President Kabbah's Address On The Occasion Of The Special Session Of The Second Parliament Of The Second Republic Of Sierra Leone.
I am addressing you today at this special session of Parliament as in a matter of weeks, I will be retiring as President of the Republic of Sierra Leone after eleven rewarding but sometimes difficult years. I would like, once more, to express my gratitude to you all. You have provided close and valuable support to me and my government. Thanks to your cooperation, understanding and resilience, the dark days in our country's tragic history are over and together, we have courageously brought back peace, security and hope to ourselves.
It was with an enormous sense of patriotism, responsibility and commitment that in 1996, I yielded to considerable pressure to assume the leadership role in a country that was at the brink of state failure, underpinned by the victory of guns over normal politics, mired in one of the bloodiest civil conflicts in history, torn by fear, criminal activities and killings and governed by groups of bloodthirsty and fortune seeking warmongers who thrived on conflict and denied freedom to our people. In the midst of so much internal strife and human misery, these warlords became a veritable threat to peace, national security and development.
Sierra Leone: News & Information: President: State House: Ahmad Tejan Kabbah:
