Liberia to induct a devout Christian president into office next January

By James Kokulo Fasuekoi|Editor-Publisher|editor@globalekklesia.com

Defeated incumbent Liberia’s president, and former Africa’s Best Footballer, Mr. George M. Weah will be preparing to hand power over to Mr. Joseph Nuyuma Boakai and his vice president of Unity party next January, in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.

This came following a rigorous presidential and legislative elections in the West African country which eventually resulted in a second runoff, thus opening a window for Boakai, a businessman, farmer, and a Christian, to win over his opponent Weah.

Mr. Boakai was declared winner by the National Election Commission (NEC) Friday, November 17, 2023. 

But who really is the man called Joseph Nuyuma Boakai? Global Ekklesia’s editor who has followed his work and life for more than two decades, digs a little deeper-in this first story after the victory, now being heavily celebrated across the country.

Winning margin

Boakai won incumbent President George M. Weah by a narrow margin of 51 % to 49 %, the closest ever, according to poll-watchers and officials of the National Elections Commision. They described the elections as “peaceful,” while acknowledging “incidents” in Lofa, Bong, Nimba and Montserrado. 

Former President Weah on the other hand, conceded defeat in a short speech he gave to the nation, hours following the official announcement of the election results. After Weah’s speech, scores of his critics scolded him for being “self-centered” and doing less to have his own supporters embrace their opponents in a nation he also helped divide.  

Education and bureaucracy

Mr. Boakai, educated in both Liberia and the United States, served for twelve years as the Unity Party’s vice president under former Liberia’s president, Ms. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. He was the 29th vice president of Liberia and served from 2006-2018. 

In addition, he comes onboard with a wealth of experience in government bureaucracy particularly, in food productions (although recent past Liberian governments, except Samuel Doe’s neglected) which the nation badly needs at this time.

The Son of farmers 

The son of farmers, Boakai is himself an agriculturist and owns huge acres of farmland in Liberia’s northwestern Lofa County from where he hails. His farming projects in the region have provided casual labor to hundreds of local peasants, enabling them to cater to their own families.

Until the advent of the bloody civil wars, Mr. Boakai’s home province, Lofa, stood as the single largest food-producing country in the entire nation for many years and some believe it was on the verge of feeding the country, and drastically cutting down the country’s heavy reliance on imported rice from China and the USA.

Soft-speaking Boakai is also known in the country for his philanthropic endeavors which include helping with rural community road works in his home region.

Supporter of ‘Green Revolution’ 

He once headed the Liberia Produce Marketing Corporation known as LPMC, which manages Liberia’s overall food and agricultural sectors, collecting and buying farmers’ produce, including cocoa and coffee, to be exported abroad. 

Boakai was also a staunch supporter of late President Doe’s well-publicized “Green Revolution,” otherwise, “Going back to the soil,” introduced in 1986, to help boost Liberia’s local food production with the goal to export foods to neighboring nations.   

Man who fears God

A Christian, Mr. Boakai married Kartumu Yatta-Boakai also of Lofa County, in 1972, when he was just 28-year-old, the time both were still young and attending school. They now have four children, according to an online source. 

He’s said to be a deacon at the Effort Baptist Church in Liberia where he has served for many years and his ascendancy to the highest office in the land has been embraced by thousands at home and abroad including people who initially didn’t support him. 

Unlike his predecessor George Weah, who became well known for gallivanting as well as for his excessive pleasures and often depleting the treasury of the war-battered nation, Boakai, a devout Christian, seems to abide under the fear of God.

“Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked,” says 1 John 2:6 (ESV). Evidently, Weah’s own open life, and being supposedly a “pastor” by all accounts, during his six-year term doesn’t seem to line up with the Gospel. 

Cultural lifestyle

Now 79 year-old, Boakai was born this month in 1944 in a Lofa town known as Worsonga, located in Foya District, Liberia. 

Lofa is rich in culture and traditions and remains one of the places in the country that still clings to its ancient way of life, in spite of severe pressure by westerners lately to abolish such practices.

People of the region belong to the Mende speaking group; among which include Gbandi, Kissi, Lorma and Mandingoe and all trace their roots to the Sudan and ancient Mali empire. 

Before the emergence of modern civilization people in this area, like most parts of Liberia, became so powerful that they had their own textiles in place and traded in their own currencies. Even now, textile remains a favorite job for older folks, especially women.

Editor’s Note: Banner photograph shows president-elect Mr. Joe Boakai speaking at a recent event. Source: Pastor Alex Redd.

James Kokulo Fasuekoi is an award-winning journalist, author, documentary writer and news photographer. He previously covered civil wars in West Africa for several news media including The Associated Press. Listed on his college’s Dean’s List for academic excellence, he became a Bush Foundation Scholar twice in 2017. His work as a civil war journalist has also brought him face-to-face with the law in his native Liberia, and in the US, where the Fed had him subpoenaed twice to stand as states witness in two major Liberian ‘war crimes trials’ of 2017 & 2018 in Philadelphia. Once an African national ballet dancer, he now writes, photographs and dances for Christ. Read profile @ https://globalekklesia.com/profile/