LIBERIA’S KING GEORGE: SHINING LIGHT IN AFRICA’S DEMOCRACY
By Yomi Oyelami
President, Liberia, Dr. George Oppong Manneh Weah
George Oppong Manneh Weah widely celebrated in the sporting circle, having won the World Footballer of the Year, European Footballer of the Year, and African Footballer of the Year; all in the same year 1995 is a shining light in the world of politics in Africa.
Albeit known as King George on the streets of Liberia, most pundits doubted his capacity to become the leader of the first African country to attain independence. But he has defied all odds.
Trek Africa Newspaper gathered that, his perceived low education status was one of the odds he had to surmount. The upcoming book ‘THE ICONIC Bola Ahmed Tinubu: An Inspiration to African Youths’ reads: ‘Many believe that Mr. George Weah’s earlier failures at the Liberian top job are largely due to his lack of formal education. Of course, the man started his footballing career which spanned over two decades at the age of 12. Perhaps, being one of 13 children from a broken home under the care of the paternal grandmother, young George thought it wise to pursue a sporting career that he was naturally built for in order to support the family, hence the decision to drop out of high school’.
Owning up to your deficiency and working to get better is one of the marks of great leadership, George Weah will not give in to naysayers. Another paragraph of the book reads: ‘In a sheer display of integrity the Lone Star admitted that he dropped out of high school during his preparation for the 2005 elections. He, thereafter, took the challenge head-on and went back to the classroom. The determined George will not allow the perceived deficiency to spoil his resolve to be the champion for the teeming youths in his country off the football pitch. In 2007, he obtained a high school diploma. He proceeded to get a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management with emphasis in Small Business and Entrepreneurship from DeVry University in Miami in 2014. Thus, he was able to silence the cynics.’
Only great leaders with resolve can do what Mr. Weah has done. He achieved his aim, ‘aged 51, his time eventually came when on 22nd Jan. 2018 he was installed as the 25th President of the Republic of Liberia’, says the book.
It is to sheer demonstration of sagacity and doggedness, as exemplified by President Weah, that the teeming African youth require to attain excellence that a whole chapter was dedicated to x-raying the astounding success of President George Oppong Manneh Weah in the upcoming book, ‘THE ICONIC Bola Ahmed Tinubu: An Inspiration to African Youths’.
