A very interesting election has just taken place in Liberia, where incumbent President George Weah, 57, was battling it out with his perennial nemesis, opposition leader, Joseph Boakai, 78.

 After the first round polling in October, there was no clear winner, as none of the candidates broke the 50 per cent threshold required for a majority. They were literally tied at 43 per cent of the vote!

The two frontrunners, Weah and Boakai, then went into a runoff in November. After a cliffhanger of an election, Boakai emerged victorious, by beating Weah on a knife edged victory of 50.64 per cent to 49.36 per cent.

That is when things begun taking a very interesting turn indeed.

When it became clear to Weah that he was not going to beat Boakai, he called the man to concede defeat and congratulate him on his victory. He went one better. He urged his supporters and his party, that was already loudly proclaiming that the elections were rigged, to accept the result! He then summoned his cabinet and tasked them with organising the transition so that “the new administration can start work as quickly as possible.”

You would be forgiven if you thought that this was a scene out of an African tragicomedy.

By this move, Weah, nicknamed King George from his days as an international football star, has emblazoned his name into the annals of African trailblazers in democracy. Not only has he spared his country tensions that almost all African countries experience after elections, but has enabled Liberia to strengthen its democracy and democratic institutions by ensuring another seamless transition. In Africa, this is herculean!

Weah is a dollar multimillionaire, with homes across Europe. He can afford to play the game of brinkmanship because he and his family can always take off if Liberia goes back to the doldrums from which it is emerging. But he chose patriotism, love for his country.

In Africa, nobody loses elections. What is strange is that as counting progresses and the key candidates still think they are in with a chance, the issue of rigging is usually muted. This is largely because since they expect to win, they cannot then be the ones degrading the credibility of the results. The moment they lose, then it is open season on officials of the electoral commission.

In Liberia, Weah’s Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) now alleges that the opposition rigged the elections. Does that ring any bells? It is so preposterous! An incumbent in Africa claiming that the opposition, that is usually on the backfoot throughout, has rigged the elections is so laughable.

All politicians in Africa must take a leaf from Weah. This is especially so in Kenya where politicians have no iota of shame, and are ready to bring the country down if elections do not go their way, or they are not accommodated when they lose!

Former electoral commission chief Wafula Chebukati, called this impunity, for which he said there is no cure! Of course, there is- the cure is patriotism- love for country. One hopes Kenya’s opposition doyen, Raila Odinga, is taking notes.

There is a very poignant lesson for Kenya in Weah’s defeat. In 2017, Weah crushed Boakai in the second round of that vote, beating him 61 per cent to 38 per cent.

In this election, Boakai defeated Weah by taking 50.64 per cent of the vote to 49.36 per cent in the run-off. Since the last election, Weah has haemorrhaged almost 10 per cent of his support, with his opponent gaining 10 per cent. This is a massive swing of over 20 per cent.

Liberians were disillusioned that Weah did not follow through on his policies to fight poverty and rebuild the country’s crumbling infrastructure. The fact that a man who won by a landslide barely six years ago riding on a populist and reformist wave, and champion of the people against the elites was beaten by the man he crushed in that election because of failing to revive the economy, has very poignant lessons for President William Ruto. And time is running out!

— The writer can be reached at [email protected]