Ahmad Tejan Kabbah

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
3rd President of Sierra Leone
In office March 29, 1996 - May 25, 1997 March 10, 1998 – September 17, 2007
Vice President	Solomon Berewa Albert Joe Demby
Preceded by	Julius Maada Bio
Succeeded by	Ernest Bai Koroma
Born	February 16, 1932 (1932-02-16) (age 78) Pendembu, Kailahun District, Sierra Leone
Nationality	Sierra Leonean
Ethnicity	Mandingo
Political party	Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP)
Spouse(s)	Patricia Kabbah (deceased) Isata Jabbie Kabbah (2008 present) [1]
Children	Five children: Mariama Kabba, Tejan Kabbah Jr (deceased), Abubacar Kabbah, Isata Kabbah and Michael Kabbah
Residence	Goderich, Western Area, Sierra Leone
Alma mater	Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom
Religion	Islam

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (born February 16, 1932) was the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, serving from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2007.

He worked for the United Nations Development Programme and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992. He was elected president in 1996 Sierra Leone presidential election with 59% of the vote defeating his closest rival John Karefa-Smart of the United National People's Party (UNPP) who had 40%. Kabbah is the first Muslim head of state of Sierra Leone and the first Sierra Leonean president from the Mandingo ethnic group.

Most of his time in office was influenced by a civil war with the Revolutionary United Front, led by Foday Sankoh, which involved him being temporarily ousted by the military Armed Forces Revolutionary Council from May 1997 to March 1998. He was soon returned to power after a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Another phase of the civil war led to United Nations and British involvement in the country in 2000. The civil war was officially declared over in early 2002, and Kabbah went on to win yet another term in office in the presidential election later that year with 70.1% of the vote, defeating his closest rival Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC), who won only 19% of the vote.

Kabbah had served as an assistant district commissioner in the colonial administration, and later in senior civil service posts in several ministries. In 1968, he studied law in the United Kingdom and then took up a post at the United Nations as deputy chief of the West Africa Division. When he retired from the United Nations in the early 1990s, he was director of the Division of Administration and Management.

Background

Youth and education

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16, 1932 in Pendembu, Kailahun District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. He is an ethnic Mandingo and a devout muslim. Kabbah's father was a devout Muslim and a member of the Mandingo ethnic group of Guinean ancestry. His mother was also a Muslim and a member of the Mende ethnic group from the Coomber family, a Chieftaincy ruling house bases in the small rural town of Mobai, Kailahun District. Kabbah's first name Ahmad means "highly praised" or "one who constantly thanks God" in the Arabic language.

Though a muslim, Kabbah received his secondary education at the St. Edward's secondary school in Freetown, the oldest catholic secondary school in Sierra Leone. He also married a Catholic, the late Patricia Kabbah, (born Patricia Tucker), who was an ethnic Sherbro from Bonthe District in Southern Sierra Leone. Together the couple had five children. Kabbah received his higher education at the Cardiff College of Technology and Commerce, and University College Aberystwyth, Wales, in the United Kingdom, with a Bachelor's degree in Economics in 1959. He later studied law, and in 1969 he became a practicing Barrister-at-Law, member of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London.

Career

The President has spent nearly his entire career in the public sector. He served in the Western Area and in all the Provinces of Sierra Leone. He was a District Commissioner in Bombali and Kambia (Northern Province), in Kono (Eastern Province) and in Moyamba and Bo (Southern Province). He later became Permanent Secretary in various Ministries, including Trade and Industry, Social Welfare, and Education.

United Nations

He was an international civil servant for almost two decades. After serving as deputy Chief of the West Africa Division of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in New York, he was reassigned in 1973 to head the Programme's operation in the Kingdom of Lesotho, as Resident Representative. He also headed UNDP operations in Tanzania and Uganda, and just before Zimbabwe's independence, he was temporarily assigned to that country to help lay the groundwork for cooperation with the United Nations system.

After a successful tour of duty in Eastern and Southern Africa, Kabbah returned to New York to head UNDP's Eastern and Southern Africa Division. Among other things, he was directly responsible for coordinating UN system assistance to liberation movements recognized by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), such as the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, and the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) of Namibia.

Before his retirement in 1992, President Kabbah held a number of senior administrative positions at UNDP Headquarters in New York, including those of Deputy Director and Director of Personnel, and Director, Division of Administration and Management.

Political career in Sierra Leone

After the military coup in 1992, he was asked to chair the National Advisory Council, one of the mechanisms set up by the military to alleviate the restoration of constitutional rule, including the drafting of a new constitution for Sierra Leone. He reputedly intended his return to Sierra Leone to be a retirement, but was encouraged by those around him and the political situation that arose to become more actively involved in the politics of Sierra Leone.

First term as President

Sierra Leone Civil War

Personalities

Charles Taylor – Foday Sankoh Hinga Norman – Ahmad Kabbah Johnny Paul Koroma Valentine Strasser – Solomon Musa

Armed Forces

RUF – SLA – West Side Boys Kamajors – Executive Outcomes ECOMOG – Sandline International

Attempts at Peace

Lomé Peace Accord – Abidjan Peace Accord UNAMSIL – SCSL

Political Groups

SLPP – AFRC – APC

Ethnic Groups

Mende – Temne – Limba – Krio

See also

Conflict diamond – Mano River Freetown – Liberian Civil War

Kabbah was seen as a compromise candidate when he was put forward by the Mende-dominated Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) as their presidential hopeful in 1996 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the first multi-party elections in twenty-three years. The SLPP won the legislative vote overwhelmingly in the South and Eastern Province of the country, they split the vote with the UNPP in the Western Area and they lost in the Northern Province. On March 29, 1996, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was sworn in as President of Sierra Leone. Guided by his philosophy of "political inclusion" he appointed the most broad-based government in the nation's history, drawing from all political parties represented in Parliament, and ‘technocrats’ in civil society. One minority party did not accept his offer of a cabinet post.

The President's first major objective was to end the rebel war which, in four years had already claimed hundreds of innocent lives, driven thousands of others into refugee status, and ruined the nation's economy. In November 1996, in Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire, he signed a peace agreement with the rebel leader, former Corporal Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

The rebels reneged on the Agreement, resumed hostilities, and later perpetrated on the people of Sierra Leone what has been described as one of the most brutal internal conflicts in the world.

1996 Presidential election

Coup and exile

In 1996, a coup attempt involving Johnny Paul Koroma and other junior officers of the Sierra Leone Army was unsuccessful, but served as notice that Kabbah's control over military and government officials in Freetown was weakening.

In May 1997, a military coup forced the President into exile in neighbouring Guinea. The coup was led by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and Koroma was freed and installed as the head of state. Kabbah's government was revived nine months later as the military-rebel junta was removed by troops of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) under the command of the Nigerian led ECOMOG (ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group) and loyal civil and military defence forces, notably the Kamajors led by Samuel Hinga Norman.

Kabbah was forced to flee to Guinea and attempted to garner international support.

Return to Sierra Leone

Once again, in pursuit of peace, President Kabbah signed the Lomé Peace Accord with the RUF rebel leader Foday Sankoh on 7 July 1999. Notwithstanding repeated violations by the RUF, the document, known as the Lomé Peace Agreement, remained the cornerstone of sustainable peace, security, justice and national reconciliation in Sierra Leone. On 18 January 2002, at a ceremony marking the conclusion of the disarmament and demobilization of ex-combatants under the auspices of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), he declared that the rebel war was over.

Salvaged By Nigeria and Britain

Although the people of Sierra Leone rendered Tejan Kabba massive support during his tenure as president, he was faced with the huge task of fighting a war against a barbaric enemy. His most crucial military support was however from outside; Nigeria was the foremost participant as they crucially intervened under the leadership of the late General Sani Abacha, who was then the military head of his country. On February 1998, he sent his troops to push out the infamous military junta and rebel alliance of Johnny Paul Koroma and Sam Bockarie, known as Maskita. The rebels however were stubborn and persistently continued their attempt to dethrone Kabbah's government, despite signing numerous peace accords with President Kabbah. In May 2000, Foday Saybanah Sankoh, who was then part of Kabbah's cabinet, kidnapped several UN troops, and then ordered his rebels to march to Freetown. Trouble was looming as the capital was once more threatened with another January 6, 1999 scenario. But with the timely intervention of the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,[2] 800 British troops were sent to Freetown to halt the impending rebel march to the city. President Kabbah was very grateful to the British Prime Minister, calling his intervention 'timely' and one that Sierra Leonean will never forget.

2002 Presidential election

Political goals and views

As the first leader after the civil war, Kabbah's main task was to disarm the different parties involved in the war and to build unity of the country. Time magazine has called Kabbah a "diamond in the rough" for his success as the first civilian elected ruler of Sierra Leone in 34 years and his role in the end of what became a decade long conflict from 1992 until 2000. Although he himself was not considered corrupt, Kabbah has been accused of inability to deal with corrupt officials in his government many of whom are said to be profiting from the diamond trade. Kabbah has struggled with this problem and invited the British to help set up an anticorruption commission.

End of term and post-presidency

Kabbah left office in September 2007 at the end of his second 5-year term. Constitutionally, he is ineligible to seek re-election. His Vice-President, Solomon Berewa, ran as the SLPP candidate to succeed Kabbah but was defeated by opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma of the APC.

Kabbah was the head of the Commonwealth's observer mission for the December 2007 Kenyan election,^[1] as well as the head of the African Union's observer mission for the March 2008 Zimbabwean election.^[2]

Personal life

Kabbah's wife Patricia, an ethnic Sherbro, died in 1998. He has five children: Mariama, Abu, Michael, Isata and Tejan Jr., and three grandchildren: Simone, Isata, and Aidan.

Honors

President Kabbah, as Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone in Freetown holds an honorary doctor of laws degree of the University. In September 2001 Southern Connecticut State University in the United States awarded him with an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, in recognition of his effort to bring peace to his country. In July 2006, he received another honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, for his contribution to restoring peace in his country after a decade of civil war, and for working towards political and economic reconstruction following the end of the war.

The President is Grand Commander of the Order of the Republic of Sierra Leone.

References

• Aisha Labi. "Diamond In the Rough" Time magazine Sunday, August 18, 2002 accessed from [3] on August 27, 2005

External links

• http://kalleonegroup.com/newspaper/dev_news_files/Blair_legacy_in_Sierra_Leone.html
• http://www.statehouse-sl.org/biodata.html

Presidents of Sierra Leone Christopher Okoro Cole • Siaka Stevens • Joseph Saidu Momoh • Yahya Kanu† • Valentine Strasser† • Julius Maada Bio† • Ahmad Tejan Kabbah • Johnny Paul Koroma† • Ahmad Tejan Kabbah • Ernest Bai Koroma  †denotes military ruler

Candidates in the 1996 Sierra Leonean presidential election Bangura · Bundu · Jalloh · Kabbah · Karefa-Smart · Kargbo · Karimu · Koroma · Luke · Lungay · Sillah · A. Turay · E. Turay

Candidates in the 2002 Sierra Leonean presidential election Ahmad Tejan Kabbah · Ernest Bai Koroma · Johnny Paul Koroma · Alimamy Pallo Bangura · John Karefa-Smart