2017 -- H 5433

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LC001121

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2017

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

HONORING AND WELCOMING HIS EXCELLENCY JOSEPH NYUMA BOAKAI, SR.,

VICE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA, ON THE OCCASION OF HIS VISIT

TO THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

     Introduced By: Representatives Diaz, Edwards, Marshall, Blazejewski, and Maldonado

     Date Introduced: February 08, 2017

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, His Excellency Joseph N. Boakai, Sr., Vice President of Africa's oldest

Republic, Liberia, was inaugurated as Vice President of Liberia on January 16th of 2006. During

the 2011 Presidential Elections, Vice President Boakai was again selected by her Excellency,

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to serve as her running-mate and ultimately, the two were elected to their

second six-year term; and

     WHEREAS, Born into a large family in the remote village of Worsonga in Foya District,

Lofa County, Joseph Boakai attended school in Kenema, Sierra Leone, and later at the United

Pentecostal Mission School in Bomi Hills before graduating from the College of West Africa. He

attained his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Liberia and later

attended Kansas State University on a USAID Fellowship; and

     WHEREAS, Upon graduation from college in 1972, Vice President Boakai married his

college sweetheart Kartumu Yarta Cooper, and together they are the proud parents of three sons

and one daughter. The following year, he was appointed Resident Manager of the Liberia

Produce Marketing Corporation (LPMC), and in 1980, he became the first Liberian Managing

Director of LPMC; and

     WHEREAS, In 1983, the Honorable Mr. Boakai was named Minister of Agriculture for

Liberia. Over the course of the next two decades he held a number of significant management

positions including Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Liberia Wood Management

Corporation, Chairman of the Interim Government of National Unity, and Managing Director of

the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company; and

     WHEREAS, Currently, His Excellency Boakai serves as President of the Liberian Senate

where he presides two days a week over plenary sessions of that body. He also performs

supervisory functions over a number of government institutions and agencies including the

Liberia National Lotteries (LOTTO), the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA), the Liberia

Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE), and the National Commission on Disarmament

Demobilization Resettlement and Reintegration (NCDDRR); and

     WHEREAS, Liberia has had long-standing historical ties with America and has provided

unwavering support for the United States through a policy of special cooperation and friendship.

Rhode Island, as well as the United States, has a very large Liberian community, with an

estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people of Liberian descent living in the Ocean State; and

     WHEREAS, Vice President Boakai has spent more than thirty-five years in dedicated

service to the people of Liberia and has brought a wealth of humanity and devout commitment to

his Vice Presidency. He has and continues to shape a brighter future for the people and children

in his country, and he is eminently worthy of our recognition and praise; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives hereby warmly welcomes His

Excellency Joseph N. Boakai to the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. We

moreover wish him good health, and a future filled with continued success and happiness; and be

it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to His Excellency Joseph N. Bokai, Sr., Vice

President of the Republic of Liberia.

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