Stella Dimoko Korkus.com: Valentine Strasser's Desperate End.

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Thursday, October 06, 2016

Valentine Strasser's Desperate End.

Most dictators have a bad ending. Hitler committed suicide, Ceausescu and his wife were executed by a firing squad and Gaddafi was shot dead by a teenage revolutionary. 






The few dictators who cheat death often end up living isolated lives in exile as did Mobutu or Idi Amin. In Sierra Leone, there is an atypical kind. 
Simon Akam has done a terrific job of profiling the Sierra Leonean former despot, Valentine Strasser. In this case, I use the title “despot” quite liberally.


 Except for his sheer brutality, Strasser hardly merits this title.
Dictators in Africa often leave behind visible landmarks. Indeed, despots deserving the name have often led quite ambitious development projects around the continent as did Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso or Kamuzu Banda in Malawi. Strasser, a name hardly recognizable, is in a league of his own.


In 1992, three days after his 25th birthday, Strasser launched a coup. He was then a junior officer, perhaps a captain, in the poorly trained and scantily funded national army. At the time, Sierra Leone was in a state of war with rebels (RUF) allied to another lunatic, Foday Sankoh, funded by Libyan megalomaniac leader, now dead.


It is in the midst of this confusion that Strasser hijacked the country. Staying loyal to his name, he pronounced Valentine Day an official holiday. Also official, although less outrageously, was Marley’s holiday. He surely was brutal but his power crazed antics were that not devoid of style. At the 1993 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Limassol, Cyprus, Strasser touched down in sunglasses and a T-shirt with the words, “Sunny Days in Cyprus”.


The piece is guaranteed to give you a good laugh. But it is painful as well, especially when one reflects on the consequences of this fool’s rule. Six months after self-coronation, he was responsible for the execution of 29 “rebels”. All of these people have been deemed innocent. When the journalist forced him to reflect on these murders, his response was stylistically cynical: “Fuck off, man. In Texas they kill people every day.”


Today, the 48 year old Strasser is a washed up alcoholic living in his mother’s house. He is easily the poorest retired African dictator, earning a pension of $46. He thinks of himself as being better than “Idi Amin or another bad dictator like Colonel Gadaffi”. And he has also become a passionate advocate for an independent Africa–something he never bothered to do during his reign.



While in power, he invited mercenaries, including the infamous Executive Outcomes to havoc the country. They did their job in exchange for diamonds and cash payments. Surprisingly, Strasser has the audacity to say this: “Europe still continues to underdevelop Africa. Africa’s raw materials are Europe’s tool to keep black Africa under so that western Europe continues to improve.” As they say in my native language, a fool sometimes falls on a wise word.


What is there to learn from this brutal but comical story? Perhaps if Africa made it difficult for disposed dictators to access their loot, it would teach a lesson for wannabes. Since few people want to live as kings and die as dogs, maybe such an action would serve as a deterrent. Just like it is hoped that Gaddafi’s execution wills serve a lesson to global tyrants.



However, as long as the likes of Daniel Moi, Sani Abacha, Joseph Mobutu etc. can continue to unregulated access to their billions, stashed in foreign accounts; even in their retirement, dictatorship will continue to be an lucrative and attractive trade.

culled -makontimes


35 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Try and learn to read eh? It doesnt kill I promise

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  2. Innocent side eyes 👀 at bubu

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  3. So! What's the lesson now??, dictatorship sometimes has it merit, but demerit is far more than merit.
    #JOeFIRSt

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  4. Replies
    1. This post is just another western propaganda engineered towards denigrating Africa. Pointless! How dare this person make such conclusions?! Is Europe not working against Africa? For centuries they have gotten rich off African blood. To imagine the silliness of deriding Gaddafi!!!!!

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  5. May be i should start naming bad people so that they will have desperate end.

    No 1.. witches and wizards
    No 2.... spirit husbands and wife
    No 3.... Mami waters



    No 10...... APC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abeg help me shift APC to number 1 biko. I used to be a supporter but I don give up.

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    2. No 1 to 3 created by your fake pastor for your fake sky god to survive.

      Delete
  6. I will read it tomorrow 😂

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  7. I will read it tomorrow 😂

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  8. Ghadafis fate shall be buharis end

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  9. Tell dictator buhari that his days are numbered. Nebuchadnezzar of our own generation!

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  10. He was expelled in one school in UK, ended up on the street before deported back home.

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  11. Hello everyone. I just started a one woman NGO, i want to bring clothing and food to the poor around Abuja. I have carried out my research and i am ready to start doing this but i am still gathering the products i need to give to them. I don't have these things personally to give to them and that is why i have come to you guys on their behalf. I am asking Abuja residents that can afford it, for clothes, shoes, bags(Female, Male, Children) and food stuffs that you can spare because some of these people lack these things, soooooo many are living so far below poverty level that their plight will melt your heart. I am a beaded jewelry designer and really want to help some of them in a little skill acquisition but they can not even afford the materials to use for the training, please i also plead for your help in that aspect, i plead for your financial help in funding this. These people might not be able to thank you in person but believe me their prayers for you will reach Gods ear. I also want to start a soup kitchen like they do abroad where any hungry person can come off the street and be sure of a good meal even if it is once every week, i do not know anybody in government or any wealthy person that i can meet to sponsor this, but i have you guys, my blog family. You can contact me with 08053658026 or send a mail to beaddazzle86@gmail.com and anyone who has the time can also join me in person to this, it is really fulfilling. Each of us has something he or she is asking God, helping those less privileged than you might hasten your miracle, thanks and God bless you. Stella please enable this oooooooo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. you have to give all your details I.e Facebook , instagram etc. Bvns don't want to be played. you might really have a good cause here but a lot of ppl have basterdised this thing that openness need to be shown for people to put interest.

      Delete
    2. Spot on! Anon 17:13. Beaddazzel you a very good course but you have to come clean just like anon said to achieve a faster result here.

      Good luck.

      Delete
  12. Never heard of that name before Strasser. #Shame

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  13. Tank u stella dat was an enlightening post which I dnt fink pple take serious cos der do not know wat it's lyk to have a dictator head of state.Buhari is not a dictator head of state.

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  14. Africa breeds more dictators than any other Continent.why is that?

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  15. Literally laughed out loud at that Cyprus event. So much craze for power at such a young age...SMH

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  16. @anonymous...... yeah, i thought as much, people has become sooooo jaded because of one bad experience or the other that they usually lump the good with the bad. But i am not really comfortable with putting my facebook i.d on a social platform. But please, anyone that is really willing to help can ask for any means of verification he or she wants. Remember your help must not be financial or material, you can also help by giving your time, or even by making your vehicle available to transport these things to where they are needed, you can donate food coolers, plates( make it the plastic kind cos it's more durable), spoons and food stuffs for the soup kitchen, i plan to start at dutse market(so anyone that makes a donation can come and see for his or herself) and hopefully it will spread to other areas. The clothing will be taken to the poorer parts of the city and shared there and the skill acquisition will also benefit these areas too. I know this might look like a big dream, but sometimes it only takes 1 or 10 or a 100 to make anything possible. Thanks and God bless.

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  17. Sorry Ruben Abati, I already accused you of this article, seems you have a wannabe.

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  18. Sorry Ruben Abati, I already accused you of this article, seems you have a wannabe.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Why was he not prosecuted?

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  20. What a name for this power crazy fella!

    I'm even surprised he's alive.
    Usually, people like him get their lives snuffed out by someone with an old grudge.

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  21. Valentine Strasser , he served in ECOMOG in Liberia , he banged my ex-girl friend, na God catch am .

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  22. African must wake. The sleeping sons of Jacob.

    ReplyDelete

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