In Liberia, politics is in the air!

Countdown to the George Weah inauguration

By Nsikan Ikpe

Ahead of the January 22 inauguration of president-elect, George Oppong Weah, politics is in the air all over Liberia.

At the one hand are the activities of the outgoing president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Intent on rescuing what is left of her legacy, after the tumultuous and controversial presidential contest, Sirleaf has asked her long-standing ally and Director of the General Services Bureau, the mercurial, Mary Broh, to go around political office holders and rescue state properties, notably cars, in their custody, for onward transfer to the new administration.

She is also putting lots of pressure on the outgoing parliament to give their last-minute consent to several new bills, including on e that would facilitate a US$41 billion investment by Dangote Cement.

On the other end, and with an eye already on the fact that the incoming Vice President is already Mrs Jewell Taylor, the ex-wife of former President and convicted warlord, Charles Taylor, civil society groups are putting enormous pressure to bear on the incoming president to ensure that only scrupulous persons do get appointments to public offices in his team.

For a country that yet has so many warlords in very visible glare, that may be asking a lot of Weah but the other reality is that if he does not run a clean and visionary administration, it is all too clear that he would be unable to deliver on the new deal that 85 percent of Liberian youth, that are yet to see the promise of gainful employment materialize in the Sirleaf years, continue to wait on him for.

And for a ‘youthful’ President, that would indeed be a great shame.

Liberia’s incoming President, George Oppong Weah