Meet An African Who Became A President At The Age Of 25, Now Languishing In Poverty (Photos)

Valentine Esegragbo Melvine Strasser is his name. In Sierra Leone’s Freetown, he was born in 1967. At the age of 18, when he completed his secondary schooling, he was sent to the Benguema Military Training Academy in Freetown as a cadet officer. After training, he was just nineteen when he was commissioned into the Sierra Leonean army. He completed his training and, at the age of just 19, was commissioned into the Sierra Leonean army. He was then assigned to a military barracks in Eastern Sierra Leone.

He was the leader of a group of six young Sierra Leoneans who plotted a coup d’état that resulted in the overthrow of President Joseph Momoh and the installation of himself as president of Sierra Leone. From 1992 to 1996, he held the office, making history as the youngest Head of State ever. In the end, he was deposed in 1996.

After being deposed, the UN awarded Strasser a scholarship to study law at the University of Warwick in England, but he discontinued his studies after only 18 months. After having his application for asylum in England rejected, he departed for the Gambia but was turned away upon arrival. He finally went back to Sierra Leone, where he eventually settled in Grafton, a settlement east of Freetown, where he lived in squalor on a meager pension…..See More

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