By By: Staff Writer
Port Harcourt – Former Liberian President George Weah has dropped a direct jab at African leaders, saying the biggest threat to democracy today is not military coups, but elected presidents who start “governing like dictators” after winning power.
Speaking at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Port Harcourt on Saturday, August 23, Weah warned that leaders who lean on the judiciary until it “bends to his will” and turn parliament into an “echo chamber” are just as dangerous as soldiers who seize power.
“A tyrant with a certificate of return is still a tyrant,” Weah told the hall of over 150,000 lawyers. “Democracy, properly understood, does not end on election night. It is tested every single day afterward, in how power treats the courts and the parliament that exist to restrain it.”
The former president and Ballon d’Or winner said the danger comes when governments manipulate budgets, make wrong judicial appointments, and treat courts as a “convenience rather than a check.”
He pointed to cases across West Africa where “a judiciary’s own budget must first pass through the executive it is meant to hold accountable,” and where “special courts” are created “not to deliver justice but to secure political outcomes.”
Weah told the NBA that its role goes beyond welfare for lawyers.
“When the Bar is silent, courts become easier to be captured. When the Bar speaks with one voice, the executive branch think twice before even dreaming of interference,” he said. “You are a standing sentinel of this Republic’s democracy.”
The keynote, themed “Beyond Limits,” also saw Weah reflect on his own rise from the Gibraltar ghetto in Monrovia to the presidency. He credited discipline, hard work, respect, perseverance and faith for breaking barriers.
In another headline moment, Weah defended his decision to concede the 2023 Liberian presidential election while counting was still ongoing.
“I chose to concede while the counting was still underway, because I have always believed that the will of the people must stand above the ambition of any one man,” he said, noting that the NBA cited that act when inviting him.
He urged African lawyers to push for “brain circulation” instead of “brain drain,” calling on the diaspora to help with legal reform and judicial modernization.
“Let the law never become a weapon of war. It must remain an instrument of remedy, of peace, of unity, and of accountability,” Weah concluded.
The NBA conference brought together justices, lawmakers, and legal minds from across Africa to discuss democracy, justice, and governance in the region.
