President Boakai reading his inauguration speech

Abubakar Hashim

Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai clocked 100 days in office yesterday 1 May 2024. It’s too early to draw up realistic expectations, as Boakai himself admitted in his inaugural address on 22 January 2024, that “ no realistic expectations for 100 days in office”.

One thing is however crystal clear. Boakai desperately needs the acquiescence and support of his former boss, Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for 2 strategically-related reasons:

1. Madam Sirleaf remains the viable gateway for massive international investments into Liberia, particularly in the country’s resources, to add value, for local consumption and exports. Boakai places a premium on elevating the country’s resources into processed finished goods.
2. ⁠Madam Sirleaf, like Obasanjo, has far-reaching contact with bilateral and multilateral creditors. Liberia’s debt stock today is huge. Intense negotiations are needed for debt forgiveness, rescheduling, or concessionary arrangements. Madam Sirleaf can be a formidable figure in this direction.
   

   Madam Sirleaf arriving the inauguration of President Boakai

She is persuasively passionate, to articulate her position in difficult negotiations in tight conditions. Like late President Tejan Kabba, she ruled Liberia, when situations were critical, from the ashes of 14 year old war, with no light, or water, a country that was like a graveyard.

Former President Sirleaf with Abubakar Hashim after an exclusive interview in 2016

When I interviewed her in 2016, I asked her what was the magic wand to restore the basics of life after the war. She replied, with a chuckle, “… patriotism, backed by suavity and international contacts ….”

President Boakai desperately needs the same strategy of repositioning Liberia back to its former glory.