FROM A SLEEK FOOTBALLER TO A CONSUMMATE PRESIDENT---GEORGE WEAH CLASSICS

Change, goes the incontrovertible axiom, is constant. This expression finds its validity against the backdrop of the new wave of politics swirling round in Africa. Africa, without an iota of disputation, is a haven for different kinds of people....hmmm. Despite the massive resources that abound here, our bane had been good leadership. The hue of leaders in Africa has been our collective malaise and we have been bearing it with equanimity since time immemorial. They pillage our collective patrimony and we could only respond with just a sigh; they ride rough-shod on us and we could cry and laugh; they abdicate their responsibilities but we remain stolid and dormant. Our psyche has been brutalized and the humanity left of us is gradually eroding.

Despite these lapses, we still believe that there could still be a flicker of hope on the horizon. We can’t afford to remain docile and allow situations to get out of our hands more than it has. The ultra-conservatives need to be ousted and the superannuated jettisoned from controlling our resources while the butchers feed on bones. This could only be done with our votes and the unprecedented has happened in Liberia. Our votes are our inalienable rights and hence, must be cherished and stereotyped sacrosanct. They have looked down on us for too long oblivious of the fact that the real power lies with the electorate. It beats my imagination that the presumed cosmopolitan and mercurial politicians we have in Africa who have transverse the length and breadth of the universe will still be bereft of doing the essentials when they come back. For that reason, a new hope, flicker of fire, beam of light have come on us and we will hold this moral victory with every strand of power in our care.

I join Nigerians in celebrating the Liberians for the new president of the country, George Weah. He was hitherto a well-known retired footballer whose exploits brought immense spotlight on the ‘little’ country of Liberia. He brought the country from oblivion to limelight and his magnificent skillful finesse was a reminder of a good player he was doing his days. He had been playing grass root politics within his country and he has taken it grand by clinching the highest position in Liberia. We bask in euphoria because we have a young president who will, with certitude, know what is deficient in his country. That means a wave and an advocacy of ‘not-to-young-to-rule’ ideation is cutting through Africa and we can be better for it.

In this giddy celebration, George Weah- the newly elected President of Liberia should know that a lot of works have been cut out for him. He must hit the ground running and transform the country from the back-benching position they had hitherto occupied in the comity of nations is brought to the front-burner. No dilly-dallying like my President, Muhammadu Buhari, who used six months to constitute a cabinet whose membership was a subject of conjecture before the final pronouncement.

Let Africa rejoice because a new tide of change is sweeping through the continent. We needed someone to spearhead and now, we have one. Africa will be great again and we will cease to be the butt of joke to other continents despite different idiosyncrasies.

Congratulations Africa, Liberia and George Weah.