Monrovia – Liberia’s President-elect, George Manneh Weah, has assured Liberians that transforming the lives of all Liberians would be the “singular mission and focus of my presidency”.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
The soccer legend made the statement while delivering his acceptance speech Saturday in Monrovia.
“I can truly say that the best way to celebrate all Liberians is to improve their lives through the instruments 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,” he asserted.
Weah made little promises during his campaign period, but his acceptance speech was lofty with promises, noting that in the next few days, he would be forming a government that is committed to fighting for the ideas that inspired his campaign.
“Those chosen to serve will and must be dedicated to the ideas of grassroots, social transformation,” he added.
He told the press gathering that his administration would have no room for people who will “cheat the Liberian people through corruption”.
He promised to build on the institutional gains made by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
“We will build a new institution where necessary to protect rights and foster inclusion amongst our people,” Mr. Weah said.
He encouraged Liberians in the diaspora to come home to form part of his government, acknowledging that their skills, experience and expertise would be needed his achieving his agenda.
The President-elect called on Liberia’s international partners to strengthen relationship with Liberia.
“We know that aid flows have declined over 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, expand our revenue base, medium term aid would be needed to support projects that would be critical to our long term growth,” he said.
The also encouraged investors to consider Liberia as a place for investment, noting that over the long term, private investment would be his administration’s key strategy to delivering transformation.
“We will work to relax constraints to private investment, strengthen the business legal and regulatory environment to protect business profit,” he added.