Published: September 15, 2025
MONROVIA – Former Youth and Sports Minister D. Zeogar Wilson’s frank admission that the Weah administration failed to lay a foundation for sports development has cracked open an old but persistent debate that George Weah’s presidency was incompetent.
Analysis by Blamo N. Toe, with The Liberian Investigator
Loyalists of the ex-president, from activist Wantoe Teah Wantoe to port executive Civicus Barsi-Giah, have unleashed a barrage of insults on Wilson, branding him an “empty skull,” “inept,” and “credential-less.” But in the eyes of political analysts, these attacks, instead of shielding Weah’s legacy, have only reinforced the argument long made by critics that the Weah government was filled with inexperienced appointees who lacked the capacity to deliver.
Wilson’s Confession
In a recent interview with Intel Sports, Wilson, himself a former goalkeeper, admitted what many Liberians already suspected.
“As a government made up of people from sporting backgrounds, we should have set the foundation for future administrations to build upon — but we did not,” Wilson confessed.
Coming from a minister who spent six years in Weah’s cabinet, the statement was a harsh judgment on an administration led by Africa’s only Ballon d’Or winner. If any president was likely to transform sports in Liberia, it was Weah. But as Wilson admitted, the chance slipped away.
Loyalists Go on the Offensive
Rather than address Wilson’s central point, Weah’s loyalists chose to attack his credibility.
Barsi-Giah, a fierce CDC partisan, dismissed Wilson as an “inexperienced and inept” opportunist who squandered his chance to impact youth and sports. “You are an empty skull,” he wrote, accusing Wilson of weaponizing his failure as an anti-Weah campaign.
Wantoe Teah Wantoe went further, claiming Wilson had “no credentials” beyond being a goalkeeper. He blasted Weah’s “most certain mistake” of placing critical ministries in the hands of allies who lacked technical know-how.
Ironically, these criticisms, intended to shield Weah, only confirm what Wilson himself acknowledged: that incompetence at the highest levels was a defining feature of the CDC regime.
Analysts: Criticism Confirms the Larger Problem
Political analysts argue that the loyalists’ rage does more than expose Wilson’s shortcomings; it validates long-standing critiques of the entire Weah administration.
“If Weah’s own allies are now admitting that unqualified people were appointed, then they are indirectly confirming the very thing opposition parties have said for years,” said a University of Liberia political science lecturer. “The government was riddled with incompetence, and Liberia paid the price.”
This perspective iterates President Joseph Boakai’s frequent claim that the country was “on autopilot” under Weah, lacking competent hands at the wheel. Alexander Cummings likewise argued that Weah surrounded himself with “friends and football buddies” instead of technocrats. Now, the insults hurled at Wilson by CDC loyalists, calling him unqualified and incompetent, serve as unintentional confirmation of those opposition charges.
Sports: A Lost Opportunity
Weah, the only African to win the Ballon d’Or, rose to power partly on promises to rebuild Liberia’s sports infrastructure and empower youth. His global reputation made those promises credible. But six years later, Liberia’s sports sector remains underfunded, underdeveloped, and lacking coherent programs.
Pundits argue that Wilson’s confession, combined with his critics’ labeling him incompetent, paints a picture of wasted opportunity. Instead of technocrats with vision, Weah entrusted key portfolios to loyalists with little track record. In sports, the result was paralysis.
Fueling the Narrative of Incompetence
For the Unity Party and its allies, the episode is political gold. Wilson’s confession, amplified by the loyalists’ insults, strengthens their central narrative that Weah’s administration was structurally unfit to govern.
Even the CDC’s defenders, by branding one of Weah’s own ministers as unqualified, inadvertently concede the point. If Wilson was an “empty skull,” then what does that say about the administration that kept him in power for six years?
“This is the contradiction,” noted one analyst. “You cannot call the minister incompetent without indicting the president who appointed him. By attacking Wilson, Weah’s loyalists are confirming the very incompetence they seek to deny.”
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