John Arouna Karimu is a Mende hailed from Daru Village, Kailahun District, in the Eastern Region of Sierra Leone.
He was a Lecturer at Fourah Bay College, where he met his wife Gertrude Gbessay Karimu née Sellu who was a student there as well. He later worked for the Bo/Pujehun Project. He then became the Director of CUSO in Gambia.
He later became the Finance Minister in Sierra Leone during the military rule of Valentine Strasser (1993-1996). [1] [2] He was the presidential candidate of the National Unity Party in the 1996 national elections. In that election, Karimu received 5.3% of the national vote and lost easily to Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. In December 1996, Karimu accepted a position in the cabinet of Kabbah as the Secretary of Housing and Environment. However, Karimu was eventually deposed, along with the rest of the government, when Major Johnny Paul Koroma overthrew the government on 25 May 1997. During this period, he worked as a Director with The World Bank in Papua New Guinea. He later became the Commissioner of the National Revenue Authority(NRA)-The highest paid civil Servant in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone first became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago. The Limba were the first tribe known to inhabit Sierra Leone. The dense tropical rainforest partially isolated the region from other West African cultures, and it became a refuge for peoples escaping violence and jihads. Sierra Leone was named by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra, who mapped the region in 1462. The Freetown estuary provided a good natural harbour for ships to shelter and replenish drinking water, and gained more international attention as coastal and trans-Atlantic trade supplanted trans-Saharan trade.
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.
The Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone, along with its main political rival the All People's Congress (APC). It has been the ruling party in Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. The SLPP dominated Sierra Leone's politics from its foundation in 1951 to 1967, when it lost the 1967 parliamentary election to the APC, led by Siaka Stevens. Originally a centre-right, conservative party, it identifies since 2012 as a centre-left social democratic party, with a centrist tendency.
The president of the Republic of Sierra Leone is the head of state and the head of government of Sierra Leone, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces.
Chief Tom Ikimi is a Nigerian politician and architect who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1995 to 1998. He was appointed chairman of ECOWAS council of ministers and ECOWAS committee of Nine on Liberia (C-9) on 26 July 1996. He has also served as chairman of the defunct National Republican Convention (NRC) and was a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Julius Maada Wonie Bio is a Sierra Leonean politician who has served as president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. He is a retired brigadier in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of state of Sierra Leone from 16 January 1996 to 29 March 1996, in a military junta government known as the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). Bio is the first democratically elected president of Sierra Leone born after Sierra Leone's independence from British colonial rule.
The Sierra Leonean Civil War (1991–2002) was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted almost 11 years, and had over 50,000, up to 70,000, casualties in total; an estimated 2.5 million people were displaced during the conflict, and widespread atrocities occurred.
Solomon Anthony James Musa, also known as SAJ Musa, was an important military and political figure in the Sierra Leone Civil War.
Charles Francis Kondo Margai is a Sierra Leonean politician and constitutional lawyer who served as Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Sierra Leone in 2018.
Solomon Ekuma Dominic Berewa was Vice-president of Sierra Leone from May 2002 to September 2007. Standing as the candidate of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), he was defeated in the second round of the 2007 presidential election by Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC).
John Albert Musselman Karefa-Smart was a Sierra Leonean politician, medical doctor and university professor. He served as the first Foreign Minister under Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai. He was an ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church.
Thaimu Bangura was a politician from Sierra Leone. He was a government minister from 1980 to 1982 and again from 1996 to 1999. From 1991 to 1999, Bangura was the National Leader of the People's Democratic Party of Sierra Leone as well as their presidential candidate in the 1996 elections. In that election, Bangura finished 3rd behind winner and current president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP and John Karefa-Smart of the UNPP with 16.07% of the initial round of voting. He did not qualify for the run-off election. He was Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone from March 1996 to May 1997.
Ernest Bai Koroma is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018.
Patricia Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean lawyer who served as First Lady of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 1998. She was the first wife of Sierra Leone's third president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. She is widely regarded as one of the most influential first ladies in the history of Sierra Leone.
Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura is a Sierra Leonean politician and social activist who has been serving as the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) since 2018, appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. She served as the second United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict with the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations from 2012 to 2017, in succession to the first holder of the post, Margot Wallström. In 2017 she was succeeded by Pramila Patten.
Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara is a Sierra Leonean politician and economist. He was the All Peoples Congress (APC) Party's candidate for President of Sierra Leone in the 2018 election and 2023 election. He was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone from 2012 to 2017, Minister of Finance and Economic Development from 2009 to 2013, Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone from 2007 to 2009, Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance during President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's administration.
Peter Alfred Penfold was a British diplomat who was the second youngest governor of the British Virgin Islands and was High Commissioner to the Republic of Sierra Leone. His career began in 1963, when he joined the Foreign Service as a clerical officer. Two years into his career, he was posted to the British embassy in Bonn, West Germany, and two years after that to Nigeria. From 1970 to 1972, Penfold served as a "floater" in Latin America, filling in as necessary for staff at British missions in the region. He served in Mexico during the 1970 football world cup, and on St Vincent, where he was responsible for organising an evacuation after a volcanic eruption. After Latin America, Penfold briefly served in Canberra, before returning to London to take a post in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). He earned early promotion to second secretary in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was responsible for reporting on the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Eritrean War of Independence and was still in the country during the revolution, in which the pro-Western emperor was overthrown. After completing his tour in Ethiopia, Penfold served as information officer in Port of Spain and then as first secretary in the West Africa Department of the FCO.
Maigore Kallon was a Sierra Leonean politician and diplomat. A founding member of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), he later served as the chairman of the party. Kallon served as the third Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone from 1965 to 1967. He briefly regained the position of Foreign Minister in 1996 during the first cabinet of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, a member of the SLPP.
Sierra Leone Ministry of Finance is a ministerial department of the Government of Sierra Leone, and is in charge of managing the revenue and finances of the Sierra Leone government. The ministry implements the economic policies and is responsible for public financial management. The ministry advises the President of Sierra Leone on economic issues. The headquarters of the Sierra Leone Ministry Of Finance is located on George Street in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Although there were attorneys-general that served the Colony of Sierra Leone, the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice that still stands today was first established in 1961. It would not combine with the Ministry of Justice until 1978 when the country's constitution was amended. The office is responsible for prosecuting all offenses in the name of the Republic of Sierra Leone. The Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions are two sub-units of the Office of Attorney General and Ministry of Justice.