College-bound George Weah gave us something to talk about

Sunday, July 22,  2007    

   By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh

     To most Liberians, the idea of going back to school is a remarkable personal journey. It is about fulfilling a lifetime dream of getting an education many have chosen to pursue but few actually succeeded at because of the obvious lack of opportunities in Liberia, and the support needed to accomplish such feat in a country with little or no opportunities to be what one wants to be.

     Embarking on such a journey obviously requires motivation and endurance, which often pits the ability of the individual against the seriousness of the individual in what could be an endless road to nowhere or an illuminating road that leads to somewhere.

     We all have been down that path before at one time in our lives, getting in and out of school annually only to see the years pass by us quickly or slowly without some actually realizing the passing of time, and others failing to realize that time waits for no one.

                        An angry Weah challenges electoral ballots in 2005

 However, those who frequently registered for school every season did not enroll with the hopes of improving their chances in a presidential race in years to come but to fulfill a life-long dream of getting a college education the individual always wanted.

     The idea of going back to school to earn a high school diploma and a college degree, in the hopes of improving the individual’s chances of winning a presidential election is a risky political road to travel because of the shallowness of the reasons behind the announcement, the unpreparedness of the individual and it portrays a negative image of a country as having no educated people to lead.

     The announcement also makes it look like Liberians are desperate to have this “anointed leader” in the waiting to be president at any cost, and who most definitely will be an apprentice after graduating college to lead this broken country, which does not look good for Liberia and the Liberian people.

     George Weah’s unusual announcement gave us pundits and the public much to talk and laugh about because he should have first gone to school to prepare himself for the rough and tumble world of presidential politics, because it is funny and foolish to believe a college educated George Weah will be any different from an uneducated George Weah who went from football, rags to riches and political fame to a terrible electoral performance in 2005, yet hasn’t impressed upon those who doubt his competence and his ability to lead Liberia.

    The so-called ‘uneducated’ former presidential candidate disappointed many when he went from being a front-runner to being a brief winner early in the campaign and the subsequent national elections that followed, only to become a loser who dreaded the agony of defeat, stirred wild conspiracy theories about why he lost the race and later agitated a national crisis by refusing to accept the victory of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s.

     After all, political campaigns are about winning elections and generating effective public relations geared toward making and leaving impressions, and changing the minds of those who hardly knows the candidate. It is about changing negatives into positives and making an impact on a population a would-be candidate would like to convince about why he or she is running in the first place.

     The obvious lack of a college education alone cannot be blamed for George Weah’s poor performance in 2005. What this man lacked is a vision and the direction in which he wants to take the country. Weah is uncomfortable discussing issues; he lacked confidence in himself and his message; is less focused and brings timidity to the table.

     However, Weah has name recognition, plenty of his own money, and was seen during the elections as not corrupt and untainted politically when he chose to enter the presidential race. He did not expand on those winning personal issues that made him so different from the other presidential candidates, but fumbled and fouled out every time he had the opportunity to contrast his positions  (if he ever had any) from other major candidates.

     Weah, who focused more on his celebrity than articulating substantive national issues during the elections did not try enough to win, and hasn’t done enough in this post-election era to win in 2012, either. Certainly, his announcement of going back to school to prepare for the presidency, in my honest opinion is not a winning message and does not bode well for his battered image.

     George Weah would have done himself a favor had he projected the image of an eloquent and visionary leader who sympathizes with the Liberian people, understands them and their problem and is ready to engage the nation by putting forth faucet of ideas and translating his defeat into winning issues with series of policy speeches that separates him from the current president.

     Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) political party is not cementing a hold on burning national issues, either, because the party is playing catch-up and will only respond to issues when prodded, is putting us to sleep with its countless press releases and infighting in the party, which is heck of a way to prepare for 2012.

     Instead, we are left with a guy who craves leadership but hasn’t shown leadership, is buried in the past but forgot the present, just completed high school as we have been told, wants to go to college to earn a degree or is already in college, yet wants us to take him seriously because he’s George Manneh Oppong Weah?

     It is not a bad idea at all if Weah wants to go back to school. He ought to go because it is the right thing to do for his own personal development.

     To tie all that to a future presidential campaign is too much for me. At least George Manneh Weah has given us something to talk about.

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