Published: June 11, 2025
MONROVIA – Former President George Manneh Weah has admitted to meeting the late former First Lady Nancy B. Doe at the Executive Mansion, but stopped short of disclosing any details of their discussion.
Speaking during a condolence visit to the Doe family last weekend, Weah offered US$5,000 in support of funeral arrangements and urged mourners not to politicize the occasion.
“This is not a time to make news,” Weah said in remarks recorded live by KMTV. “Our mother is gone. She cannot speak for herself. But I know that I treated her with honor and respect.”
The visit, however, reignited public interest in claims made by the late Nancy Doe prior to her death. In several public interviews, she accused Weah of ignoring her appeals for assistance during his presidency — particularly on matters involving the family’s seized properties and unpaid benefits. Doe, the widow of slain former President Samuel Kanyon Doe, had also secured a favorable ruling at the ECOWAS Court, but complained the judgment was never enforced.
According to her, Weah never acted on her concerns and failed to offer any meaningful support during her years of struggle, despite repeated efforts to reach him.
Weah, responding indirectly, said he met Nancy Doe three times in his life — once in 1988 when summoned by President Doe for a national football match, and most recently at the Executive Mansion when she was brought in by his aide, Sekou Kalasco. He declined to elaborate on the second encounter.
“My brother Isaac [Nyenebo] didn’t need to say anything. No one can justify. But I know I did my part,” Weah added, addressing murmurs of discontent among mourners — mostly Grand Gedeh County natives — over his delayed engagement with the family.
Nyenebo, former Pro-Tempore of the Liberian Senate and a key political ally of the Doe family, had earlier suggested that Weah should have visited earlier, but noted the former president was preparing for a trip abroad.
Weah took time to outline his support to the Doe family over the years. He claimed credit for Nyenebo’s rise to Senate leadership and said he facilitated travel and support for Samuel K. Doe Jr., who now resides in London.
“I took Samuel Doe Jr. as my own brother. I met him in Abidjan and helped him — that’s why he is in London today. That’s what family does,” Weah noted. “We must not let politics divide us.”
He dismissed criticisms from Veronica Mamie Doe — daughter of the late First Lady — who rejected his funeral donation and returned items, including two cows, 50 bags of rice, and oil, to the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) headquarters.
Veronica accused Weah of long neglecting the Doe family and called his donations disingenuous.
But the move sparked a backlash among Grand Gedeh elders and women’s groups, who condemned Veronica’s actions and threatened to withdraw their support from the funeral. Eventually, the elders intervened to calm tensions and called for unity during the mourning period.
Weah, meanwhile, reaffirmed his commitment to peace and national reconciliation, a message he’s often repeated during and after his presidency.
“I’m not a politician. I’m a peace ambassador. I speak peace. I know no Grand Gedeans, no Nimbaians — only Liberians,” he said.
“I’m not going to discuss what happened between me and Nancy Doe,” he said. “She’s gone. Let us mourn in peace.”
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