Why Liberia’s President, Boakai’s Swearing In Was Suspended While Giving Speech | READ MORE

Liberia’s new and oldest president, Joseph Boakai had his inauguration suspended abruptly on Monday, as he failed to finish his speech after addressing citizens for about thirty minutes.

79-year-old Boakai failed twice to continue his speech during his swearing in ceremony and had to be helped out of the Capitol Building, the seat of parliament in the capital, Monrovia.

Video footage showed a man fanning papers near Mr Boakai’s face, before he was taken away.

“Elections are over, partisanship must give way to the forward march of Liberia.

“I come to rekindle our hopes,” the new president said, adding that dignity in public service and respecting the rule of law must be restored” Boakai had said before the incident.

After he was taken away, new Vice-President Jeremiah Koung spoke to guests and escorted them to the presidential dinner.

Speaking to the press, the Secretary General of Unity Party, Amos Tweh, said Boakai failed to continue his speech owing to heat exhaustion.

In his words;

“Heat exhaustion contributed to the few minutes of disruption in his speech but the speech ended successfully and the president was advised by his doctors to come home as a result of that”.

“The president was not taken to the hospital. Everything went okay, the president is normal, and he’s doing well. The president has resumed his normal presidential duties”.

During the campaigns, Boakai’s health condition had been a major topic of discuss, however, the president had assured that he is fit and healthy.

Boakai narrowly defeated the outgoing president, former football star George Weah, in a run-off election in November, 2023.

Recall that Boakai contested for the presidency in 2017, but lost to Weah, who became Liberia’s young-ever elected president.