Ex-Liberia
international George Weah has been elected as the 25th President of Liberia
after securing 12 of the 15 counties in the country.
The
three-time African Footballer of the Year and the first African player to win
the Ballon d'Or defeated Joseph Boakai and will now succeed the first elected
female president in Africa, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
And the
football world joined the former Chelsea, AC Milan, PSG, Monaco, Manchester
City and Marseille .
President elect of Liberia George Weah’s victory speech
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen
Madam Jewel Howard-Taylor, Vice President-elect of the
Republic of Liberia
Fellow compatriots
Today is a day to give thanks. Let us begin by lifting
our eyes to heaven to thank God Almighty for the wonderful blessings He has
bestowed upon beloved our country. It was God who inspired the people of
Liberia to vote change to believe that with this change will come the hope of …
in a most prosperous Liberia future. I thank God that among so many
presidential candidates, I was chosen to be the 24th President of the Republic
of Liberia.
I am truly blessed and humbled by this divine favour. I
thank my darling wife, Clar Weah, and my family who have stood by me over the
years, especially in the last 13 years of political struggle. Through the
darkest moments of this struggle, my wife and children have remained my pillar
of strength. I would not have been able to do this without their untiring
support and advice.
I cannot summon the words to thank the people of Liberia
who have made this historic day possible. What the people of Liberia have
delivered for the country cannot even be described in words. So, I will ask
Liberians here and those throughout the country under the sound of my voice to
thank the Liberian people by clapping for one minute.
I thank you for joining me to celebrate the Liberian
people. They are the true heroes and heroine of this victory. Let me also thank
the leadership, partisans, supporters and sympathisers of the Coalition we say
a big thank you, with special thanks and appreciation going to the Honourable
Senator of Nimba County, Prince Yormie Johnson. To the leadership and partisans
of the Liberia People Democratic Party, we say thank you. To the leadership and
partisans of the National Patriotic Party (NPP) we say thank you, and of course
to our own, Congress for Democratic Change, we say a resounding thank you.
CDCians have sustained the struggle over the years, and
without you this victory would not be possible. Two days ago, the world watched
me cry. I did not cry because I won. I cried because of the many partisans who
lost their lives in the struggle for change. They will never be forgotten.
Please join me in a moment of silence in memory of the fallen heroes of our
revolutionary struggle.
We truly thank all Liberians especially the women of
Liberia who stood with us in the battle. For that, I can truly that the best
way to celebrate all Liberians is to improve their lives through the instrument
of pro-poor public governance. I declare publicly today that transforming the
lives of all Liberians is a singular mission and focus of my presidency.
Over the next few days, we will assemble the government
committed to fighting for the ideas that have inspired our campaign, and
dedicated to delivering for the Liberian people. Those chosen to serve will and
must be dedicated to the ideas of grassroots, social transformation. Person
looking to cheat the Liberian people through the menace of corruption will have
no place in my administration. We will build on the institutional gains under
Madam Sirleaf to improve the lives of our people. We will build a new
institution where necessary to protect rights and engender inclusion among all
our people.
To our Diaspora Liberians, we say come home. This is a
new dispensation. We need your skills, your ideas, your expertise and talents
so that together we will build our common patrimony. To our development
partners, we say a big thank you for the support you have provided over the
last 12 years. As we embark upon this transition, we call for renewal and
strengthening of this partnership. We know that aid flows have declined in the
last few years. In our view, this decline is not good for the current
transition – at least in the short term. While we work to grow the Liberian
economy and expand our revenue base, medium-term aid would be needed to support
projects that would be critical to our long-term growth.
To investors, we say Liberia is open and ready for
business. Over the long term, private investment will be our key strategy to
delivering transformation. We will work to relax constraints to private
investment; strengthen the business, legal and regulatory environment, and
protect business profits.
Fellow partisans, I received a concession call from His
Excellency Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai. I thanked him and said that in
the interest of our people, we will work together. He is a statesman and also
my neighbour. If I have to walk over to greet and get advice from him, I will.
That is what neighbours are for.
To other political parties, we are not enemies. We
welcome you with open arms as we all strive to build our country. This election
was a contest in ideas and not a clash of political personalities. Our ideas
have prevailed but that does not mean you do not have a contribution to make.
We need to bring our country together to secure our peace and work harder
towards national unity and development.
To the iron lady of African, President Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, we say thank you for the peaceful transfer of power that is
about to take place. Yours is a legacy in democratic empowerment, and we
promise to follow your footsteps in protecting the rights of Liberians and
providing even greater freedom. We will build on the foundation you have laid
to achieve more for all of our people. Your job is not yet done, Madam
President, as we will continue to count on you to strengthen our outreach to
both development partner and investors, all in the direction of moving our
country forward.
Let us all work hard to build our country; only then will
the creed in our national anthem ring true:
In union strong success is sure
With God above
Our rights to prove
We will o’er all prevail
NAN
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