Liberian New President George Weah as been Sworn Inn
Weah, 51, took over from Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who
over 12 years steered the country away from the trauma of a civil war, although
prosperity eluded her.
Weah was sworn in
as president by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, Francis Korkpor, at a
packed sports stadium near the capital, Monrovia.
To the cheers of a crowd fired by his promise to bring them jobs
and prosperity, former football star George Weah was sworn in as president of
Liberia on Monday, completing the country's first transition between
democratically-elected leaders since 1944
The presidents of Gabon, Ghana and Sierra Leone, along with
friends and fellow African football stars, including Cameroonian legend Samuel
Eto'o, watched as he took the historic oath of office.
"I have spent
many years of my life in stadiums, but today is a feeling like no other,"
Weah said, as he thanked Sirleaf for "laying the foundations on which we
can now stand in peace."
His first
priorities, he said, would be to root out corruption and pay civil servants
"a living wage," and encourage the private sector.
But he urged the
public to show solidarity for the tasks that lay ahead.
"United, we
are certain to succeed as a nation, divided we are certain to fall," he
declared.
Crowds queued for
kilometres (miles), singing, dancing and waving the Liberian flag as they
waited for their hero, who rose from the slums of Monrovia to the nation's
highest office.
"Today is one
of the most exciting days of my life," said Benjamin Bee, a 21-year-old
student at the University of Liberia as he waited in line with thousands of
others.
"The man I'm
supporting now, President Weah, is an icon, he is my role model. Today is not
just an inaugural programme for us Liberians, but signifies that Liberia has
found itself."
Weah played for a
string of top-flight European teams in the 1990s and was crowned the world's
best player by FIFA and won the coveted Ballon d'Or prize, the only African to
have achieved this.
After losing his
first run at the presidency to Sirleaf in 2005, he spent the next dozen years
attempting to gain political credibility to match his popularity, becoming a
senator in 2014.
- Under pressure -
Sirleaf will be remembered for maintaining peace after the harrowing 1989-2003 civil war left an estimated 250,000 dead.
Sirleaf will be remembered for maintaining peace after the harrowing 1989-2003 civil war left an estimated 250,000 dead.
But extreme poverty
remains entrenched. Liberia ranks 177th on the 188 countries in the Human
Development Index compiled by the UN Development Programme, which assesses
health, education and economic progress.
At a church service
attended by Sirleaf and Weah on Sunday, the pair presented a united front
following a bruising election campaign in which Sirleaf's longtime vice-president
Joseph Boakai failed to convince as her successor while alleging fraud had
marred the ballot.
Legal proceedings
lodged by Boakai delayed a run-off vote to December 26, when Weah won a massive
61.5 percent of the vote.
The transition
period also shrank, giving Weah less than a month to prepare for government
rather than the three months initially scheduled.
Analysts hailed
Liberia's achievement in having two successive transitions of power by
democratically-elected leaders.
But they were also
mindful of the rocky road ahead, especially the challenges posed by sky-high
public expectations and likely opposition to his reforms by the Liberia's
establishment.
Liberia's depressed
export economy is highly reliant on rubber and iron ore. More than 60 percent
of its 4.6-million citizens are under 25, and many voted for Weah in the belief
he would quickly boost employment.
"He will need
to manage expectations carefully: this window of optimism will be short,"
Elizabeth Donnelly, a research fellow at the London think tank, Chatham House,
told AFP.
"Weah has
already stated that he will seek more investment into the private sector -- he
understands that Liberia has a large youth population, whose expectations and
needs he must satisfy.
"This means
tangible change in terms of visible civil infrastructure, and it means more
jobs and opportunity," she said.
"But the
reality is there is also a political establishment whose expectations he will
also try to meet."
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