Reflection of a President: Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, leadership and legacies Part 1 

Background

Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabbah (Late) was the third Executive President of the Republic of Sierra Leone and leader of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party between 1995 and 2007.  He was born on 16th February 1932, in the rural town of Pendembu, Kailahun District, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, to a Mandingo father from Kambia with a Guinean descent and a Mende Mother from Kailahun. He was a devoted Muslim. Though born in the Kailahun District, Kabbah grew up in Freetown, where he attended the Islamia School at Magazine Cut and proceeded to St. Edward’s secondary school.  Upon leaving school, he worked briefly before proceeding to the United Kingdom for higher education at Cardiff College and at Aberystwyth University in Wales, where he graduated with an Honors in Economics. He returned to Sierra Leone to work in the civil service and returned to England to study law after the 1967 military coup. He gained admission at the Gray Inns in London and graduated in 1969. He became a practising Barrister-at-Law and a Honourable member of the Society of Gray’s Inn, London member. 

As an administrator, he was hardworking, committed, loyal and well-determined. This aided him in earning several promotions in the Civil Service, where he became Assistant District Officer and District Officer in Moyamba and Kambia. He was promoted to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Education and Works. He was also appointed Provincial Secretary in Southern and Eastern Provinces.  Kabbah became the first African to be appointed as Permanent Secretary in Sierra Leone, and he was 32 years old.

In 1972, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah gained employment with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and became a United Nations international civil servant. Again, his determination, modesty and hard work led to his promotion as Resident Representative of the UNDP to Uganda, Lesotho, Tanzania and Kenya, respectively. He later returned to New York and headed the UN East African 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. Later, he was promoted to Deputy Director of Administration at UNDP in 1979.  In 1983, he was promoted to Director of Administration and Personnel, a position he held until his retirement in 1992. He returned to Sierra Leone and established a private practice in Freetown.

During his return, the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) offered him the position of head of the National Advisory Council (NAC), one of the institutions established by the military Junta to facilitate the restoration of constitutional rule in Sierra Leone. He accepted the appointment and served as its chairman. Eventually, Kabbah became more actively involved in the country’s politics, as advised by those around him.

RISE TO POWER AND GOVERNANCE

Ahmed Tejan Kabbah entered politics in 1995 and became the Flag Bearer and Leader of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), a position he held until 2007 when he handpicked Solomon Berewa to succeed him in a very controversial delegate conference in Makeni, Northern Sierra Leone.

In the Presidential and Parliamentary elections held on 26^th February 1996, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah contested on the ticket of the SLPP with 12 other candidates, including Lawyer Edie Turay (APC), Dr Kerafa Smart (UNPP) and Lawyer Thaimu Bangura (PDP) among others.  The election between Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Kerefa Smart, technocrats with senior positions in the United Nations, was tough.  In the First Ballot of the polls on 26th February, no candidate obtained the overwhelming or absolute majority of the 55% threshold required to form a government.  The Second Ballot was held on the 16th of March. The election was tense between the two leading candidates. Still, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah had a breakthrough by defeating Kerefa Smart with 59.50% of the votes cast with support from Thaimu Bangura, the leader of the United Democratic Party, whilst Kerefa Smart obtained 40.50%.

In the campaign towards that second ballot, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah was more popular than Kerefa Smart, who was considered an old man. Besides, Kabbah had a northern root for which he commanded votes in the north, even though the SLPP was a Mende-dominated party. Moreover, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah formed a coalition with Thaimu Bangura and other minor political parties against Kerefa Smart and the UNPP. With the unflinching support from Thaimu Bangura of the PDP, who got 16.07% of the votes in the first rounds of elections, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah won the Second Ballot with an absolute majority.

Ahmed Tejan Kabbah became president-elect on 29^th March 1996 and was sworn-in President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, and rewarded Thaimu Bangura by appointing him Minister of Finance.

Guided by his philosophy of “political inclusion”, he appointed a government of National Unity to include members of various political parties, elected representatives in Parliament, and ‘technocrats’ in civil society, although the APC party declined.

Upon assuming office, 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. As President, Kabbah opened direct negotiations with the RUF rebels to end the civil war.  He entered into several peace accords with the rebel leader Foday Sankoh, including the famous 1999 Lome Lomé Peace Accord in which the rebels, for the first time, agreed to a temporary cease-fire with the Sierra Leone government.

 In November 1996, in Abidjan,  Côte d’Ivoire, President Kabbah signed a peace agreement with the rebel leader, former Corporal Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

In May 1997, a military coup forced Kabbah into exile in neighbouring Guinea. The coup was led by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). The coup plotters freed Major Johnny Paul Koroma, who was detained at the Maximum Security Prison for an alleged coup plot without trial. He became Head of State whilst President Kabbah flew to Guinea, where he marshalled international support.  The military-rebel junta was removed nine months later, President Kabbah and democracy was restored by troops of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) through Nigerian-led ECOMOG forces and loyal civil and military defence forces, notably the Kamajors led by Samuel Hinga Norman.

President Kabbah returned to Sierra Leone and tried to consolidate political power. He ordered the arrest and detention of many persons who worked with the AFRC, otherwise known as collaborators, including former President Joseph Saidu Momoh.  Most military officers faced treason trials and were executed.

 On 7^th July 1999, Kabbah signed the Lome Peace Accord with the RUF after the January 6^th invasion and destruction of Freetown. When the cease-fire agreement with the rebels collapsed, Kabbah campaigned for international assistance from the British, the United Nations Security Council, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to help defeat the rebels and restore peace and order in Sierra Leone. The Lomé Peace Agreement remained the cornerstone of sustainable peace, security, justice and national reconciliation in Sierra Leone.

In October 1999, the United Nations agreed to send peacekeepers to help restore order and disarm the rebels. The UN sent 13,000 UN peacekeeping forces.  The first 6,000-member force arrived in   December. The number increased to 11,000 in February 2000 and later 13,000.  The UN peacekeeping forces comprised mainly soldiers from the British  Special Forces, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and the African Union special forces were sent to assist the government in fighting the rebels. They were mainly comprised of soldiers from Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Zambia and The Gambia. The international forces, led by the British troops, launched several successful military operations to repel the RUF rebels and retake many of the areas of the country that were under rebel control. The rebel lines of communication were severely disrupted, and many senior rebel leaders were captured or fled the country, including the RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who was captured.

 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),  President Kabbah declared “ De war don don” that the rebel war was over. The end of the war was greatly appreciated. It was demonstrated in the 2002 presidential and parliamentary elections, in which he had an easy victory over Ernest Bai Koroma, the main opposition APC, with 70.1%.

In the 2007, president Kabbah was ineligible to run for a third term as the 1991 constitution stipulates, his Vice President SoLomon Berewa ran for the presidential elections but defeated by Ernest Koroma of the opposition APC in the second ballot. Kabbah retired from politics and died at 82 at his residence in Juba Hill on March 13, 2014, seven years after his term of office expired. Immediately after the death of the ex-president, President Ernest Koroma declared a week of National Mourning. He was given a state funeral on March 21, 2014.

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