President Weah announces his candidacy for re-election / France News

Liberian President George Weah announced on Monday (January 30th) that he would run for a second consecutive term as head of the English-speaking West African country in an election scheduled for October. “My dear fellow citizens, I will come to you shortly to ask you to renew (…) for the second time the mandate you granted me six years ago”said the former glory of football in a great uproar of approval at the end of the annual and solemn address on the situation of the country.

Mr Weah, 56, promised a second “mandate full of opportunities, a mandate for transformation, a mandate for development”but also for ” The consolidation “ achievements.

In this speech which he is required to deliver by the Constitution each year before the Houses of Parliament, Mr. Weah defended his record. “Let me assure you that our nation is strong, our nation is stable, our nation is full of life (…), our nation is at peace and secure and we expect it to remain so”he specified.

Mr. Weah, the only African Ballon d’Or to date, returned to politics after the end of his sports career, was elected in the second round of the presidential election in December 2017 and took office in January of the following year.

Very few promises kept

His victory raised immense hopes in a country ravaged by civil wars which killed 250,000 people from 1989 to 2003. And bruised at the end of a 2014-2016 period marked by an epidemic of Ebola fever which killed more than 4,800 Liberians.

The country of some five million inhabitants was struggling to recover when it was tested by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by the consequences of the war in Ukraine. About half of Liberians live on less than $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank.

The former AC Milan and PSG soccer star took over the presidency promising to create jobs and invest in education. Many poor people adored the former kid from the slums who became a planetary star, then head of state.

His detractors accuse Mr. Weah of having kept very few of his promises. They accuse him of being disconnected from the realities of his fellow citizens who are struggling between rising prices and shortages of products such as fuel and essential services, in one of the least developed countries in the world.

Corruption reputed to be endemic

He remains exposed to the suspicion of not being in his place at the head of the state. Recently, he was attacked for his prolonged absence outside the country, forty days spent in conferences at summits, but also at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar where his son defended the colors of the United States.

The presidency invoked the validity of these trips in the national interest. She also commonly evokes the heaviness of the inheritance received by Mr. Weah. The opposition blames the head of state for the persistence of corruption deemed endemic which he had pledged to fight. In this respect, he is under pressure from the great American ally. Washington has sanctioned five senior Liberian officials for alleged corruption in three years.

Victims of civil wars are still waiting for Mr. Weah to act to hold those responsible for the atrocities to account. Regular calls for the creation of a war crimes tribunal in Liberia, where some former warlords remain powerful, have so far gone unheeded.