This is a solemn and deserving tribute to a friend and brother the late Major-General Robert Yirah Koroma who passed away on the 7th January, 2020.
The late Major-General RY, as he was popularly known, was indeed one of the best Chief of Defense Staffs (CDS) the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) has had when it comes to timely responsible decision-taking. He was an officer and a gentleman in every respect.
Trained in Egypt at that nation’s military academy from 1977 to 1979, Yirah and other 29 young men returned to Sierra Leone with the ranks of Second Lieutenants, and we met at the then Benguema Training Center ( BTC) where they were sent for orientation training having being trained in an Arab Military School.
Coincidentally, I and six other officers were just withdrawn from the Ghana Military Academy by late President Siaka Probyn Stevens following the country’s June 4, 1979 political upheaval which brought in the young Air Force officer, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings (J.J Rawlings) as the new Military Head of State.
President Stevens had asked J.J. Rawlings to spare the lives of his former Heads of State friends- Generals A.A. Afrifa, I.K. Achenpong and Fred Akufu, but he turned down request and went ahead with their executions together with 5 other Military Generals. President Stevens had therefore reacted by withdrawing us from the Ghana training Academy,
Immediately after our training and the orientation training of RY and his colleagues, we were posted to 2RSLR at Teko Barracks in Makeni under the command of Colonel AO Kamara, our first Regimental Commander.
I, RY and SO Williams became close friends. RY was later posted to Army Engineer Unit in Kono District, but we still maintained our close friendships. He (RY) would invite me to meet him in Kono where his new Unit was engaged in roads construction. Later, we were deployed in Monrovia in the Republic of Liberia as part of the West African Peace Mission under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), the peace enforcement mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Indeed, RY was a brilliant, brave and successful commander RY was also a good trainer of personnel. When the Corporal Foday Sankoh Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels backed by the Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebels pushed the then poorly equipped Sierra Leone Army (SLA), so many commissioned officers fled the country for fear of their lives, there were acute shortages of officers to lead the men in the forward positions.
RY was withdrawn from the ECOMOG-Liberia operations, and appointed the training officer to quickly train the 1991 Officer Cadet intakes, three of which subsequently became 3-Star Generals and these include, Brima Sesay, Sullay Sesay and Peter Lavahun and later became Chief of Defense Staffs of the RSLAF at different periods.
When NPRC took power in 1992, RY, SO and I, were appointed Supreme Council Members of the Captain VEM Strasser led Government even though we were not involved in the planning and execution of the coup.
After the NPRC rule, President Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabbah’s led SLPP Government recalled some of us including RY, and he was appointed the Joint Force Commander, and President Ernest Bai Koroma on becoming President in 2007, retained both Major General Sam Mboma and Brigadier General RY Koroma as CDS and Joint Forces Commander respectively.
President Koroma actually wanted to appoint RY as his CDS, perhaps as a result of their Magburaka Boys School relationship; but President Koroma faced some stiff opposition from some senior party members, who apparently had predicated their opposition to what they perceived as betrayal by the late Major General MS Tarawallie of the APC at a time he was needed most.
General Tarawallie was President General Joseph Saidu Momoh’s appointed Force Commander for seven years, and he was sent by President Momoh to buy arms and ammunition when the young officers came down to Freetown to remove his government from power. General Tarawallie never returned from his assignment but chose to stay in United Kingdom throughout the NPRC’s four years rule.
When he returned to Sierra Leone in 1996, the then Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Lawyer Solomon Ekuma Berewa asked General Tarawallie to refund the money he was given to buy the said arms and ammunitions or all his properties in Freetown would be confiscated or he joins ranks with the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). The General decided to officially join the SLPP in order to remain with his assets. So because RY was considered a Kuranko-brother to Major-General Tarawallie, the hardcore APC members rejected him, but President Koroma also rejected their own candidate in the person of Brigadier- General MA Sesay, probably as a result of those behind General MA Sesay’s nomination that included, the late Lawyer Serry Kamal and Lawyer Eddie Turay.
But former President Koroma being a strategist in his own right, decided to appoint Brigadier General Nelson Williams who was Major-General Sam Mboma’s Deputy as the new CDS, and appointed RY as the new Deputy CDS.
Within a year, President Koroma removed Nelson Williams and appointed RY as his new CDS. But unfortunately, as fate may have it, RY fell ill in office, and couldn’t make it up till he passed away on 7th January, 2020. Make no mistake about it; RY was a gallant, competent, brilliant, charismatic, committed, responsible and disciplined Military Commander who would have repositioned RSLAF for a better command and control, and ensured national security had he lived through his tenure. But as it is said, it is well with his soul. He served his country well and I am certain, he also served humanity compassionately. Continue to Rest in Power and in Perfect Eternal Peace my dear friend and brother.