During his swearing-in ceremony, Joseph Boakai, the new president of Liberia, was assisted from the podium after he was unable to finish his speech.
At his inauguration ceremony, Boakai, 79, had been speaking for about thirty minutes when it became apparent that he was finding it difficult to continue. After he was unable to continue speaking twice, the ceremony was called to a close.
According to some reports, he may have had heat exhaustion because it was above thirty degrees Celsius.
Before Boakai was taken away, a man was seen in the video fanning papers close to his face. At that point, Boakai had already taken the oath of office as the oldest president of Liberia. The event took place at the Capitol Building, which serves as the legislative body’s headquarters in Monrovia.
After the President departed, newly appointed Vice-President Jeremiah Koung addressed the attendees and accompanied them to the presidential dinner.
In a run-off election in November, Boakai just managed to defeat the outgoing president, former football player George Weah.
Although there was a lot of concern about Boakai’s health during the election campaign, he told the BBC that he was in good health and that “age should be a blessing to this country”.
Up until 2018, Boakai served as vice president in the administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She ran for president in 2018 under the United Party (UP) banner.
In November, he won a run-off election against Weah by a margin of slightly over 20,000 votes.
