Valentine Esegragbo Melvin Strasser was born on 26 April 1967 in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, to parents from the Creole ethnic group. Strasser grew up in the neighbourhood of Allen Town, in the extreme East End of Freetown....CONTINUE READING
Strasser completed his secondary education at the Sierra Leone Grammar School in Freetown and graduated in 1985 at age eighteen. While in secondary school, Strasser was a gifted student in math and chemistry.
He became a junior military officer, and in 1992 he led a coup d’etat against Joseph Saidu Momoh (who did not supply enough boots or equipment to the army during the Sierra Leonean Civil War) and became the world’s youngest head of state at the age of 25.
Along with his friend Solomon Musa, Strasser ruled the country as a dictatorship, but in 1996 his deputy Julius Maada Bio, Tom Nyuma, and Komba Mondeh allied with disaffected junta members and overthrew Strasser, who left for England and later Gambia, which rejected his residency in 2000.
Nevertheless, unlike most African presidents, Valentine Strasser did not grow up in a wealthy or privileged family.Though many wealthy Africans who become powerful do not have the same high education, 56-year-old Strasser did.
In 1992 at just age 25, Captain Valentine Strasser had seized power from His former boss President Joseph Momoh and had become Sierra Leone’s Head of State making him the youngest ever in West Africa.
Strasser sat on wealth and many opportunities but he soon allowed his youthful exuberance to be his waterloo .He engaged in high level of profligacy and failed the war against rebel leader Forday Sankoh.
He grew unpopular with accusations of mismanagement and ordering the killing of many of dissenters of his regime. Majority of his soldiers defected to the rebel army after he employed the services of mercenary front Executive Outcomes.
Finally, feeling completely shattered and forlorn, the former head of state went to Sierra Leone, now without a home or a country. He was really poor and received very little retirement income there.
Given his low income, Strasser decided to accept a job at an institute teaching computer skills to youth.
Strasser was transported to Ghana for medical care in January 2019, following a critical illness. Doctors had to remove a part of the body because of a blood vessel problem.
In July 2021, the homeless former leader returned to Sierra Leone after recovering. He was shocked to learn that President Bio, who had fired him earlier, had given him a house as a gift.
He is once again dependent on the generosity of his mother who raised him as a single parent. Always a mummy’s boy, he has been living with his mother since he fell on hard times after exile in Britain and Gambia.
He is now on a small government pension from the military after he complained bitterly he is living in penury yet he is a former head of state who should be taken care of…CONTINUE READING>>
