Feature Sierra Leone
Elections are a fraught issue in much of Africa, as recent events in Côte d’Ivoire continue demonstrate. And this year alone, there will be 17 presidential elections on the continent. So when a former military leader organises an election and hands over power to the winning civilian, that is a cause for celebration. Julius Maada Bio, ex-military leader of Sierra Leone, handed over power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
in 1996, and then went off to the USA to study at the American University. He has since returned home and is now aspiring to become the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party’s (SLPP) presidential candidate for 2012. As part of our special series to welcome Sierra Leone’s 50th independence anniversary, which falls on 27 April, we sent our correspondent, Lansana Gberie, to interview Julius Maada Bio. Here is his report.
How Sierra Leone fell into the hands of young soldiers
faced junta that ruled Sierra Leone from 1992 to 1996, Bio has somewhat thrived, and has remained a national figure. His senior colleague, Valentine Strasser, who headed the NPRC for a time and was pushed aside by Bio, is a shambling, barely recognisable figure who occasionally rants incoherently from his home outside Free- town. When he handed over power to Presi-
T
dent Ahmad Tejan Kabbah after elections in 1996, Bio went to study in the USA, including at the American University in Washington, where he earned a masters degree in International Relations. He then returned to his country and started a pharmaceutical business. When that went nowhere, Bio started another busi- ness, exporting cocoa and coffee. He also
48 | April 2011 New African
here is something extraor- dinary about Julius Maada Bio. Alone of all the core members of the National Provisional Rul- ing Council (NPRC), the fresh-
re-entered politics, joining and contesting (without success) the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) leadership position. Now, 46, Bio is campaigning once again to become presidential flag-bearer of the SLPP (the key opposition in Sierra Leone); if he is successful in March, he will then face the current president, Ernest Bai Koroma, at the polls in 2012. And he will have a cred- ible prospect of becoming, once again, President of Sierra Leone. Although this may be unfair, it might
be said that Bio’s continuing gravitas – compared to his ex-junta colleagues – is due to his descent from a ruling house: he has a distinctly regal demeanour and perhaps a sense of entitlement. But Bio thinks otherwise. “I am one of 35 children of Paramount Chief Charlie Vonie Bio. In fact, I was the 33rd child. Tat’s not the greatest start in life,” he said, sardonically, when I met him at Mamba Point Hotel in Freetown. Somewhat to my surprise, Bio went on:
“Most of my values, the driving principles of my life, I acquired from my mother. She was a calm, hardworking and calcu- lated person, and she had a strong belief in God.” Bio is associated, among his friends and colleagues, with three of those quali- ties. And a strong belief in God? “Yes, I am a life-long Catholic. I went to a Roman Catholic primary school, and was baptised early. My belief in God has remained un- shaken through all these years.” Te Bio family home was too crowded:
35 children and nine wives (not to mention the many dependants of a ruling house). It was more like a village than a home. For his studies, Bio had to move else-
where. He went to stay with his elder sister Agnes, who was a schoolteacher in Puje- hun, many miles away. Bio stayed with Agnes for five years, and remembers those years with great fondness. From the way he speaks about it, Agnes was more of a mother than an elder sister to him. Her influence over him was overwhelming.
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