A football stadium once again proved a place of victory for George Weah. On Monday, the former AC Milan striker strode across a football pitch in Liberia’s capital Monrovia to the familiar chants of enthusiastic fans. Yet, this was no sports match. This was the day the former footballing star became his country’s president...
“His background as a sportsman made his victory possible,” Silas Kpanan'Ayoung Siakor, a Liberian environmental and human rights activist, told The World Weekly. “His generosity is also an important factor”...
In order to stand by his supporters, observers say, President Weah must generate more jobs and better training opportunities for the country’s youth. Investment in the private sector, especially in Liberian-owned businesses, would help the economy, but some fear a focus on business growth could sideline social issues.
“Maximising corporate earnings and improving quality of life do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive,” wrote Mr. Siakor in an article he co-authored with Liberian academic Robtel Neajai Pailey, “but in Liberia the former has always trumped the latter.”
