The footballer legend and member of the Liberian Senate, George Weah was Monday sworn as the 24th President of Liberia. George Weah took his oath of office inside the 35,000 capacity Samuel Kanyon Doe sports complex in Monrovia in the presence of at least eight African presidents.
The Nigerian delegation was led by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo just as former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdulsalami Abubakar also graced the occasion.
The mammoth crowd at the inauguration and those watching from television sets at major streets of Monrovia were thrown into wild jubilation, owing to the fact that the last peaceful transfer of power in a democratically elected presidential election in Liberia took place in 1944, when President Edwin Barclay was replaced by William Tubman.
The 51-year-old George Tawlon Manneh Oppong Ousman Weah who is a retired professional footballer and winner of “Daily Times of Nigeria 2017 Man of the Year Award” joined politics in 2002.
He formed the Congress for Democratic Change and ran unsuccessfully for President in the 2005 election, losing to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in the second round of voting.
In the 2011 election, he ran unsuccessfully as Vice President alongside Winston Tubman. Weah was subsequently elected to the Liberian Senate for Montserrado County in the 2014 elections.
During his campaign, Weah had promised to eradicate corruption in the country of four million people and create an enabling environment that would strengthen the economy.
According to local media, during the runoff election conducted on the 26th of December between Weah and Vice President Joseph Boakai, Weah polled a total of 722,185 votes representing 61.5 per cent, while Vice President Joseph Boakai of the Unity Party (UP) finished with 457,579 or 28.5 per cent. Chairman of Liberia’s National Election Commission, Jerome George Korkoya declared George Weah winner of the election.
