Part I: Did President Boakai Push Weah Back Into the Power Play?

By Sidiki Fofana | Truth in Ink

Barely two Sundays after his electoral defeat, George Weah stood in Forky Klon Jlaleh Church and declared he was “done politically.” He told congregants that, unlike others who chased public office into their sixties, he would be spending time with his family. By his own words, the door to 2029 was closed.

However, months later, the door swung open again. “Coming Back”, once a rumor, has become the rallying cry amongst his base, giving renewed hope among thousands of supporters, many of whom felt forgotten during his last six years in power, and served as an assurance to those who wine and dined with him that they will be doing so again soon. However, the question is what explains the turnaround? What is fueling this new ambition? 

It comes in two parts, one of which is a question; one such irony that stands tall in Liberia’s politics today is that President Boakai’s very treatment of Weah may be fueling the fire for his comeback.

The evidence is public and deliberate. Denied entry to the New Presidential Lounge, which he himself built,  Weah is now made to use the regular passenger terminal, reserved for ” common citizens”, a phrase used by President Boakai’s Vice President Jeremiah Koung, who had declared that Weah “must park” and accept his ” new” status as an ordinary citizen.

Boakai’s Press Secretary, Kula Fofana, doubled down: “There is only one President in this country, and that person is Joseph Boakai.” In other words, any courtesies once afforded to Weah are withdrawn and technically reserved for the sitting President.

Beyond travel protocol, there have also been attempts to strip Weah of what the law still grants him as a former president, his assigned security detail, and portions of his vehicle fleet. Cars once deemed fit for a former head of state are suddenly being classified as exclusive to the sitting President. To his supporters, this looks less like protocol and more like punishment.

A market woman in Red Light told Truth in Ink: “I do not say Weah was perfect, but to treat a former President like a common citizen man is to shame all of us who voted for him before. If they can do it to Weah, what about us?”

A young motorcyclist in Paynesville added: “Weah say he was going to retire, but the way Boakai people embarrassing him, they are making the man popular again. Every time they disrespect him, I feel he should come back and show them he is still the people’s choice.”

Supporters in Monrovia’s Clara Town tie Boakai’s actions even to his much-publicized anti-corruption drive. One die-hard CDCian put it this way: “Da Weah they targeting. They want make the man shame. All this talk about corruption, you na see how they only going after Weah time people?”

Such acts are not trivial. They cut deep into the pride of a man who once held the nation’s highest office and still commands the loyalty of thousands. Former Minister Eugene Nagbe summed it up: the disdain has become so pronounced that Weah could not, in good conscience, stand beside other former leaders of Liberia when Boakai’s administration sought his support for a seat at the UN.

This dynamic is not unique to Liberia. In the United States, Democrats’ unrelenting attacks on Donald Trump, from impeachment trials to efforts to bar him from office, did not break him. Instead, they hardened his base, turned him into a “martyr” of establishment disdain, and propelled him back into serious contention for the presidency. A leader with a loyal base, when constantly marginalized, can transform grievance into political fuel.

In politics, this is an irony, seeing many times, “marginalize a man with a base, and you may not kill his ambition, you may sharpen it”, a Liberian Political Observer. For Weah, who rose from Gibraltar’s ghettos to the lights of Milan, it has always been disrespect and underestimation that propelled his rise.

A student at the University of Liberia put it best: “Weah is like that footballer, the more you boo him, the more he scores goals. Maybe Boakai thinks he is finishing Weah, but he could be writing the man’s comeback song.”

By stripping Weah of courtesies, Boakai risks giving him a grievance powerful enough to script the first chapter of a comeback story.

However, that is only half the story. Watch for Part 2.

We would have achieved more if we had worked harder to leave the earth a better place than we found it.