{"id":3974,"date":"2019-12-20T15:12:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T15:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=3974"},"modified":"2019-12-20T15:12:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T15:12:49","slug":"weah-critic-arrives-in-liberia-before-planned-anti-govt-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/12\/20\/weah-critic-arrives-in-liberia-before-planned-anti-govt-protests\/","title":{"rendered":"Weah critic arrives in Liberia before planned anti-gov’t protests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A prominent critic of Liberian President George Weah<\/a> has landed in the country before anti-government protests planned for later this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of cheering supporters welcomed Henry \nCosta after his arrival on Thursday. The host of a popular radio show, \nCosta frequently criticised Weah before authorities closed his station \nin October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am very excited seeing such a crowd here to \nwelcome me,” Costa told reporters at the airport before heading to the \ncentre of the seaside capital, Monrovia, in an open-top car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was not arrested as you can see,” said Costa, described by local media as “the US-based owner” of the now-shuttered Roots FM, who hosted his morning show via the internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am here for the protest and the protest must go on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costa is also one of the leaders of the Council of Patriots, an opposition group that organised mass protests<\/a> against Weah, a former international football star, in June. Another protest is planned for December 30. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the Liberian Ministry of Justice refused to \nauthorise the rally last month, labelling calls for the president to \nstep down unconstitutional. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weah, who was sworn in as Liberia’s president in January 2018, is under growing pressure over his management of a financial crisis<\/a> in his impoverished country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhofal Chambers, an MP from Weah’s party, accused the opposition of treason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Calling for an unconstitutional removal of an elected president is unquestionably a crime of treason, terrorism and subversion,” he said at a news conference on Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, the government shut down Costa’s radio station – after accusing it of inciting violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also closed a radio station owned by a government official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still traumatized by back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola<\/a> crisis, Liberia is struggling to revive its flatlining economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inflation<\/a> is rampant, according to the World Bank<\/a>, and civil servants regularly go unpaid. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent critic of Liberian President George Weah has landed in the country before anti-government protests planned for later this month. Hundreds of cheering supporters welcomed Henry Costa after his arrival on Thursday. The host of a popular radio show, Costa frequently criticised Weah before authorities closed his station in October. “I am very excited seeing such a crowd here… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3975,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions\/3975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}