A former president of Liberia, George Weah, has asked African leaders to embrace democratic tenets, describing those who govern like dictators as threats to democracy.

Weah spoke on Sunday during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with the theme “Beyond Limits”.

“And let me be plain about something else because it is often the more dangerous of the two threats to democracy. The danger is not only that soldiers might seize power in the night or that a defeated candidate might refuse to leave office,” he told the gathering.

“It is also that a leader who arrives in office through free and fair elections can, over time and often gradually, come to govern like the very dictators that ballot was meant to guard against—leaning on the judiciary until it bends to his will and strong-arming the legislature until it becomes an echo chamber rather than a check on his power. A tyrant with a certificate of return is still a tyrant.”

To buttress his adherence to democratic principles, Weah, a former footballer-turned-politician, recalled his decision to concede defeat during the November 2023 presidential election in Liberia even before official counting was finished.

“I did not wait for the counts to be completed or for the final result to be formally announced before I picked up the phone to congratulate my successor. There were those around me who suggested patience, who argued that the sitting president owed it to himself to contest every figure until the very last vote is certified,” the former AC Milan player said.

“I chose otherwise. I chose to concede while the counting was still underway because I have always believed and still believe that the will of the people must stand above the ambitions of any one man in the democratic setting.”

The former president who held that position from 2018 to 2024, asked those in the legal profession to remain a shield against executive overreach, arguing that democracy is reliant on an unbent judiciary.

“Democracy does not survive on the strength of elections alone… What holds us up? What keeps the roof from collapsing on the people inside it? Our institutions,” he said.

Weah said coup plotters are not the only threats to democracy on the continent and cited actions from government officials as part of things affecting judicial independence.

“We have seen nations where the judiciary’s own budget must first pass through the executive it is meant to hold accountable… A court decision must mean what it says without any political permission,” he said. (Channels TV, excluding headline)

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