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Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
3rd President of Sierra Leone
Vice President(s)	Solomon Berewa
Preceded by	Julius Maada Bio(1996) Johnny Paul Koroma (1997)
Succeeded by	Johnny Paul Koroma (1997) Ernest Bai Koroma (2007)
Born	February 16, 1932 (1932-02-16) (age 75) Pendembu, Kailahun District, Sierra Leone
Political party	Sierra Leone People's Party
Spouse	Widowed in 1998; Patricia Kabbah
Religion	Islam

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (born February 16, 1932) was the President of Sierra Leone 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. 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.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Youth and education 2 Career 2.1 United Nations 3 Political career in Sierra Leone 3.1 First term as President 3.2 1996 Presidential election 3.3 Coup and exile 3.4 Return to Sierra Leone 4 2002 Presidential election 5 Political goals and views 6 Personal life 7 Honors 8 References 9 External links

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, born 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.

Sierra Leone

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Sierra Leone

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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.

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.

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.

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

edit

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.

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 26-27 February and 15 March 1996 Sierra Leone presidential election results

Candidates - Parties	First round		Second round
	Votes	%	Votes	%
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah - Sierra Leone People's Party	266,893	35.80	608,419	59.50
John Karefa-Smart - United National People's Party	168,666	22.62	414,335	40.50
Thaimu Bangura - People's Democratic Party	119,782	16.07
John Karimu - National Unity Party	39,617	5.31
Edward Turay - All People's Congress	38,316	5.14
Abu Aiah Koroma - Democratic Centre Party	36,779	4.93
Abass Bundu - People's Progressive Party	21,557	2.89
Amadu Jalloh - National Democratic Alliance	17,335	2.33
Edward Kargbo - PNC	15,798	2.12
Desmond Luke - National Unity Movement	7,918	1.06
Andrew Lungay - Social Democratic Party	5,202	0.70
Andrew Turay - National Peoples Party	3,925	0.53
Mohamed Sillah - National Alliance Democratic Party	3,723	0.50
Total	1,022,754
Source: Elections in Sierra Leone database

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.

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.

[discuss] – [edit]
Summary of the 14 May 2002 Sierra Leone presidential election results

Candidates - Parties	Votes	%
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah - Sierra Leone People's Party		70.1
Ernest Bai Koroma - All People's Congress		22.3
Johnny Paul Koroma -Peace and Liberation Party		3.0
Alimamy Pallo Bangura - Revolutionary United Front Party		1.7
John Karefa-Smart - United National People's Party		1.0
Total		100.0
Source: Sierra Leone Web

This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

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 left office in 2007 at the end of his second 5-year term. Constitutionally, he is ineligible to seek re-election.

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.

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.

Aisha Labi. "Diamond In the Rough" Time Magazine Sunday, August 18, 2002 accessed from [1] on August 27, 2005

For an alternative view, see "The Empire in Africa", a documentary directed by Phillipe Diaz. It would appear that, based on the documentary, the "Free" democratic election was rife with fraud, and chose Kabbah due to his long-standing ties with the UN and his willingness to allow European and US interests to exploit the vast natural resources of Sierra Leone. The film is available on Netflix.

• http://www.statehouse-sl.org/biodata.html

v • d • e Candidates in the 1996 Sierra Leonean presidential election
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah • John Karefa-Smart • Thaimu Bangura • John Karimu • Edward Turay • Abu Aiah Koroma • Abass Bundu • Amadu Jalloh • Edward Kargbo • Desmond Luke • Andrew Lungay • Andrew Turay • Mohamed Sillah

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

Preceded by Julius Maada Bio

President of Sierra Leone 1996–1997

Succeeded by Johnny Paul Koroma

Preceded by Johnny Paul Koroma

President of Sierra Leone 1998–2007

Succeeded by Ernest Bai Koroma

v • d • e Heads of government of Sierra Leone
(Prime Ministers, 1961-1971)	Milton Margai • Albert Margai • Siaka Stevens • David Lansana† • Ambrose Patrick Genda† • Andrew Juxon-Smith† • Patrick Conteh • Siaka Stevens
(Presidents, 1971-)	Christopher 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