PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Joseph Nyuma Boakai, vice president of Liberia, will visit Brown University Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, to deliver a public lecture titled “Capacity Building for Liberia’s Future.” Boakai will speak at 3 p.m. in the DeCiccio Family Auditorium of the Salomon Center for Teaching, located on the College Green. The presentation is open to the public without charge.

For more than three decades as a businessman and public servant, and now as vice president, Boakai has emphasized the need to nurture the talents and skills of his people to increase employment, improve livelihoods, and pave the way for a future of peace and prosperity. He has stressed the need for partnership to build capacity, while also advancing Liberia’s infrastructure, economy, and social services.

Bokai was elected with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in 2005 to chart a new course for Africa’s oldest republic, a nation is just emerging from a long and bitter civil war. He and Johnson Sirleaf, who spoke on the Brown campus and received an honorary degree Sept. 19, 2008, are working to restore law and order in Liberia, improve the investment climate, foster reconstruction, provide basic social services, and ensure that peace and tranquility prevail.

The vice president of Liberia is also president of the Liberian Senate and supervises a number of institutions and agencies including the Liberia National Lotteries, Liberia Marketing Association, Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment, and National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization, Resettlement and Reintegration.

Bokai has also served his country as resident manager and managing director of the Liberia Produce Marketing Corporation, managing director of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company, and minister of agriculture.