to join hands with Weah to build a country that all Liberians would be proud of.
We see Weah’s victory as an opportunity for Liberians to witness the change they had for decades yearned for. We, therefore, charge Liberians, irrespective of political affiliation, to rally support for the incoming administration to enable it succeed in the onerous task of transforming the country.
We reckon with Weah’s post-election victory remark last Saturday that “I measure the importance and the responsibility of the immense task which I embrace today. Change is on”. We also note Weah’s pledge that the “singular mission and focus” of his administration is social transformation, especially at the grassroots, through pro-poor governance and improvement of the business environment for investments.
We, therefore, challenge him to correct the mistakes of the Johnson-Sirleaf administration dogged by widespread allegations of corruption, nepotism and waste, which had fuelled the people’s hunger for change, and make Liberia great again. In fact, we expect Weah to re-enact that trail-blazing record which saw him excel as an international football superstar and wipe away the tears of the downtrodden Liberians in the next six years of his administration.
Once again, we congratulate Liberians and wish them a successful transition.