Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
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Ahmad Tejan Kabbah | |
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| 6th President of Sierra Leone | |
| Preceded by | Julius Maada Bio(1996) Johnny Paul Koroma (1997) |
| Succeeded by | Johnny Paul Koroma (1997) Incumbent |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 16, 1932 Pendembu, Kailahun District, Sierra Leone |
| Political party | Sierra Leone People's Party |
| Spouse | Widowed in 1998; Patricia Kabbah |
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (born February 16, 1932) is the current President of Sierra Leone (1996–1997, 1998–present). He worked for the United Nations Development Programme, and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992. He was elected president in 1996. 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.
Background
Youth and education
Kabbah was born in Pendembu, Kailahun District, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, on 16 February 1932. An ethnic Mandinka, Kabbah was born of Muslim parentage and a devout Muslim himself. He received his secondary education at St. Edward's, the oldest catholic secondary school in the country. He also married a Catholic, the late Patricia Kabbah, nee Tucker, who hailed from the Southern Province. He 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.
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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 southern African 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
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Sierra Leone Civil War |
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| Personalities |
| Armed forces |
| Key events |
| Attempts at peace |
| Political groups |
| Ethnic groups |
| See also |
In March 1996, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), was elected President of Sierra Leone in the first multi-party elections in twenty-three years. 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 Cote 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
| Candidate (Party) | First Round (26-27 February 1996) |
Second Round (15 March 1996) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Votes | % of Votes | Number of Votes | % of Votes | ||
| Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (Sierra Leone People's Party) | 266,893 | 35.8% | 608,419 | 59.5% | |
| John Karefa-Smart (United National People's Party) | 168,666 | 22.6% | 414,335 | 40.5% | |
| Thaimu Bangura (People's Democratic Party) | 119,782 | 16.1% | - | - | |
| John Karimu (National Unity Party) | 39,617 | 5.3% | - | - | |
| Edward Turay (All People's Congress) | 38,316 | 5.1% | - | - | |
| Abu Aiah Koroma (Democratic Centre Party) | 36,779 | 4.9% | - | - | |
| Abass Bundu (People's Progressive Party) | 21,557 | 2.9% | - | - | |
| Amadu Jalloh (National Democratic Alliance) | 17,335 | 2.3% | - | - | |
| Edward Kargbo (People's National Convention) | 15,798 | 2.1% | - | - | |
| Desmond Luke (National Unity Movement) | 7,918 | 1.1% | - | - | |
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.
2002 Presidential election
Template:Sierra Leone presidential election, 2002
Political goals and views
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As the first leader after the civil war, Kabbah's main task has been 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. [citation needed] Although he himself is not 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. [citation needed] Kabbah has struggled with this problem and invited the British to help set up an anticorruption commission. [citation needed] Kabbah leaves office in 2007 at the end of his second 5-year term. Constitutionally, he is ineligible to seek re-election.
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.
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 [1] on August 27, 2005