Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Encyclopedia
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (born February 16, 1932) served as President of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007.

He worked for the United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...

 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
John Karefa-Smart
Dr. John Albert Musselman Karefa-Smart was a politician from Sierra Leone and leader of the United National People's Party. He was an ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church.-Education:...

 of the United National People's Party
United National People's Party
The United National People's Party is a political party in Sierra Leone.In 1996, the UNPP received 21.6% of the votes in the parliamentary election, winning 17 of the 68 seats...

 (UNPP) who had 40%. Kabbah is the first Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

 of Sierra Leone and the first Sierra Leonean president from the Mandingo
Mandingo people of Sierra Leone
The Mandinka people of Sierra Leone is a major ethnic group in Sierra Leone and they are the descendants of Mandinka settlers from Guinea who migrated to Sierra Leone between 1840 to about 1900...

 ethnic group.

Most of his time in office was influenced by a civil war with the Revolutionary United Front
Revolutionary United Front
The Revolutionary United Front was a rebel army that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later developed into a political party, which existed until 2007...

, led by Foday Sankoh
Foday Sankoh
Foday Saybana Sankoh was the leader and founder of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002...

, which involved him being temporarily ousted by the military Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council was a group of Sierra Leone soldiers that allied itself with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in the late 1990s. While the AFRC briefly controlled the country in 1998, it was driven from the capital by a coalition of West African troops...

 from May 1997 to March 1998. He was soon returned to power after a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States
Economic Community of West African States
The Economic Community of West African States is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region....

 (ECOWAS). Another phase of the civil war led to United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 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
Ernest Bai Koroma
Ernest Bai Koroma is the fourth and current President of Sierra Leone. He was sworn in as President on 17 September 2007 at the State House in the capital Freetown, shortly after being declared the winner of a tense run-off in the 2007 Sierra Leone presidential election with 54.6% of the vote over...

 of the All People's Congress
All People's Congress
The All People's Congress is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, the other is the Sierra Leone People's Party . The party was founded in 1960 by Pa Mucktarru Kallay, Allieu Badarr Koroma,Alhaji Sheik Gibril Sesay C A Kamara-Taylor, S A T Koroma and Abu Bakarr S Bangura...

 (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.

Youth and education

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16, 1932 in Pendembu
Pendembu
Pendembu is a town in Kailahun District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. The town population was 7,243 at the 2004 census. The majority of Pendembu's population are from the Mende ethnic group. The most widely spoken languages are Mende and Krio....

, Kailahun District
Kailahun District
Kailahun District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Kailahun. The other major towns in the district include Segbwema, Koindu, Pendembu and Daru. As of 2010, the district has a population of 395,957 ....

 in the Eastern Province
Eastern Province, Sierra Leone
Eastern Province is one of the four provinces of Sierra Leone. It covers an area of 15,553 km² and has a population of 1,187,532...

 of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

. He is an ethnic Mandingo
Mandinka people
The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....

 and a devout Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

. 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
Mende people
The Mende people are one of the two largest and most dominant ethnic group in Sierra Leone, along with the Temne. The Mende make up 30% of Sierra Leone's total population or 1,932,015 members...

 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 Muslim, Kabbah received his secondary education at the St. Edward's secondary school in Freetown, the oldest catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 secondary school in Sierra Leone. He also married a Catholic, the late Patricia Kabbah
Patricia Kabbah
Patricia Kabbah was the wife of Sierra Leone's 3rd President, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah; was First Lady of Sierra Leone from 1996 until her death in 1998...

, (born Patricia Tucker), who was an ethnic Sherbro
Sherbro people
The Sherbro people are a native people of Sierra Leone, who speak the Sherbro language; they make up 3% of Sierra Leone's population or about 201,000. They are also known as the Bullom people...

 from Bonthe District
Bonthe District
Bonthe District comprises several islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the southwestern coast of Sierra Leone and a mainland area. Its capital is the town of Mattru Jong and the largest town in the district is Bonthe, on Sherbro Island and the town of Masabendu....

 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
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...

, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, in the United Kingdom, with a Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 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

He was the chairman of the national advisory board to advise Capt Valentine Strasser.he later rewrite the constitution changing the age limit so Capt valentine Strasser will not contest the election under NUP political party.he was also member of SLPMB{Sierra Leone producing Marketing Board} that shot down because he embezzle the money and was banned from holding any political office in Sierra leone.He also killed lots of his people by sending ECOMOG to intervene and restore him to power.Late major General Joseph Saidu momoh was a General,he was in the capacity to counter the coup by Capt Strasser,but for lives and peace he ignore the help from the international community to restore him.Tejan kabbah should have done the same but choose to kill his own people he represents.and also he is the first president of Sierra leone to kill a woman.the late major Kula Samba.
Kabbah 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
Commissioner
Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....

 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
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

.

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
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, he was reassigned in 1973 to head the Programme's operation in the Kingdom of Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...

, 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
United Nations System
The United Nations system consists of the United Nations, its subsidiary organs , the specialized agencies, and affiliated organizations...

.

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
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

.

Before his retirement in 1992, 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

Kabbah was seen as a compromise
Compromise
To compromise is to make a deal where one person gives up part of his or her demand.In arguments, compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms—often involving variations from an original goal or desire.Extremism is often considered as...

 candidate when he was put forward by the Mende
Mende people
The Mende people are one of the two largest and most dominant ethnic group in Sierra Leone, along with the Temne. The Mende make up 30% of Sierra Leone's total population or 1,932,015 members...

-dominated Sierra Leone People's Party
Sierra Leone People's Party
Sierra Leone People's Party is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, along with the All People's Congress .-Formation:...

 (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
Southern Province, Sierra Leone
The Southern Province is one of three provinces of Sierra Leone. It covers an area of 19,694 km² and has a population of 1,377,067 . It consists of four districts . Its capital and administrative center is Bo, which is also the second largest and second most populated city in Sierra Leone...

 and Eastern Province
Eastern Province, Sierra Leone
Eastern Province is one of the four provinces of Sierra Leone. It covers an area of 15,553 km² and has a population of 1,187,532...

 of the country, they split the vote with the UNPP in the Western Area and they lost in the Northern Province
Northern Province, Sierra Leone
The Northern Province is one of the four provincial divisions of Sierra Leone. It comprises five Districts and covers an area of 35,936 km² and with a population of 1,718,240 . Its administrative and economic center is Makeni...

. 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
Foday Sankoh
Foday Saybana Sankoh was the leader and founder of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002...

 of the Revolutionary United Front
Revolutionary United Front
The Revolutionary United Front was a rebel army that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later developed into a political party, which existed until 2007...

 (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.

Coup and exile

In 1996, a coup attempt involving Johnny Paul Koroma
Johnny Paul Koroma
Johnny Paul Koroma was the Head of State of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.-Youth and Education :Koroma grew up in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. However, he was born in Tombodu, Kono District, in eastern Sierra Leone to Limba parents. He is from the same ethnic group as...

 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
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...

 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
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council was a group of Sierra Leone soldiers that allied itself with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in the late 1990s. While the AFRC briefly controlled the country in 1998, it was driven from the capital by a coalition of West African troops...

, 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
Economic Community of West African States
The Economic Community of West African States is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region....

 (ECOWAS) under the command of the Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n led ECOMOG (ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group) and loyal civil and military defence forces, notably the Kamajors
Kamajors
The Kamajors are a group of traditional hunters from the Mende ethnic group in the south and east of Sierra Leone...

 led by Samuel Hinga Norman
Samuel Hinga Norman
Samuel Hinga Norman was a Sierra Leonean politician from the Mende tribe. He was the founder and leader of the traditional Civil Defence Forces, commonly known as the Kamajors. The Kamajors fought under the supported the government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the Revolutionary United Front,...

.

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
Lomé Peace Accord
The Lomé Peace Accord was a peace agreement signed on 7 July 1999 between the warring parties in the civil war that gripped Sierra Leone for almost a decade. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah signed with the Revolutionary United Front leader, Foday Sankoh, granting Sankoh a position in the...

 with the RUF rebel leader Foday Sankoh
Foday Sankoh
Foday Saybana Sankoh was the leader and founder of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002...

 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.

Saved 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,http://kalleonegroup.com/newspaper/dev_news_files/Blair_legacy_in_Sierra_Leone.html 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 people will never forget.

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
Solomon Berewa
Solomon Ekuma Dominic Berewa was Vice-President of Sierra Leone from May 2002 to September 2007...

, ran as the SLPP candidate to succeed Kabbah but was defeated by opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma
Ernest Bai Koroma
Ernest Bai Koroma is the fourth and current President of Sierra Leone. He was sworn in as President on 17 September 2007 at the State House in the capital Freetown, shortly after being declared the winner of a tense run-off in the 2007 Sierra Leone presidential election with 54.6% of the vote over...

 of the APC.

Kabbah was the head of the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

's observer mission for the December 2007 Kenyan election
Kenyan general election, 2007
Kenyan general election, 2007 was held on 27 December 2007 . It comprised Presidential, parliamentary and civic elections. The previous general election in Kenya was held in 2002.-See also:*Kenyan presidential election, 2007...

, as well as the head of the African Union
African Union
The African Union is a union consisting of 54 African states. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established on 9 July 2002, the AU was formed as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity...

's observer mission for the March 2008 Zimbabwean election
Zimbabwean presidential election, 2008
The Republic of Zimbabwe held a presidential election along with a parliamentary election on 29 March 2008. The three major candidates were incumbent President Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front , Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change , and...

.

Personal life

Kabbah's wife Patricia, an ethnic Sherbro
Sherbro people
The Sherbro people are a native people of Sierra Leone, who speak the Sherbro language; they make up 3% of Sierra Leone's population or about 201,000. They are also known as the Bullom people...

, 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
University of Sierra Leone
The University of Sierra Leone is the name of the former unitary public university system in Sierra Leone, which, as of May 2005, was reconstitued into the individual colleges of Fourah Bay College and Njala University. It is now affiliated to many colleges in Sierra Leone.-See also:* Fourah Bay...

 in Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...

 holds an honorary doctor of laws degree of the University. In September 2001 Southern Connecticut State University
Southern Connecticut State University
Southern Connecticut State University is one of four state universities in Connecticut, and is located in the West Rock neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut...

 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.

External links

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