Breaks Silence On Frosty Relations With President George Weah
By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
It’s now known that Liberia’s international football icon-turned politician, George Oppong Weah now President and James Salinsa Debbah were both originally members of Charles Brumskine’s Liberty Party.
The revelation was made by Liberia’s “most celebrated player” and former Lone Star National team Manager, Debbah over the weekend in an exclusive interview with the WEEKEND FILE radio magazine show presented by the Public Trust Media Group in partnership with Capital FM Radio FM 89.7.
Mr. Debbah said both he and Weah supported the Liberty Party, when the late Cllr. Brumskine first announced his bid for the presidency, but Mr. Weah left as he had his own ambition.
The former Liberian World best and European Best Player, Weah was later one of the organizers of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), becoming its founding political leader and first presidential candidate in the 2005 elections, when he came second to the eventual winner, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of the Unity Party.
Mr. Debbah and Weah then found themselves in opposite directions on the political landscape, as he publically said he was not giving his support to his former Lone Star teammate and cousin because he was a “novice in politics”.
Since then, relations between the pair has been rather frosty.
A question posed to Debbah on the frosty relations with long-time pal led him into breaking his long-time silence on the matter.
He explained that since President Weah took office nearly three years ago (January 22, 2020), they have not communicated frequently and that family members have made frantic efforts to mend fences but so far to no avail.
He said he holds absolutely “nothing against” President Weah and that he only took the position he took that he was a novice in politics, because he wanted to be sincere.
Relations between the two again dampen during the 2017 presidential elections, after Debbah again failed to support Weah’s presidential bid publically.
The distance between the two further widen in the aftermath of that elections, which Weah and his CDC finally won, thus installing him as President of the Republic of Liberia.
“I never had a negative view. I was being objective,” Debbah told WEEKEND FILE.
According to the former National football Coachhe, he is in fact a well-wisher of the Weah Presidency.
“He’s my next of kins. I want to see him succeed. I’m not bitter,” he said.
“I have always declared my support to Liberty Party. What a lot of people don’t comprehend is that from the very inception, George Weah and I started with Liberty Party.”