A soccerlitical message to Liberia’s president George Oppong Weah

My message is simple. What may be crucial to your leadership is not the academic accolades your political ambitions have led you to acquire. The accumulation of similar degrees by the (mis)leaders of Africa in the last many decades have proven useless for the people. After some pondering, I believe what might be more useful to your success as president is what you learnt on the soccer field. As a soccer champion and now a political champion, you can make a soccerlitical commitment to leadership.

What is a soccerlitical commitment to leadership? It is political committed guided by an eagle-eyed, resolute focus on goals. In soccer, the winning goal is the ultimate end. Your supporters want you to score goals. Liberians want you to create jobs, improve healthcare and education and secure their future. Goals are what they want. And it doesn’t matter how many fowls or penalties you concede.

On the soccer field, your supporters don’t expect your team to pamper opponents and be gentle on them. Be prepared, your opponents will be aiming ferociously for the back of your net. Thus, Liberians don’t care about who you offend or who you befriend. Offend whoever you may, but achieve the above goals.

Note that no team, no matter the size of its support base or the worth of its corporate account, concedes defeat before the initial whistle. No soccer team has monopoly over ingenuity and dexterity and tactical deception. On the field of play, every team is a winnable team. In other words, your ability to score goals depends on what soccerlitical setup you deploy—the line-up you present against your opponent—not the size of your team’s support base or its financial strength.

Sadly, most African leaders fail on this count. The political teams that represent many African countries on the global soccerlitical field lack this common sense. They concede defeat even before they enter the dressing room. At cabinet and ministerial meetings, they fail to see the enormous potential—natural and human resources at their disposal—to launch a winning plan. They fail to deploy an impenetrable midfield to resist and, if necessary, destroy the attackers from big (western) countries.

Rather, they reason that these countries won the political match yesterday—that is, they subjugated Africans and African countries—so they must have the right to win today also. And because of this, our opponents have come to think that we, Africans, are inherently inferior in the global soccerlitical arena. They claim the African teams are third division teams, when in fact, historically, ours is the original home of those who built the soccer arena itself.

But who takes the shenanigans of opponents serious? But African teams have unwisely believed these lies as Gospel according to St. Europe. Thus, instead of protecting the interests of their people—that is, scoring winning socio-economic and political goals—they have succumbed to the illegitimate might and deceptive machinations of Western countries.

I note that some people blame Africa’s lame soccerlitical formation—which yields only losses and few draws—on historical injustice orchestrated by Western countries. But I blame African leaders. What do you expect your opponents to do on the soccerlitical field Mr. president? Pamper you or sing you bedside stories? No! So yes—I will blame Africa’s soccerlitical opponents in the global arena, but I will reserve more blame for the African soccerlitical teams for sitting idly by whilst their resources get plundered, and their people violated.

Mr. President, in a realist sense at least, you cannot blame your opponents for aiming to beat you to the trophy. Your soccerlitical opponents will use every weapon at their disposal—psychological and physical. So, remembering history is necessary, but dwelling on history is a wrong formation for progress. It demoralizes your team.

If you must, let your defense team focus on that history. Let your defense remember the last goal painfully conceded. Here, your ministries of interior, employment, education, health, infrastructure and transport should remember that they are the last bastion of the people. If things get worse, they keep the country intact and secure, and the people at peace: if you don’t score a goal, at least don’t concede one. Build a wall around the interests of your people.

Then your midfield, Mr. President. Your opponents will surely send their most hawkish attackers and midfielders; they will be lethal on the offensive. But with a tight defense, the midfield is rendered extra strength to resist any onslaught. Your ministries of foreign affairs and trade, defense and international corporation can build on the strength at home. They can focus on resisting opponents’ political and diplomatic deceptions, and launch an offensive.

But, first, they must watch the flanks like a hungry snake. The touchline is where most of opponents’ soccerlitical tricks happen. You will hardly realize the destructive plan until that ferocious speed of attrition on the sidelines. You need a prior counter-plan. In the name of free trade, human rights, globalisation, and bi- and multilateral cooperation Western countries launch a sly attack from the flanks. Their main motive however, mostly, is to score a strategic national interest goal against your people. Tell your ministers to open their eyes, Mr. President. Your goal is to secure the interests of your people.

Then let the attackers—the presidency—go for their pound of flesh. A payback. The best payback for a bygone wrong is a sweet victory in the present. Most times, it doesn’t matter how good the opponent’s goalkeeper is. It is how merciless and targeted the shot is. Go for the goal, exact that winning strike—the signature that seals the deal for jobs, good healthcare, public safety, good education etc.

To deploy this winnable formation, you require a purpose, aggression, and some deception might help. The global soccerlitical arena is largely a jungle. It is a place where every team has its say, but few teams have their way. Personally, I will not fault you if you ignore this Trumpish jungle. It is one of injustice and racism anyway. Disrespect the system if you must, Mr. President. On the soccer field where the referee is mostly neutral, opponents play tough and wicked. Even if the goals come at the cost of broken bones. What do you expect in a soccerlitical playing field where the referee is anything but neutral?

In the global soccerlitical arena, referee UN has been incompetent, by its own admission. For example, it oversaw the annihilation of team Rwanda in 1994 and the abuse of many others in the last 73 years of refereeing the global soccerlitical arena. Worse, referee UN is controlled by its assistants. Assistant referees US, UK, France, China and Russia compete and referee simultaneously. They call the shots. Where is the neutrality?

This might sound hopeless, Mr. President. But remember, you have a lot of control over your own team. You have control over which players you field. I recommend Liberians who have the requisite skill, discipline and commitment to the people. I mean commitment to the people—not to private pockets or party supporters or members of your ethnic extraction. It shouldn’t matter whether those you select come from Buutuo, Bopolu or Careysburg or from the county of Lofa. It shouldn’t matter whether they are Gio, Mano or Mandingo.

I know that in our collective historical folly, we have accepted a political system that works to disempower us. This system divides us along ethnic and regional lines. That system also introduces something called party discipline; it has turned our parliament houses into boxing rings. But be courageous. Field the right people even if they are not in the Coalition for Democratic Change. Mr. President every winning coach offers their very best, not their very friend.

Your people deserve better. Mr. President, I am witness to a Liberia and an Africa in which the people have suffered years of oppression and other forms of injustice. For decades, the people have been in the abyss of socio-economic neglect and abuse by their own leaders. I implore you to heed the cries of your people from the throes of socio-economic anguish. The people deserve better.

Mr. President, you have the chance to overturn this somber fate. The question is: would you join the long list of African soccerlitical leaders who became looters, robbers and devils? Or you will be one of the very few who cared for their people and remained human. The choice is yours. But note that, in the end, even if your country’s people and courts don’t judge you, your conscience and posterity forever will.

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By Muhammad Dan Suleiman

The author is a political analyst, social critic and decolonial thinker based at the University of Western Australia, Perth. Views expressed in this article are his own. Twitter: @MDanSuleiman Email: mld.suleiman@gmail.com