His Excellency, Julius Maada Bio, the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, will effect a State Visit to The Gambia from the 19th – 22nd February, 2019. The President and the First Lady, Madam Maada Bio will arrive in Banjul on Tuesday 19th February, at 11:00 AM to be received by His Excellency, President Adama Barrow.
Julius Maada Bio, at 53, a former coup-maker who once apologized for exactions carried out by his comrades, secured his first civilian term in office in Sierra Leone’s presidential vote.
The straight-talking retired brigadier, who briefly led a Junta in 1996, beat the incumbent Samura Kamara to end a decade in power for the All Peoples’ Congress (APC) in last month’s run-off, according to official results.
A member of the Mende people who traditionally lend strong support to the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Bio was born on May 12, 1964, in the southern town of Tihun.
After school and military training, he was sent in 1990 to neighbouring Liberia, where war had just broken out, to serve in the Sierra Leone contingent of troops sent by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
He was recalled to his own nation one year later when rebel forces there began to stir, with the rumblings of Sierra Leone’s own civil war on the horizon.
The former military man was one of a group of young soldiers behind a 1992 coup that would install their leader, Valentine Strasser, as the youngest head of state in the world, at the age of 25.
Bio ousted Strasser four years later and headed the government for three months to pave the way for democratic elections.
He agreed to step aside for the duly elected Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, allowing Sierra Leone to re-establish democracy.
He later apologized for the conduct of troops who executed more than 20 people after the 1992 coup, and is widely considered to have rehabilitated his image.
Bio, who spent time after leaving power studying in the United States, is not known to mince words.