Strasser: the irony of a redeemer
He was out in one of the narrow un-tarred Western area streets, playing football with some kids. He had on white sleeveless T-shirt, black joggers that stopped several inches below his knees, and blue-black Reebok trainers.
The hair on his head was unkempt; those on his chin show bright streaks of white. He looked less muscular and less built.
With flailing motion, he tried the trademark Ronaldinho dummy to beat his little opponent, but the boy stole the size-four punctured ball casually from him, pushed forward and skillfully stroke it through the narrow passage between two stones that served as ‘Guinea goal’ posts.
“You’re lucky; I wanted to give you the bad one,” the man remarked of his failed dummy trick.
None of the boys actually knew him, for when he took power in 1992 most of them were not even born yet.
On the sidewalk, his son Adrian, 10 (now 19), chuckled, presumably amused by the excuse of his father.
Rtd. Captain Valentine Esegrabo Melvin Strasser is not the man he used to be. At the age of 29 he became the world’s youngest Head of State when he and his colleagues mutinied, and eventually overthrew Sierra Leone’s longest serving government- the All People’s Congress (APC).
Suddenly the streets of Freetown swarmed with people of all ages, hailing the young soldier: “The Redeemer! The Redeemer!” The soldiers had brought a new dawn to a country which was shackled to the doldrums of 23 years of misrule and poverty.
I remember him during one of their initial press conferences as a new government- the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC): that unkempt trademark of a hairstyle; that face of youthful exuberance, slightly camouflaged by dark Rayban glasses, and the atmosphere of naivety around him.
Making emphatic use of his hands, he talked about the state of the economy they usurped from the APC. He talked about the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and their ‘harsh conditionalities’ but which they could not do without as a new government.
Then he talked about the war:
“You people should count yourselves lucky. You’re here eating, drinking, making merry, and sleeping. We are up there in the jungles fighting all day and night to protect you…”
And in the course of his speech his temper would flare and then he would probably realize he was in front of the world’s prying cameras. Suddenly he would calm down and remind the conference about advances they were making at the war front, and the number of soldiers they were losing in the process.
“These soldiers have families too, just like you. They have loved ones. They have children. You people should be grateful for this…” he continued.
He surprised me then; I did not expect him to have spoken so eloquently. He spoke with great enthusiasm and he chose his words carefully. He tried to be bold and brave, to match the soldier he was. But his wall of bravery was too thin to conceal the pressure he was under. Beneath the boldness and bravery, I saw a child assuming the presidency during the Day of the African Child. But it was not a mock; it was real.
His Excellency the Head of State Capt. Valentine E.M. Strasser met and dined with Heads of States, Presidents and Kings of the world. He signed bilateral agreements with other governments, and… but that was about 19 or so years ago.
Today, Strasser, now about 56, shies away from the public eye. One time he was referred to as a ‘madman’. Another time newspaper reports suggested he was a ‘ghettto man’- spending more than half of his time drinking palm wine and smoking grass. But he now lives at a family house in Allen Town, about nine miles away from the capital city of Freetown.
Scorned by a society which once hailed him as ‘The Redeemer’, Strasser has withdrawn into a world of his own. A little world ruled by taunting images of his immediate past. There are no more friends or associates; no more colleagues. Nobody seems to have come up to pay him back some good turn.
One of the most feared of his colleagues in the NPRC setup, Capt. Saj Musa, got killed in December, 1998 while trying to make a military comeback.
One of their key advisers, John Benjamin, who later served as Finance Minister in the last SLPP government, is now rumoured to be aiming for the highest seat in the Republic, while John Karimu- who also served as the head of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) in the same regime- is among many waiting on the sidelines for the next general elections.
Hindolo Trye served the current APC government as Minister of Labour and later Minister of Tourism and Culture, but died on July 2012 from a certain illness while serving as the latter.
Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio, his deputy who ousted him in a palace coup in 1996, is still gunning to become President of the land after he lost out to President Ernest Bai Koroma in the last elections of 2012.
The two men from whom he had reportedly sought advice, Mr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Mr. Solomon Ekuma Berewa, later served as His Excellencies the President and Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, respectively, but the former is now late.
At the laying ceremony of one of his close colleagues, the late Tom Nyuma, on 20 January 2014, Strasser paid an emotional tribute to one of the gallant soldiers of the NPRC who earned himself the nickname The Ranger.
Col. Komba Mondeh served the SLPP government as military attaché in Nigeria and is now a high ranking official in the Ministry of Defence.
Karefa Kargbo, Glover, Idrissa Kamara, Charles Mbayo, Komba Kambo and Gabriel Turay are all somewhere, some place, pursuing their individual goals in life.
But for Strasser, there may not be any more goals in life after falling off the highest seat in the land. He seems to have settled where fate has led him. However, the former Junta idol still has something to give back to society- education. With help from new friends, including popular musician Nasser Ayoub and renowned journalist Murtala Mohamed Kamara, Strasser- in collaboration with community youth- now operates a school in Grafton which is training young people in IT.
In this world we are living today, everybody seems to care but nobody actually cares.
Note: Updated from the first publication titled: “Redeemer! Redeemer!! Who’ll redeem the Redeemer?” in 2006 which won the author the Independent Media Commission (IMC)/CELTEL National Media Award for Best Feature Story 2006.
By Ahmed Sahid Nasralla (De Monk)
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