- Joseph Boakai defeats George Weah to become Liberia’s new president.
- Mr Boakai faces a myriad of challenges such as corruption, infrastructure, and food insecurity.
Liberian voters have decided that it is time for a change in government. In what has been the tightest election in Liberia’s modern history, Mr Boakai secured his win with approximately 50.9% of the vote whilst his rival, sitting President Weah managed to secure approximately 49.1% after a runoff election.
In several aspects Liberia is one of the poorest nations in Africa making it one of the poorest countries in the world. Over half of the population lives under the United Nation’s measure of poverty and rates of malaria and tuberculosis are amongst the highest in the world. From 1989 up until 2003, the nation was ravaged by a civil war which left 250,000 dead and millions in poverty. Many of those affected also belonged to the country’s significant Muslim minority.
One of the warlords from the war, Charles Taylor, who would later be convicted of egregious human rights abuses most of which are too gruesome to label in detail here, was revealed to have worked with the CIA. His rebel forces butchered hundreds of Muslims during a massacre in Lofa County. During the civil war rebel forces were also complicit in the destruction of countless mosques as they deemed many Muslims to be in support of the government. According to the Boston Globe, Taylor was on the CIA’s payroll up until 2001 which if true would make the United States complicit in supporting yet another instance of human rights violations in foreign countries.
During the run up to his win, Joseph Boakai berated President Weah for failing to provide adequate responses to Liberia’s deep poverty and inadequate economic development. Alongside this the president was attacked for the rampant corruption present during his time in power. Mr Weah rejected these allegations. Nonetheless, voters found little solace in his campaign messaging.
Far from being a political newcomer, the 78 year old president elect Mr Boakai served as vice-president for years and even had a stint as Liberia’s agriculture minister in the 1980s. He has promised to “draw a sword against corruption” under his administration.
But antediluvian political experience and cheap rhetoric aren’t exactly cogent answers to the problems of a nation where nepotism and bribery run amok. Nor are they solutions to potholes which trap transport vehicles in mud, slowing the flow of goods whilst simultaneously upping them in price. Meanwhile Liberians are dependent on outside exports for food. Finally, land disputes have long been a cause for violence over the years leaving many Muslim victims. Riots in the capital Monrovia also led to the deaths of Muslims in 2004. Mr Boakai has said that he is determined to help “millions of Liberians who have been left to face poverty, disease, ignorance and insecurity”. Let us hope he can do so.
