George Weah faces toughest challenge
An inspiration on the pitch, Liberia's new president George
Weah could struggle to meet expectations off it, writes Fergal Keane.
An army band is playing on the far side of the field, the
jaunty strains of ragtime float through the dead heat of the morning.
It is
Monrovia in the dry season and we are gasping, airless under the climbing sun
and waiting for President-elect George Weah.
When he
arrives the former professional footballer is dressed in the red kit of the
George Weah All-Stars and is preparing to lead a team of his friends against a
selection from the armed forces.
When I last visited Liberia in 2003, the warlords and military
men had made the country a byword for anarchy.
Desperate
civilians were piling their dead in front of the US embassy to try to force an
international intervention.
Now, at
an army base in the capital, I am watching a democratically elected leader stroll
out on to a football pitch to play against soldiers, who clearly hold him in
awe.
For the
first time in over 70 years, Liberia is experiencing the peaceful transfer of
power from one elected leader to another.
Mr Weah
made his name as a star of European football at clubs like Monaco, Paris
Saint-Germain, AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City.
For
much of this time his home country was consumed by vicious civil war. Fourteen
years after the war ended, and after a previous failed attempt, George Weah
eventually triumphed in presidential elections last October.
Halfway
across the pitch I manage to intercept Mr Weah with a question. Could he ever
hope to be as successful a president as he was a footballer?
There
is a note of impatience in his response.
"You
only look at me as a former footballer but I'm a human being," he says.
"I strive to be excellent. I can be successful. I was successful before in
my career.
"When
I left here people asked me the same question: 'Will you be successful in
Europe?' I told them that when I work hard and believe in what I believe in, I
show I can persevere.
"I
believe that with the help of the Liberian people I will be successful."
Most
people I meet here in Monrovia want to believe in the idea of George Weah as
national saviour.
Returning
here after 14 years, the contrast with the desolation of the past is striking.
Long
gone are the boy soldiers and their ruthless commanders who struck fear into us
at roadblocks. Instead bands of young people are busy sweeping rubbish from the
streets ahead of the inauguration.
'We are
proud of our country and our neighbourhood. We want it clean," a woman
called Rose tells me.
A
former child soldier, Joseph Duo, immortalised in a photograph which showed him
exultant in the middle of battle, believes Mr Weah is the "best hope we
have to have change in this country".
Mr Duo
is now a father of five children and works for the city council. I find him at
home one evening, busy helping his two youngest children, a boy and a girl,
with their homework.
"The
memories of war still keep me awake at night," he says. "But my
children don't know war and they will never know war. That is my hope."
Joseph's
preoccupations now are education and employment. His eldest son Blessing, aged
22, has no job, and little hope of finding one in one of the world's poorest
economies.
An
estimated 63% of Liberians live below the poverty line. The campaign group,
Transparency International, describes corruption as "endemic and
permeating most sectors of society".
Driving
through Monrovia I regularly spot stickers with the plaintive message:
"Don't bribe the police".
George
Weah has come to power promising to fight corruption, revolutionise education
and healthcare and create tens of thousands of jobs.
This has
created a huge sense of expectation. Time and again people tell me they believe
he will change their lives.
After
all he began his own life in the slums of Monrovia. He understands their
struggle, they say.
I catch
up with George Weah again during an official visit to a mosque in the centre of
Monrovia.
As he
is being swept along the hallway I manage to ask if he can possibly satisfy the
expectations of those who were cheering for him outside.
"I
know I am going to meet the expectations… when people love you, you have to
strive for them.
"So
there's a lot of expectation but we will meet the expectation… because this is
a whole global world we want to create… where you will come to help our
people…" He smiles at me as he says this.
Critics
point out that so far his promises have not been backed up by detailed plans.
In
fairness, George Weah would not be the first politician to avoid spelling out
how he plans to fund his campaign manifesto.
But few
in the world face the pressure of hope that he has ignited among the poor.
Nobody doubts his ability to motivate and inspire. The
unknown quantity is his capacity to administer effectively.
He
chose the ex-wife of former warlord Charles Taylor, Jewel Howard Taylor, as his
deputy.
Having
historically been a staunch critic of Taylor and his National Patriotic Party
(NPP), questions are being asked of the motives.
As a
correspondent returning to a country I previously knew only in war, the
contrast is astonishing. The markets are full. The schools are thronged. Fear
has been vanquished.
But
only prosperity can keep it at bay. With great hope comes, always, the
possibility of great disillusionment.
Few
leaders anywhere in the world face as daunting a task as that which now
confronts George Weah.
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