Applauding ‘Weah’s Second Coming’, But….

On Thursday, April 28, 2016, Senator George Manneh Weah accepted a petition from partisans of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change or CDC to contest the Liberian Presidency come 2017.

“I George Weah on this 28th day of April 2016 here on the Grounds of the Congress for Democratic Change do hereby accept the numerous calls, your calls and declare before you my countrymen and the all mighty God that I shall contest the presidency of our beloved country in the 2017 National elections,” Weah confidently told thousands of CDCians.

Weah had, in 2005, contested the presidency, but lost to incumbent President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party in the run-off, after he (Weah) failed to win at least 50% plus one votes in the first round. 2011, in which he was the Vice Presidential Candidate to former United Nations Special Representative to Somalia Winston Tubman, could not see him through to the run-off which his party boycotted, due to extreme financial difficulty – giving President Sirleaf and the Unity Party a free ride to a second term.

Perhaps with the absence of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf factor in 2017, Senator George Manneh Weah and his CDC supporters may be very confident of victory as the ‘largest Liberian political party, in terms of numbers’.

“I have accepted these petitions because I have the vision of prospering Liberia and I will start summering of this Vision”, he proudly assured, even though like a few other political leaders, with huge promises to ‘make a better Liberia’ under a CDC-led Government of Liberia – though without the actual ‘How’ to go about.

While Senator Weah must once more be welcomed to ‘practical Liberian politics’, we can only hope that he is equally prepared for ‘hard and practical politics’ that may put him under the microscope from all angles of his social, economic and political uprightness.

In other words, we are of the fervent belief that the CDC Political Leader may have undergone the necessary political orientation before venturing into such desire for the Liberian Presidency in 2017, of course, being cognizant of the casaba of politicians with whom he would be competing.

This would also require a better political orientation – political education and maturity, for the influential executives of the CDC, whose verbal violent postures characterized by the use of invectives and other indecent utterances, have always branded the CDC negatively in most quarters of the Liberian society.

As we approach the 2017 Presidential and Representative Elections, Presidential Aspirant George Weah, his party executives and members, as well as all of us must be aware of the temptations, the tricks, the hard-core politics, as well as the huge cash, among others, that may interplay in our upcoming national politics; and in the event of the foregoing, addressing and handling such situations would require the highest degree of maturity – and that’s our point of argument.

But again, we are also confident that Senator Weah is adequately prepared for these because “for a dog to swallow a bone, it must have measured its throat’. Welcome to practical Liberian politics again, Mr. Senator and we hope your preparedness is as adequate as enough to withstand the test of time, knowing what lies ahead of us all – the national political cake (POWEER).

We can only wish you well in your political endeavor as you return, with the hope that political tolerance, especially among your partisans, would be the hallmark of our national electoral politics.