APA-Monrovia (Liberia) Joseph Nyumah Boakai, Liberia’s 78-year-old president-elect had steadily built a reputation on the fringes of power but now as man of the moment the reward for his longevity is the privilege of being entrusted with his country’s highest office.
Boakai won last week’s run-off against incumbent President George Weah, finally bursting onto political stardom after many years bringing up the rear for successive Liberian leaders and acting as their sidekicks for long spells.
He had forced a run-off despite narrowly winning the first round in October, defeating President Weah to whom he had bitterly lost by a large margin in another face off for the presidency six years earlier.
Boakai had been in the shadows of late President Samuel Doe, serving under him as agriculture minister between 1983 and 1985.
Until his election to the presidency, his biggest break came in 2006 when Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was elected as Africa’s first female head of state, coming three years after the country’s brutal civil wars ended, leaving an apocalyptic scene of devastation and chaos in their wake.
As Johnson-Sirleaf’s running mate Boakai became Liberia’s 29th vice-president, a position he would hold until she ran out of presidential mandate and made way for her successor George Weah in 2018.
Boakai left his mark in the public and private sectors seeing stints with the Liberia Produce Marketing Corporation (LPMC).
As agriculture minister under Doe, Boakai chaired the West African Rice Development Association comprising fifteen member countries.
He also managed the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC) before his appointment as a consultant for the World Bank in Washington.
Boakai also chaired the boards of the Liberia Wood Management Corporation and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company.
As he prepares to lead Africa’s oldest republic which turned 176 this year, many of Liberia’s voters are looking to him to fix the country’s battered economy.
Many of the factors which led to the undoing of his past immediate predecessor were nothing of Boakai’s making but he had used them against Weah to render the former African and World Footballer of the Year unpopular and improve his own electoral fortune.
Weah sensing that he had no more grounds to recover after more than 98 percent of the results was called conceded to Mr. Boakai who in a victory speech vowed to rein in corruption, restore sanity to the struggling economy and improve the education and health sectors.
Boakai’s critics however refer to him as ‘Sleepy Joe’ while criticising his tendency to sleep through high profile meetings abroad in his capacity as vice president.
The married father of four remains an avowed Baptist and is the deacon of his church. His Christian faith had informed his burning desire for philanthropic work.
He was widely commended for personally funding and supervising a 11.2 kilometer rural road project in Lofa county.
Many Liberians also speak of his role in fund raising for community projects for schools and rural electrification in the same county while he was vice president.
Boakai who was educated in both Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone inherits from Weah a very divided country as the recent elections show.
Both his critics and sympathisers believe that his task to undo this division is no mean feat.
But as someone who had witnessed momentous events while on the fringes of Liberian leadership, some believe it would be bold to bet against him after prevailing over his rival against all the odds.
That may also include those who point to his advanced age as an impediment.
WN/as/APA