Joseph Boakai, the newly elected president of Liberia, had to be assisted from the podium after he was unable to finish his speech.
It was evident that Mr. Boakai, 79, was having trouble continuing after he had been speaking for around 30 minutes during his inauguration ceremony. The event was adjourned when he was unable to continue speaking twice.
Given that the temperature rose above thirty degrees Celsius, some reports said he had heat exhaustion. Before Mr. Boakai was removed, video footage showed a guy fanning papers close to his face.
At the ceremony, which took place at the Capitol Building, the legislature’s headquarters in Monrovia, Mr. Boakai had already taken the oath of office and become the oldest president of Liberia ever.
Following his removal, newly appointed Vice-President Jeremiah Koung addressed the attendees and accompanied them to the presidential supper. In a run-off election in November, Mr. Boakai narrowly defeated George Weah, the outgoing president and former football player.
Although there was a lot of concern about Mr. Boakai’s health throughout the election campaign, he told the BBC that he was in good condition and that “age should be a blessing to this country”.
Mr. Boakai stated, “Elections are over, partisanship must give [way] to the forward march of Liberia,” prior to being forced to end his address.
Up until 2018, Mr. Boakai served as vice president in the administration of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He ran for president in the United Party (UP) primary.
In November, he won a run-off election against Mr. Weah by a margin of little over 20,000 votes. In 2017, Mr. Boakai again sought the presidency, but he was defeated by Mr. Weah, who went on to become the country’s youngest elected leader.
