The Standard Bearer of the Unity Party (UP) and former Vice President of the Republic of Liberia, Ambassador Joseph N. Boakai, on Thursday, July 20, 2023 departed Liberia for the United States of America for what the UP Secretariat described as a two-week visit that will take him to four states, including New Jersey, Rhode Island and Minnesota.
A member of the UP hierarchy claims that Ambassador Boakai’s trip to the US is to grace the matrimonial service of his granddaughter, Counselor Jengeih Sia Tamba, slated for Sunday, July 30, 2023. Tamba is said to be the daughter of Ambassador Boakai’s son, Dr. J. Emmanuel Tamba. On the margins of the wedding, the UP higher-up said, Ambassador Boakai will have several engagements with stalwarts and partisans of the Unity Party, representatives of supporting political parties, supporters and well-wishers of the rescue mission in the US, and will shed light on his vision and his party’s action plan and policies encapsulated in the party’s development concept, “AREST”, and meet and interact with key business people and potential investors to discuss business and investment opportunities in Liberia. He is expected to return to Liberia on August 4, 2023.
But contrary to the news provided by the UP secretariat, it is being rumored that Ambassador Boakai has gone to the United States for medical checkup and to explore possibilities for his heart surgery before the 2023 elections.
On Monday, July 10, 2023, Henry Pedro Costa disclosed in a press statement that all the medical examinations from ELWA Hospital and from the doctors in the United States concluded one thing on Ambassador Boakai’s health condition: he needed to do a triple bypass open heart surgery within six months to have a weakening artery in his heart removed and replaced by another artery from his thigh. According to Costa, doctors had advised that if he did not get the surgery done within six months, his heart could stop beating.
Cleveland Clinic, Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, describes a triple bypass surgery as a treatment for people who have multiple blockages in their coronary arteries, which supply blood to their heart muscle, using a blood vessel from another part of the body to create a bypass route for blood to go around blocked artery sections to allow blood to keep flowing to the heart muscle.
According to the renowned US-based clinic, while undergoing a triple bypass surgery, a surgeon will make an approximately 6-inch vertical cut down the middle of the chest (for open-heart surgery), split the breastbone down the middle to get to the heart, remove a blood vessel from the leg, arm or chest, and attach one end of the blood vessel to the aorta and the other to the coronary artery (below the blocked part) in several places depending on where the blockages are located.
The surgery, the Cleveland Clinic noted, is estimated to be done in three to six hours. But for the recovery process, most people stay in an intensive care unit for a night and then a regular room for another three to five days. One needs about six weeks or more for triple bypass surgery recovery time after leaving the hospital, even though some people may recover in four weeks, while others need longer than six weeks.
However, Ambassador Boakai’s alleged health condition is only being rumored and heard from second and third parties—not a day Boakai himself has come up to speak to his health condition, which observers have termed as not being sincere and honest to the Liberian people.
If Costa’s allegation about Ambassador Boakai needing a triple bypass surgery is true, then the UP lawmaker may be suffering from what the Cleveland Clinic calls “coronary artery disease”, which leads to a heart attack or other complications like arrhythmia or heart failure.
The rumor in the nooks of the streets of Monrovia is that Ambassador Boakai’s trip to the US is purposely to seek immediate medical attention, and the rest is of trivial gravity. The unconfirmed news is that Boakai is in the US for two weeks to undergo intensive medical checkup to ascertain his medical report and, if possible, seek immediate attention.
Boakai is flanked by his wife, Kartumu Y. Boakai, former UP Secretary General, Mo Ali, Jake Kabakollie, etc., all of whom are not only UP partisans but close confidants of the former Vice President who could reportedly go to their graves with the “skeletons” of his closet.
Observers are guessing that, because of the negative effect that such a news of Boakai’s critical health condition may cause for his quest for the presidency in the 2023 elections, folks of the Unity Party (UP), as well as his family members, prefer to keep everything lowkey while gradually closing down on the election date.
A former admirer of the UP leader who prefers anonymity has called on Ambassador Boakai to demonstrate the character of an honest man by clearly speaking to his health issues, and not leaving the electorate to wonder what to believe.
The former Boakai admirer told the Hot Pepper that falling sick is inevitable, but argued that Ambassador Boakai needs to do the right thing: explain to the Liberian people the status of his health if he is to earn their trust to reward him with national leadership.
The individual stated that he knows that Boakai is a good man, but for the donkey’s years that his sickness has been rumored he should by now muster the courage to tell the people the true story, not hide behind the quest for power to downplay the question.
“With all of George Weah’s political limitations, he proved to the Liberian people that he is an honest man when the argument of his high school completion popped up during the 2005 general and presidential elections. Weah could have remained mute, as his propagandist were actually defending that he was then a high school graduate. But Weah stood up to the grave challenge to tell the people that he did not complete his secondary education, showing a true character of an honest man. Boakai needs to do the same,” the former admirer of Ambassador Boakai observed.