Researched by Alfa Shaban

An image of Liberian president, Joseph Boakai, purportedly sleeping at a public function went viral on Facebook in February 2026 especially among opposition members.

One such post made on February 19, 2026, suggested that Liberia was unsafe so long as the President and his aide-de-camp (ADC) were asleep in public.

That post got over 1,100 reactions, 380 comments and 123 shares. The same image was shared by other users, here, here, here.

FactSpace West Africa investigated the image to ascertain its authenticity.

Fact-check

We used two image analysis processes to probe the image – Google Reverse Image Search and Google Gemini platform.

Step 1 – When we submitted the image to the reverse image search platform, we observed that a version of the image had been circulated since 2024 also by opposition members (see here, here).

In the images that circulated in 2024, while the President appeared to have his eyes closed at a public event, his ADC’s eyes were opened. We, therefore, concluded that the image of both men captured with their eyes closed was manipulated.

Step 2 – We run the two images through Google’s AI platform, Gemini. Part of the result from the platform on possible manipulation read: “A technical scan with Google’s SynthID tool confirms that the image was not made using Google’s AI tools. However, this does not rule out the use of other AI tools or manual editing (like Photoshop).”

We, however, concluded that the earlier image was manipulated into the recently circulated variant.

President Boakai and the ‘sleepy Joe’ alias

The president has historically been subjected to political ridicule by opponents who question his fitness for office when he was Vice President till he eventually won the presidency in 2023 and took over from former world footballer of the year, George Weah.

Episodes of him reportedly sleeping during public appearances earned him the nickname “Sleepy Joe.” There is a long history of critics sharing videos, photos or screenshots of him with his eyes closed to claim he is sleeping during public events.

“The first image appears to be a real, albeit low-quality, capture of a moment where the President had his eyes closed (possibly during a prayer, a blink, or a brief pause). The second image is a clear manipulation of that scene, likely edited to make it appear as though both the President and his security detail were asleep at the same time to support a specific political narrative,” the Gemini result concluded.