Joseph Boakai, Liberia’s new President failed to finish his inauguration speech and had to be led away from the podium during his swearing-in ceremony.
Boakai, aged 79, had been speaking for about 30 minutes at his inauguration ceremony when it became obvious that he was having difficulty continuing his speech.
He twice failed to carry on speaking, and the ceremony was shifted to a latter date.
Some reports propose that he suffered from heat exhaustion as the temperature exceeded 30C.
Boakai has been touted as Liberia’s oldest-ever president at the ceremony held at the Capitol Building, the seat of parliament in the capital city, Monrovia.
After being led away, the new Vice-President, Jeremiah Koung spoke to guests and guided them to the presidential dinner.
Boakai had clinched the coveted seat in a tight victory, to defeat the outgoing president and former football star, George Weah, in a run-off election in November 2023.
He defeated Weah by just over 20,000 vote in November.
Prior to this win, Boakai had run for the presidency in 2017, but he had lost to Weah then, who became Liberia’s youngest-ever elected president.
