Julius Maada Bio

Julius Maada Wonie Bio (born 12 May 1964) is a Sierra Leonean politician, and the current president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018.

Julius Maada Wonie Bio was born on 12 May 1964, in Tihun, a village in the Sogbini Chiefdom, Bonthe District in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone.

Bio was born three years after Sierra Leone's Independence during the administration of then Sierra Leone Prime Minister Sir Albert Margai of the SLPP.

Bio is the 33 of 35 children born to Sherbro Paramount Chief Charlie Bio II of Sogbini Chiefdom.

Bio's father had nine wives.

Bio is named after his paternal grandfather Julius Maada Wonie Bio, who was also a Sherbro paramount chief of Sogbini Chiefdom.

Bio is an ethnic Sherbro, and a practicing Roman Catholic.

Bio began his primary education at the Roman Catholic Primary School in Tihun, Bonthe District.

After finishing his early years in primary school, Bio was sent to the town of Pujehun to live with his older sister Agnes, who was a primary school teacher in Pujehun.

Bio completed his primary education at the Holy Family Primary School in Pujehun.

After his primary education, Bio's older sister, Agnes, enrolled him at the Bo Government Secondary School in Bo (commonly known as Bo School), a prominent boarding school.

Bio spent seven years at Bo School, rising to become school prefect.

Bio graduated from Bo School in 1984 with A-level at age 20.

After graduating from secondary school, Bio applied for admission into Fourah Bay College in Freetown in 1985 at age 21.

However, Bio ultimately enrolled in the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces military academy at Benguema, just outside the capital city of Freetown.

He trained as a cadet officer under the command of Major Fallah Sewa, the head of cadet training at the military academy.

Bio graduated from the Military academy as a Second Lieutenant in the Sierra Leone Army in October 1987 at age 23.

His first post as a commissioned officer was at the Lungi Garrison in Port Loko District in 1987.

Bio was later posted to Kambia District as part of the Economic Emergency Unit, created by President Joseph Saidu Momoh to combat smuggling and other crimes along the Guinean border.

In 1988, Bio was again re-posted at Lungi and trained by United Nations forces in aviation security.

After the training, Bio was transferred to Benguema as a platoon commander.

In 1990, the Sierra Leone Government contributed military personnel to the West African Peacekeeping Force, ECOMOG, which was mandated to keep the peace in the Liberian civil war.

Bio and several other Sierra Leonean soldiers, including Captain Valentine Strasser, and Lt Solomon Musa were deployed to Liberia as part of Sierra Leone's contingent to ECOMOG.

At the time, thousands of Liberians were fleeing to Sierra Leone weekly, exposing the country's fragile security and adding to the economic hardship.

After a year in Liberia as an ECOMOG soldier, the Sierra Leone Government ordered Bio and several members of Sierra Leonean soldiers serving in Liberia to immediately return to Sierra Leone and report to the army barracks in Daru, Kailahun District to populate newly formed 600 man battalion of soldiers set up by President Momoh to repel the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels who had attacked villages on the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia, in March 1991.

The soldiers included future NPRC members Lieutenant Solomon Musa, Captain Valentine Strasser, Lieutenant Sahr Sandy, and Lieutenant Tom Nyuma.

He is a retired brigadier in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of state of Sierra Leone from 16 January 1996 to 29 March 1996, in a military junta government known as the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).

As military head of state, Bio returned Sierra Leone to a democratically elected government, when he handed power to Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone People's Party, following Kabbah's victory in the 1996 Sierra Leonean presidential election.

Upon retiring from the military in 1996, Bio moved to the United States, where he was granted political asylum, and he did not visit Sierra Leone from the U.S. until 2005.

Bio was the SLPP presidential candidate in the 2012 presidential election, but he received 37% of the vote as he was defeated by the incumbent President Ernest Bai Koroma who won 58% of the votes.

As the candidate of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the ruling All People's Congress (APC) in the runoff vote of the 2018 Sierra Leonean presidential election with 51.8% of the votes to Kamara's 48.2%.

International and local observers declared the election free and fair.

He succeeded Ernest Bai Koroma as president.

As the main opposition leader, Bio was a critic of his predecessor president Ernest Bai Koroma and his administration.

As president, Bio has overturned most of the policies of Koroma, whom he accuses of corruption and mismanagement of the country's treasury, and the two men very rarely speak to each other.

A couple of senior government officials under former president Koroma have been arrested by the Sierra Leone Police and indicted by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Justice under president Bio on corruption related charges, including former Finance Minister and 2018 APC presidential candidate Samura Kamara, who lost the 2018 presidential election to Bio.

Bio's presidential actions included legislation for gender equality and to combat sexual violence.

His government's handling of the economy was the target of a violent protest in August 2022.

Bio has a master's degree in international affairs from American University in Washington, D.C. Bio is also a Cadet graduate from Sierra Leone's Benguema Military Academy.

Bio is a practicing Roman Catholic Christian, though his wife, Fatima Bio, is a practicing Muslim.