August 10, 2021
By Mohamed Jalloh
It is a fact of life that not all relationships are smooth sailing. Even among biological networks and other acquaintances, the possibility is high for human relations to get frosty at some point in time.
A hermit could never complain of been hurt by his fellow man because he has eschewed all contact with the rest of the world. As long as an individual is living among people, there is greater likelihood for one to trample on other people`s interest/rights and vice versa.
President Bio`s relationship with his former boss and comrade in arms, Rtd Capt. Valentine Strasser has taken an unusual trajectory from the good, the bad, the ugly to the good again. Had it not been for the unparalleled sacrifice to defend their mother land (even if it means letting go of one`s life) the possibility of knowing each other was far-fetched.
To start with, the two noblemen hailed from different parts of the country. The former attended the Bo government School in the southern province whiles the latter is a product of the Sierra Leone Grammar School in Freetown.
After graduation from Secondary School, the relationship was consummated when the two opted to enroll into the military cadet programme.
At the end of the training in 1985, both gentlemen were commissioned as second lieutenant officers in the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) as it was called back then.
As in all public institutions, people with varied background could easily bond, irrespective of marked differences in upbringing and social influences. President Bio, a native Sherbro /Mende from Tihun in Bonthe (south western Sierra Leone) and Rtd Captain Strasser a Creole who hails from Grafton in the outskirts of the Capital City Freetown automatically struck a chord of kindred spirit
Shortly after joining the military, insecurity had plagued neighboring Liberia. For the first time their valor as soldiers had to be tested. They were coopted as part of an ECOMOG peace keeping force to protect the civilian population from the atrocities unleashed by the different warring factions in Liberia.
Alongside other brave officers of the Tiger Squad, (as their batch of cadet graduates was nicknamed) they were able to protect critical infrastructure from destruction and went further to thwart the extermination of some tribes that were targeted by rebel forces. At this crucial juncture on the 23rd March 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels headed by Foday Sankoh has invaded Sierra Leone with the launch their first attack in Bomaru village Kailahun District.
The spillover of the war into Sierra Leonean territory led to a military high command decision recalling the entire Sierra Leone contingent to defending their motherland from the marauding advances of the RUF.
Back home, President Bio and Rtd Captain Strasser were immediately redeployed to the warfront as platoon commanders to halt the sweeping advances to Daru town by the RUF rebels.
This was the period between life and death. The act of gallantry and selflessness displayed in defending the frontiers in the eastern province led to both men sustaining bullet wounds. They could have easily died but destiny had it that both of them would later become head of states of their country respectively. At this moment, morale at the warfront was at an all-time low. The political establishment in Freetown was accused of inadequate and halfhearted commitment to the war efforts. The SLA was poorly armed and ill-equipped to halt the marauding advances of the RUF, who were better equipped with Liberian and Burkinabe mercenaries and were adopting guerilla tactics by using the civilian population as human shields.
Food consignments and medical supplies were woefully insufficient. In some instances wounded in action soldiers had to be operated on without anesthetic. The situation had become unbearable for the platoon commanders. On the 29th April 1992 they descended on the Capital city Freetown as a form of protest to the commander in chief of the Armed Forces (President Momoh).But the firing of several rounds of salvos at State Avenue created an atmosphere of insecurity. President Momoh abdicated his presidency and sought exile in neighboring Guinea. Upon realizing the power vacuum, the platoon commanders automatically constituted the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) to manage the affairs of the state.
Rtd Capt. Strasser who was recuperating from his bullet wounds at the 34 military hospital was honorably appointed by his peers to be the Chairman of the NPRC Military junta.
The appointment immediately propelled him as the head of state of Sierra Leone. Reports had it that the Grammar school boy was appointed by his colleagues because he could better communicate in the queens language. Another school of thought had to do with public acceptance and confidence.
Strasser was deemed as the most apt person inorder to mute fears of a southeastern hegemonistic coup in the military to depose Momoh`s APC, given that other prominent and influential members in the NPRC (including Maada Bio, late SAJ Musa, late Sahr Sandy, and late Tom nyuma) also hailed from the Southeast.
As head of state, Strasser appointed Bio as the secretary of state southern province and later as secretary of state in charge of Information and communications. After the overzealous SAJ Musa was made redundant as second in command, president Bio was appointed deputy chairman of the NPRC.
In the military domain, after the restructuring of the army by Strasser, Bio was promoted captain and later Brigadeer General and chief of defense staff of the Sierra Leone Army. The rationale of the reorganization of the Army was to refine efforts towards ending the war or to bring the end of the war insight.
Apart from the extra judicial killings which Strasser himself admitted was his biggest mistake during his reign at the truth and reconciliation Commission hearings, the NPRC made remarkable socio-economic achievements.
Inflation was steeply brought down from 115% to an astonishing 15% level. There were no more queues for rice and other essential commodities such as fuel. The new road from Freetown to Massiaka highway was constructed (including the entire Brookfields community).
More beds and other medical accessories were provided for public hospitals and the 6334 educational system that has survived successive democratically elected governments was launched.
In sports, the men`s football national team won the Amilcar Cabral Zone2 tournament twice and further qualified for the African Nations cup in 1994 and 1996 respectively. In the grand scheme of things it could be affirmed without fear of contradiction, that the country was been led in the right direction.
All these achievements were made possible due to the drive and determination of Bio and Strasser at the helm of State affairs.
The relationship became frosty when Strasser implied of contesting the multy party elections in 1996.Bio saw the hint by his boss as a contravention to the objectives of the NPRC upon initially assuming power. Since the war had proved very difficult to bring to a foreseeable end, Bio deemed it fit that the only way out of the intractable situation was to relinquish power and hand it over to a people`s democratically elected government.
At a palace coup at the military headquarters (Cockrill), Bio had surreptitiously hidden a pistol inside a drawer at the high table.
Strasser had become suspicious of growing attempts by Bio to unseat him; therefore his eyes were snooping all over the room.
As Bio was about to pull the pistol from the drawer to hands up his boss, the gun was kicked from his hands by Strasser.
A bitter wrestling ensued between the two but they were later escorted out of the room by the other accomplices. Strasser was later overpowered with the help of the other abettors and bundled into a military helicopter and flown out of the country to Guinea.
Strasser landed in Conakry amidst resisting attempts to throw him overboard from the helicopter into the Atlantic Ocean.
However, Strasser`s sympathizers accused Bio of growing wary of his boss`s increasing popularity at home and abroad.
They argued that Strasser could have emulated the examples of flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings in Ghana and that of General Lansana Conteh in neighboring Guinea.
The two former heads of States were military men who later stripped off their Khaki uniforms, organized elections and later became civilian heads of state. Whatever the case, destiny had cemented president Bio`s place in the annals of history as the only man to govern Sierra Leone both as military man and as a civilian.
After experiencing life as a military head of state, Strasser landed in England to pursue academic studies in Law. Life was made unbearable for him by the APC diaspora. Strasser was pelted with raw eggs and had to endure all sorts of invectives at Warrick University. But, when a local tabloid in London called the guardian asked: what is a former West African military strongman doing in London? He had to abandon his studies and resurfaced in Yahyah Jammeh`s Gambia. Life was made a hell on earth for Strasser in Gambia as he was brutally attacked at a nightclub by unidentified men. His wife had also betrayed him in America.
After hearing about his ordeal in the Gambia, in the end former President Kabbah allowed him to return home and live quietly with his family in the outskirts of Freetown. Efforts to persuade successive APC and SLPP goverments to pay his gratuities as former head of state have proved futile. Governments had argued that he was not democratically elected, making him undeserving to receiving pensions. The former APC government reduced him to a political pun by way of using him with the aim to score political points against Bio during the antecedents to the 2012 and 2018 elections. His health condition rapidly deteriorated, until he was rescued by his friend (president Bio) and flown to Ghana for surgery on his right leg. Upon his return he was provided with a beautiful bungalow befitting his status as a former head of State, a token humanitarian gesture previous goverments had failed to accomplish. “Life is not a bed of roses”, Strasser had come to accept the vicissitudes of life. Therefore, in good, bad and ugliest periods the friendship seems insoluble, President Bio recognized the humanity in his friend before any other consideration.
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