George Weah Taking on 170-Year Challenges of Liberia

Moses Kulo

• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781642982374
• eBook ISBN: 9781642982381
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Military Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

George Weah: Liberia's most celebrated world icon and elected president is on a mission. He positions himself to take on 170-year social inequality, economic, political, corrupt, and other institutional challenges of Liberia. Would Weah accomplishes his vision for Liberia?

Economic and Political Journeys

Many scholars will agree that Liberia began an independent nation in 1847 with promising economic and political futures than other countries in Africa. Liberia has no colonial master like many African countries. The founding fathers of Liberia were Africans who returned from the United States as free people supported by American Colonization Society (ACS). Roberts Finley of New Jersey, USA, established ACS in 1816 purposely to help the migration of free African-Americans to Africa.

Liberia’s relationship with the United United benefited the Liberian people. Liberia naturally became a democratic nation. English became an official language, and many Liberians converted to Christianity. The ACS and the United States government provided the needed fund to build Liberia’s economy in the 1800s. Also, ACS guided the development of the Liberian political institution. The governing body of ACS led Liberia from 1822–1847 when it turned over the leadership of Libera to the free African-Americans known as Americo-Liberians. Liberia immediately declared independence from ACS and became a sovereign nation in Africa.

In 1869, True Whig Party was founded as a political party by the Americo-Liberians. Unfortunately, the leaders of this new party formed an autocratic government and became, laying the foundation for a self-centered political ideology that destroyed Liberia’s social, economic, and political institutions for many decades. Ideology is a particular set of political practices, ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, or a collection of ideas of any social class. The True Whig Party focused on promoting and protecting the interests of Americo-Liberians and ignored social, economic, infrastructural, and human development in Liberia.

Sadly, in the late 1800s and early 1900s Liberians were divided into two groups namely indigenous and Americo-Liberians. The government of Liberia did nothing to unite the Liberian people. Even the government engaged in practices that encouraged and promoted disunity of the two groups. For example, the indigenous people were not allowed to participate in the political, decision-making process of the country. However, few Americo-Liberians supported the integration of the Liberian people. Some of the Americo-Liberians encouraged and supported indigenous citizens to improve their social and economic statuses. For example, some private Americo-Liberians financially supported the native population to go to school through nongovernmental organizations.

Lessons Learned

In the past two hundred years, no other ideological institution in the Western Hemisphere besides democratic system has survived the human, economic, social, and political challenges of our time. Let us make it clear, many countries in the West claimed to be democratic when in practice, they are not. Liberia is one of those countries. One of the pillars of Western democracy, civilization, equality, economic progress, and moral well-being is making or following fair laws.

The Liberian government, especially under True Whig Party, missed an opportunity to develop and support policies that could reduce illiteracy, improve the community, economic development, strengthen the nation’s infrastructure, and bring the people together. The so-called elite class (Americo-Liberians) only focused on enhancing it...

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