Former Football Star George Weah Sworn in as Liberian President

Liberians queued for miles to see the inauguration of the former footballer star George Weah as their new president on Monday 22^nd January 2018, celebrating their country’s first peaceful, democratic transition of power in 47 years by dancing as they waited.

Weah, 51, took over from Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who spent 12 years at the helm, steering the West African nation away from the trauma of a civil war.

He was sworn in as president by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Francis Korkpor.

Expectations are sky-high for Weah, who grew up kicking a ball about his poor suburb of Monrovia and became an international star and Liberian hero through a distinguished football career at Milan, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, winning the Ballon d’Or and Fifa’s world player of the year.

The ceremony took place at Samuel Doe football stadium in Monrovia, with several African heads of state in attendance, along with friends and former colleagues from Weah’s football years.

Crowds queued for kilometres (miles) to reach the stadium, singing, dancing and waving the Liberian flag as they waited.

Weah has vowed to make prosperity and job creation the hallmarks of his presidency.

Liberia’s two bloody civil wars have been over for long enough that most analysts do not foresee a resurgence of violence, but the new government does not represent an entirely fresh start. Side by side with Weah was his vice-president, Jewel Howard-Taylor, the former wife of the warlord and former president Charles Taylor, who is serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes in Durham prison.

Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking a mere 177^th on the 188 countries in the Human Development Index compiled by the UN Development Programme.