George Weah in Diploma-Mill Scandal

George Weah is a Liberian hero. The greatest soccer player in the history of the West African nation never forgot his roots, even as he racked up footballer-of-the-year awards and won multiple Italian league titles with AC Milan. He has generously and selflessly led his countrymen, as the captain of his country's national team and as a benefactor for his downtrodden countrymen. Throughout it all, he has pretended to have little interest in politics, despite his popularity and his interest in helping his country. (A 2001 Sports Illustrated article predicted that, if he ran, he would take the presidency in a landslide.)

Courtesy friendsofgeorgeweah.com

Now that Weah has changed his mind and decided to enter the 42-man race for the presidency in October, that landslide no longer seems inevitable. If Weah is to win, he will have to overcome the scandal that is unfolding about his educational background—no small irony, considering how negligible the issue is compared to the deep woes enveloping Liberia as it emerges from 14 years of civil war.

His campaign website states that he received his bachelor's degree in Sports Management from Parkwood University in London. This is not a legitimate degree. Parkwood University was shut down by the Federal Trade Commission in 2003 because its owners, among other things, were marketing and selling "phony diplomas issued by fictitious universities via unsolicited commercial email and the Internet."

In other words, Weah's BA comes from a diploma mill that finds "students" with spam, sells them fake degrees, and has never had teachers, buildings, or classes, according to the FTC and published reports. Parkwood University was one of dozens of fake colleges and universities run by the University Degree Program, which at its peak was pulling in over $500,000 a month from degree seekers and may have cleared over $100 million (Chronicle of Higher Education). George Gollin, a physics professor at the University of Illinois-Champaign, has compiled a lengthy presentation on what he terms whack-a-gopher UDP university sites—sites that borrow wording liberally from one another and from real schools, so that when one fraud is uncovered, it can easily be replaced by another. The old Parkwood website is gone (see a screenshot on page nine of Gollin's report), but other UPD sites are still functional today (Landford University).

So the fake diploma mill grinds on—another celebrity, "Dr." Laura Callahan has already been outed (Reason), and a Google search of Parkwood University shows a number of workers have included their degrees from the diploma mill in online resumes.

On April 13, the Liberian Observer published the first article casting doubt on Weah's Parkwood degree. The newspaper conducted an investigation into the university and discovered its failings. Weah's press office claimed to have no idea how the degree appeared on the website, and the paper used the generous phrasing that Weah may have "fallen prey" to a bogus diploma scam, though it's hard to see how one could "fall prey" to any scheme that awarded a person a bachelor's degree for no work. (It's also unclear when Weah first obtained the BA or when it was first added to Weah's website. The first mention of it came in November of last year, ironically from a supporter extolling Weah's educational background.)

Then, strangely, Weah's camp decided to dig in its heels about the BA. Two days later, Weah's camp posted this press release, in which the campaign specifically states that Weah did receive a degree from Parkwood based on online training. Even now, Weah's team is sticking to its guns. In the most recent follow-up article from the Liberian Observer, Weah's public-relations man in the United States claims that the degree is genuine and earned "with dignity and respect." (Ironically, the original Liberian Observer article borrows heavily—and without attribution—from a piece on diploma mills that appeared a year and a half earlier in the Spokesman Review. Even more depressing? An article three days later in the Nigerian Sun News appears to rip off over half of the Observer piece).

Perhaps the Weah campaign reversed its tack because of a perceived need to show he had some sort of educational experience after he dropped out of high school. Indeed, that's probably why he bought the degree in the first place. After all, his lack of education has been his biggest obstacle in ascending to the presidency. A typical rant: "How can you decide on how to provide the best educational system for the people when you yourself are limited in that aspect? How can you sell Liberia to the world when you lack the eloquence to be heard?"

Gelf spoke at length Friday by telephone with L. Orishall Gould, Weah's campaign manager and national chairman of his party, Congress for Democratic Change. Gould took a complicated line in the interview, defending Weah's degree while conceding Parkwood may be a suspect institution—all the while maintaining that the issue is unimportant and won't affect the election.

"He acquired a bachelor's in sports administration," Gould said. "It was a regular full-year program. It was very intensive. It was also accelerated, [but included] all the regular courses you would do to obtain a bachelor's." He also attempted to reframe Weah's critics as claiming that the subject of his degree was the issue, and not its source. "How can a geologist who studied rocks say he is more educated than [someone with a degree in] sports management?" Gould asked. "How can an accountant say he is more educated than a lawyer?"

So why have the FTC and several articles maintained Parkwood is a diploma mill? Gould was evasive on this point. "There are institutions that you will go to, even in the United States, there are some institutions that have misled people from time to time. I'm not saying that's the case or not [with Weah's degree.] If you are living at a distance, and doing an online course, sometimes these accredited institutions fall into trouble and lose accreditation."

Gould also dwelled on the technical argument that a lack of degree shouldn't derail the campaign, pointing out hat there is no constitutional requirement for a minimal education level. And he argued that Weah has a comfortable lead—citing several admittedly unscientific polls by local media—that won't be diminished by Parkwood.

"Our country has about 85% illiterate persons," Gould said. "Even if you came and said you were the most educated person, our society would be resentful, because they feel the government has kept them uneducated. That will not be an issue. Weah is one of their kind—they will vote him in. Maybe it will be an issue in the western world, or among the intelligentsia. It's not an issue for Liberians. There are people in other parts of the world who were not educated" and became great leaders.

But the point here isn't that Weah will be kicked out of the race, nor that Liberians are unwilling to elect someone without a BA. The reason this has become a campaign issue is that Weah's credibility diminished when he obtained a Parkwood degree, was further hurt when he used it under false pretenses to aid his presidential bid, and has taken an even bigger hit now that his campaign continues to refuse to back down gracefully, even when the forgiving local press gave it an opening to apologize for the mistake and move on.

But it's also important not to overstate the importance of the Parkwood scandal, which pales before Liberia's very real problems. Gould, a 36-year-old who says he has worked as a business administrator and university instructor, was on firmer ground when talking to Gelf about Weah's campaign goals and why his candidacy won't be distracted by the issue. Among the goals; decentralizing government and education ("We would like to take the university out of Monrovia and into all counties. We will have extension campuses so you don't have to pick up the family to go to school."), restoring electricity and water, and getting aid and investment from western governments and businesses.

Gould also referenced Weah's illustrious past as a supporter of his country—as a footballer he paid out of his own pocket for the national team to compete in international cups, and since his retirement he's served as an ambassador for his country. "What we want in Liberia most of all is someone who truly cares for the country," Gould said, "and, God willing, he is going to win, because he truly cares for Liberia."

Gould summarized, "Let's not let the intelligentsia make that an issue, when the real issue is that we're suffering and dying slowly in this country." But Weah ultimately will have to answer for his narcissism and deception, and hope that Liberians are willing to forgive this flaw.

—Carl Bialik contributed to this article.

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