Samura Kamara | |
---|---|
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sierra Leone | |
In office 2012–2017 | |
President | Ernest Bai Koroma |
Preceded by | Joseph Bandabla Dauda |
Succeeded by | Kaifala Marah |
Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone | |
In office February 2009 –January 2013 | |
Preceded by | David Carew |
Succeeded by | Kaifala Marah |
Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone | |
In office 2007–2009 | |
Preceded by | James David Rogers |
Succeeded by | Sheku Sambadeen Sesay |
Personal details | |
Born | Samura Kamara 30 April 1951 Kamalo,Bombali District (now Karene District),Sierra Leone |
Political party | All People's Congress (APC) |
Spouse | Elizabeth Massah Kamara |
Residence(s) | Freetown,Sierra Leone |
Alma mater | Fourah Bay College |
Profession | economist |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara (30 April 1951) [1] 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, [2] [3] 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.
Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara was born in Kamalo,Karene District,North-Western Province of Sierra Leone,then a colony of United Kingdom. He is a themne by tribe. His father Pa Gibril Kamara was from Maworrko village near Rothuk and Magbanktha villages,Gberray Junction,Maforki chiefdom,Port Loko District. His mother,Ya Bomporro Kamara (née Kanu) is an indigene of Kamalo,Sanda Loko Chiefdom,Karene District,North-Western Region. [4]
Kamara received his early education at the UCC in Bo,Southern Sierra Leone. He continued his education at the Saint Edwards Secondary School in Freetown,stayed at Montague Street and Guard Street,Eastern Freetown,and was very active in football circles as a goalkeeper.
He proceeded to Fourah Bay College where he earned a bachelor's degree in Economics in 1972. He holds a PhD in Development Economics (1986) from Bangor University in Wales,United Kingdom.
Kamara was in 1994 appointed Programme Manager by the World Bank for its Structural Support Programme to the country. [5] He also served as Financial Secretary during this time as part of efforts to build trust in the management of the mainly international donor flows which constituted over three quarters of the government's non- military financial receipts. He became Secretary of State,Finance in January 1996 after Julius Maada Bio overthrew Valentine Strasser. [6]
He subsequently served as Financial Secretary,and as Bank Governor,Minister of Finance,and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in the APC Administration of Ernest Bai Koroma.[ citation needed ]
Kamara chaired the African Caucus constituency meetings two years in a row.[ when? ] As Foreign Minister,he serves as Chair of the Ministerial Meetings of the African Union C10 committee on the Reform of the United Nations,and he is also Chair of the AU Candidatures Committee. He has on several occasions[ when? ] chaired the Peace and Security Council of the AU.[ citation needed ]
Kamara is currently leading Africa's ministerial negotiating team on the reform of the United Nations.[ citation needed ]
In 2018,immediately after taking office,President Julius Maada Bio’s administration announced Commissions of Inquiry (COI) [7] approved to look into the performance of former All People’s Congress (APC) Government officials and that the scope of the inquiry will cover the period November,2007 to April,2018. Over 300 persons who served in senior positions in the former Koroma administration including Kamara were indicted. Honourable Justice John Rosolu Bankole Thompson who headed Commission Number 2 of the three Commissions of Inquiry criticised the Bio regime for misusing the COI in a manner that was "not reasonable or permissible" and also "not cognizable" under the COI legal framework that President Bio had sent for approval to Parliament. [8]
In 2020 it was announced that the All People's Congress (APC) would hold their convention to elect a new leader that will challenge president Julius Maada Bio of the SLPP who is facing re-election for a second five-year term in 2023. Kamara,who contested the previous election with Bio in 2018 announced his candidacy for the leadership of the All People's Congress (APC) ahead of the 2023 Sierra Leone presidential and parliamentary elections. He is one of seven candidates for the APC leadership. Kamara was chosen as Flag Bearer in 2018 by selection by then outgoing president and APC party chairman Ernest Koroma,instead of election- a move that was unpopular with the majority of APC supporters. [9] APC ultimately lost the elections to the SLPP. [10] In December 2023,the Court of Appeal in Samura Kamura place under arrest warrant ordered the immediate arrest of Samura Kamura,for his involvement in a case related to the sale of shares of a mining company when he was minister finances. [11]
He is married to Mrs. Elizabeth Massah Kamara (née Rogers). [12] Mrs. Kamara is an indigene of Pujehun District in the Southern Province. [13] Her mother hailed from Masam Kpaka and her father from Blama Massaquoi.
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.
The government of Sierra Leone is the governing authority of the Republic of Sierra Leone,as established by the Sierra Leone Constitution. The Sierra Leone government is divided into three branches:the executive,legislative and the judiciary. The seat of government of Sierra Leone is in the capital Freetown.
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.
Siaka Probyn Stevens was the leader of Sierra Leone from 1967 to 1985,serving as Prime Minister from 1967 to 1971 and as President from 1971 to 1985. Stevens' leadership was often characterized by patrimonial rule and self-indulgence,consolidating power by means of corruption and exploitation.
The All People's Congress (APC) is one of the two major political parties in Sierra Leone,the other being its main political rival the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP). The APC has been the main opposition party in Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018 when Julius Maada Bio of the SLPP won the 2018 presidential elections,though it maintains a majority in parliament.
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).
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).
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.
The Western Area Rural District is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. It is located mostly around the peninsula in the Western Area of Sierra Leone. The Western Area Rural District has a 2015 census population of 442,951. The district capital and largest city is Waterloo. Other major towns in the district include Newton,Benguema,Leicester,Tombo and Regent. Most of the towns and villages in the Western Area Rural District are close to the capital Freetown and are part of the Freetown Metropolitan Area.
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 11 August 2007. Seven candidates competed in the first round of the presidential election;no candidate received the necessary 55% of the vote to win in the first round,and a second round was held between the top two candidates,Ernest Bai Koroma of the All People's Congress (APC) and Solomon Berewa of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP),on 8 September. According to official results,Koroma won the election with 54.6% of the vote.
Christian Alusine Kamara-Taylor,popularly known as C.A.,was a Sierra Leonean politician and one of the founding members of the All People's Congress (APC),along with Siaka Stevens and Sorie Ibrahim Koroma. He served as Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone from 1971 to 1975. He became Minister of Interior in 1975. After the introduction of a one party constitution in 1978,Mr. C.A. Kamara-Taylor became the Second Vice-President of Sierra Leone,and held that post until his death in 1985.
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 17 November 2012. The result was a sweeping victory for the ruling All People's Congress. Its leader,incumbent president Ernest Bai Koroma,won 58.7% of the vote,enough to win a second term without the need for a runoff. The APC also won 67 of the 112 elected seats in Parliament. To date,it is the APC's best showing at an election since the restoration of multiparty politics in 1991.
Mandingo people of Sierra Leone is a major ethnic group in Sierra Leone and a branch of the Mandinka people of West Africa. Most Sierra Leonean Mandingo are the direct descendants of Mandinka settlers from Guinea,who settled in the north and eastern part of Sierra Leone,beginning in the late 1870s to the 1890s under the rule of prominent Mandinka Muslim cleric Samori Ture. Also later a significantly large population of Mandinka from Guinea migrated and settled in Eastern Sierra Leone and Northern Sierra Leone in the early to mid 20th century. The Mandingo people of Sierra Leone have a very close friendly and allied relationship with their neighbors the Mandingo people of Guinea and Liberia,as they share pretty much identical dialect of the Mandingo language,tradition,culture and food.
Alhaji Alpha Sahid Bakar Kanu is a Sierra Leonean politician and the current Sierra Leone minister of Presidential and Public Affairs. He is also the official spokesman of the All People's Congress (APC) political party,a position he has held even before the APC came to power. In January 2012,Kanu was chosen by Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma to serve as Minister of Information and Communication in Koroma's new second term cabinet.
Alhaji Usman Boie Kamara is a Sierra Leonean politician,businessman and mining engineer who has been Minister of Trade and Industry of Sierra Leone since 2013. He previously worked as director of the Sierra Leone National Diamond Mining Company (NDMC).
Kaifala Marah is a Sierra Leonean politician,accountant,Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone (2016–2017),and Minister of Finance (2013–2016). On 7 March 2017,Dr. Marah resigned as governor to seek the nomination of the All People's Congress (APC) for the presidential election of 2018.
General elections were held in Sierra Leone on 7 March 2018 to elect the President,Parliament and local councils. Incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma did not run for another term,as he was constitutionally ineligible,having served the maximum ten years in office.
Falaba District is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest town is Bendugu. Other towns in Falaba District include Falaba,Sikunia,Krubola,Musaia Ganya and Mansadu. Falaba District is divided into thirteen chiefdoms. Falaba District is one of the largest districts in Sierra Leone by land area,However,it is one of the least populous districts in the country. Falaba District is known for its mostly conservative Muslim population. Falaba District has a population of 205,353,based on 2018 estimate.
Richard Konteh is a Sierra Leonean educator,public servant,and businessman.