President George Manneh Weah Doesn’t Deserve a Second Term. Vote Him Out!

Posted October 21, 2023
by Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

Liberians of all voting age and political stripes went to the polls on October 10 to exercise one of the few rights they have in that broken country they always called ‘home.’

Some walked many miles, and others rode in cars, and buses, and sat behind and rode motorcycles, and Kehkehs to elect the next President of the Republic of Liberia, a country they still believed could be redeemed by the current president or a new one.

Certainly, President George Manneh Weah, in six years, has failed to redeem Liberia and Liberians from record-high corruption, abject poverty, unemployment, and underdevelopment, except that he has proven to be stylistically a dresser, and a showman who enjoys more of the pomp and circumstance of the office than actually governing and projecting an image of a competent person who is ready to lead a country in chaos.

From all honest indications, the October 10 presidential election is going to a runoff in November between the two frontrunners, the incumbent George Manneh Weah, and the top challenger former Vice President Joseph N. Boikai, who so far posed the greatest threat to a Weah second six-year term.

This will be the second time the two men will face each other in a presidential runoff, the first in 2017 when Weah won by a whopping 61.5% to Boakai’s 38.5%.

Can George Manneh Weah repeat this feat?

Is it possible for George Manneh Weah to win the runoff in 2023, just as he did in 2017, in another runoff that pitted him against Joseph Nyuma Boikai amid runaway corruption, runaway unemployment, and lawlessness in the country, the lack of accountability, and painful incompetence in the Executive branch and the other two branches of government?
Truth is, George Manneh Weah does not deserve a second term in office, and the most honorable thing he can do for the Liberian people is to abandon his quest to return to office to a job he has failed miserably to take seriously.
Seeing the image of a president in all-blue clothes with matching sneakers or easy wear (instead of steel-toe boots and hard hat, jeans, or some working clothes), posing with both hands in his pockets, and strolling along a stretch of a muddy unpaved highway, defines the unseriousness of the man and the insensitivity he has shown over and over since he came to the presidency six years ago, is a reason to get rid of George Manneh Weah.

The corrupt practices, blatant lies, and deceits that this man has shown, and hearing or seeing the image of a cocky and insensitive president who reportedly flew in a rented helicopter to Grand Kru County to campaign when his people can barely travel on their own roads because they are bad and unpaved but did not fly in his imaginary Lone Star Air, the bogus airline whose Ghana-based management company, Goldstar Air with whom the Liberian government under George Manneh Weah signed a bogus “strategic partnership agreement” in 2020 to revive Liberia’s national airline, is another reason to get rid of this guy.

A non-communicative president who literally refuses to talk to the nation and discuss prevailing national issues, but goes around as if he is not required or obligated to have a press conference that informs them and calms their anxiety, cannot continue to be President of Liberia.

One would think the deaths of the four auditors, Princess Cooper, presidential sons John Hilary Tubman and William R.Tolbert, III, and the embarrassing sanction by the U.S. Treasury of Nathaniel McGill, Bill Twehway, and Sayma Syrenius Cephus for corruption, would generate public comments from President George Manneh Weah.

No!

Even as the Liberian people struggled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and could barely find daily meals to eat, and couldn’t even get their monthly meager salaries on time to sustain their families, Mr. Weah went on a World Cup safari to Qatar to watch the games for nearly two months with his enabling sycophants.

The argument was President Weah attended the World Cup games to support his son, Tim Weah, who made his World Cup debut. Mr. Weah overstayed his World Cup visit by seven weeks. Staying in Qatar for two or three days to cheer on his son and return home to be president would have silenced his critics.

But seven weeks?

The seven-week trip reportedly paid President Weah a daily per diem of $2,000 and cost the Liberian taxpayers nearly $100,000. When Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, who approved the budget for the trip was questioned about the amount, he claimed not to remember.

As usual, Mr. Weah went about his business with arrogance and said nothing to the Liberian people. This is too much to stomach.

President George Manneh Weah can be defeated if Joseph Boakai and his campaign are serious about winning, and not allow this glorious opportunity to slip out of their hands as it was in 2017.

To win the runoff presidential election, Mr. Boakai must court, convince and bring on board the new ‘political kid’ on the block Edward W. Appleton, Jr., (Grassroot Development Movement, GDM political party), who surprisingly made his marks in the October 10 presidential election, getting 40,262 thousand votes at 2.20%, and must also court and convince and bring on board well-known rivals such as Alexander B. Cummings and others to join his team to defeat George Manneh Weah.

Joseph Nyuma Boakai must not sit down supinely, surrender, and let this glorious opportunity pass by him. Joseph Nyuma Boakai cannot surrender those mid-to-southeastern counties to George Weah to grab them all as (he) Boakai did in the October 10 presidential election, when Weah went on to win them all.

Mr. Joseph Nyuma Boakai must campaign in every middle and southeastern county including Rivercess, Grand Bassa, Grand Gedeh, Sinoe, Rivergee, Grand Kru, and Maryland counties, to win in the runoff presidential election.

Mr. Joseph Boakai must wisely utilize the geographic connection of his running mate Jeremiah Koung, a scion of the Grebo tribe of Jadeapo, Sinoe County, to campaign with him there, and or flood the regions with his campaign surrogates to convince the voters there that President George Manneh Weah did not represent their collective interests, but himself and his cronies.

President George Manneh Weah Doesn’t Deserve a Second Term.

Vote Him Out!

dorbioh@hotmail.com
www.theliberiandialogue.org