At MEDays 2025, Liberian President Joseph Nyuma Boakai delivered a clear warning: Africa can no longer allow others to define its destiny. In a fractured world and a shifting international order, he urges the continent to "take back control,” create value at home, and speak with one voice to become a central actor of the 21st century.
In Tangier, President Boakai described an international system that has become unpredictable, fragmented, and deeply unequal."Certainties are disappearing, rivalries are emerging, trust is eroding,” he warned. According to him, Africa continues to pay the price of a long history of dispossession — first physical, then economic, and now narrative: its resources benefit the rest of the world more than its own citizens, policies affecting its future are designed without its input, and narratives about Africa are written elsewhere."This cannot continue,” he declared emphatically.
The Liberian president remains convinced that "Africa must once again become master of its own destiny, and not a space where others decide for it.” To reinvent the global equation, he identified four priority areas.
First, geopolitics: speaking with one voice, strengthening political unity and the continent’s moral authority so that Africa is no longer merely a "geopolitical battleground” but a pillar of global leadership.
Second, security, which requires a collective response to terrorism, transnational trafficking, and armed violence: intelligence sharing, professionalized security institutions, and stronger regional mechanisms.
Third, the economy, with a strong call to locally transform natural resources, because "no nation has ever developed by exporting raw materials.” He advocated for industrialization, African value creation, and real participation of the continent in global value chains.
Finally, regional integration, essential for gaining global weight: accelerating the AfCFTA, developing road, rail, and port corridors, expanding energy networks, and massively investing in digital infrastructure.
President Boakai was clear:"Africa is not looking for charity. It is looking for partners.”He encourages international investors to create local value, strengthen African participation, build sustainable infrastructure, and respect local people and cultures. Africa, he said, must be seen not as a risk, but as a global opportunity.
Joseph Boakai ended his speech with a powerful, almost manifesto-like call:"Africa is not on the margins — it is rising. Africa is not fragile — it is resilient.”The continent, he believes, has the population, energy, resources, and creativity needed to become one of the major poles of the 21st century. What is missing? Unity, leadership, and the courage to act together.