as a president of your own country well that was the exact circumstance that the world's youngest
president found himself in and this is his story i will make it my responsibility to ensure
that if any of my ministers or any of my officials
should want to do things contrary to the aims and objectives of this cause
then my government will leave no stone on tone in pursuing these issues
usually presidential candidates are people who are known for their performance in minor
political roles or people who are revered in the community this is not that case our young
president was only famous amongst his friends for winning a dance contest at a local nightclub
like i mentioned earlier our young president had no intentions of becoming president he probably
never even imagined ever being president because his journey towards being the head of state
happened within the span of a few hours and it occurred by mistake stop you don't get it if
all of a sudden i was to receive a revelation that tomorrow i'll be the president of ghana
i would at least prepare a speech and policies of banning ghanian angela price our young hero
had nothing he was just as surprised as everyone else permit me to start his story from here many
african countries gained their independence in the year 1960 for most african countries independence
is preceded by coups as anticipated and in many instances instigated by former colonial powers
many of these newly independent sovereign african countries will find themselves in a coup
the land of the upright man baking a faso undergoing 10 coup attempts the economic
powerhouse of africa nigeria enduring eight coup attempts in total africa has from the year 1960
endured at least 200 coups shared between 40 of its 54 countries through one of these schools
is how the world's youngest president valentine is single melvin stressor came into power and in this
video i'll be giving you a detailed account of his life before during and after his presidency and
will be interrogating the significant achievements of his tenure on the 26th of april 1967
three days after celebrating his 25th birthday valentine's dresser mistakenly became the
president of the entire country of sierra leone at 25 years old i was trying to figure out what
i would like to do with my life and on the other hand valentine's dresser is staging a political
mutiny to become the head of state of sierra leone so what exactly instigated the uprising of this
coup and how did a 25 year old boy single-handedly stage a coup by mistake at the time major general
joseph cedu momo was the incubate president of sierra leone his tenure was widely perceived as
corrupt and the reason for sierra leone's unemployment crisis he was considered weak by
many and insensitive to the daily struggles of the people now the last government sir
was accused especially the president of the last government accused of not doing anything to people
who were proved to be corrupt and fraudulently converted public funds instead they were seen
having a nice lifestyle after they had knowingly uh squandered money belonging to the state and
nothing was done to them i mean if if that happened in your administration what would
you do if you found any of your colleagues getting into that kind of thing what would you do to them
well i think that's not the question for me it's a question for the cops
someone's holding us to the side so if any of your colleagues said the government for example
went astray like this or got themselves into temptation to do these things
you would pursue them in the course precisely precisely i will not allow my government
to
be swayed into the trappings of power
i will make it my responsibility to ensure that if any of my ministers or any of my officials
should want to do things contrary to the aims and objectives of this cause
then my government will leave no stone on tone in pursuing these issues
general joseph seidu momo was considered weak by many and insensitive to the daily
struggles of the people and this instigated the rise of the revolutionary united front
also known as the ruf this was an insurgent rebel organization that provoked an 11 year
war against sierra leone and this is where valentine's stressor comes in he was a soldier
on the front lines of the war and he experienced terrible terrible conditions president momo was
so corrupt that corruption trickled down the ranks of his military and senior soldiers withheld money
food and other resources that their subordinates needed to survive and this forced many soldiers to
conduct lewden sprees there were no difference between the soldiers and the rebels that the
soldiers were supposed to be protecting the people from they were known as soldiers by day
and rebels by night this then led to the rise of another military organization known as kamager
so here's the government battling with corruption enduring a recession struggling to
maintain electricity a good health care system losing a war against the r.u.f and now kamadra
this was nothing short of a recipe for catastrophe three days after his 25th birthday
valentine's stressor led a coup alongside six other young soldiers to overthrow the
current president joseph seidu momo on the 29th of april 1992 and everything went according to plan
i lied nothing was according to plan in fact there was no plan valentine wasn't ready to be
president neither did he have the aspirations to be president he just wanted to protest his
living conditions as well as that of his friends at the front lines of war his protest within a
day was transformed into a successfully unplanned coup of all the other soldiers who were present
stressor was chosen to be president because he was the most fluent reader amongst his peers
the national provision ruling council was formed naming valentine's stressor the chairman
a lot of people i've met delighted with the coming of a new government they're hopeful that things
will change there have been demonstrations in the streets so you've seen them you've attended some
of them a lot of people seem very pleased but a lot of them are worried because they have the fear
that we've had an apc government on two occasions which started well and that went astray
they worry and fear about that sort of thing happening to you and your government
what can you say well i would want to assure them that
they must not encourage such fears
we have done this in the interest of everybody and them we will not allow ourselves
to be removed from the course we will stick onto the cause and we will ensure that we are
committed to fulfilling fulfilling the desires and aspirations of our people
we are going to do all we can to maintain the objectives of this revolution
we will stare and we will endeavor to steer this country out from
and the economic mess that came with our tolerance we will do our best
the story of valentine's dresser is that of a legend while he was the incubate president
he had aspirations of restoring a democracy government he launched a cleanup campaign to
rid the streets of garbage the economy was on an upwards incline he restored the country's gas and
electricity supply and he also filled in the gap within the country's natural health care system
i apologize if i may have misled you in any way yes all of the above achievements that
i have mentioned are all accomplishments of valentine's government but this isn't
the story of a legend a 25 year old prodigy who completely transformed his country for the better
no no no this isn't that this is a random 25 year old who had no presidential aspirations
no inclinations of what tomorrow would look like for him he was a soldier on the front lines of war
skeptical if he will make it to the next day so what did you expect his cabinet consisted
of 20 to 26 year old soldiers trolling the smell of marijuana he randomly promoted his friends to
the military ranks causing chaos and tension within the hierarchy junior soldiers now all
of a sudden giving orders to their seniors at some point he wanted to change the country's
national anthem to mcfadden and whiteheads ain't no stopping us now he made bob marley's birthday
as well as valentine's day a national holiday he turned the presidential residence into a nightclub
several illegal activities were conducted in the presidential villa including selling
fake passports the national provision ruling council was then accurate named by the people
not picking wrong country for those who are not familiar with west african
broken english that translates it is the children that are running the country
they live feverishly going on state-sponsored trips buying houses and luxury cars nightclubs
every night beautiful woman everywhere sports cars inattentively dashing through the streets
and it seemed as though our young leader had forgotten that there was an independent war that
he was engaged in prior to becoming president and everything changed when the ruf attacked and only
valentine's stressor the commander-in-chief could stop them and when sir leon needed him the most
he vanished rumor has it that he spiraled into depression abusing cocaine and alcohol
he was subsequently overthrown by the second in command who literally held a gun to his head
he was exiled out of the country so what happens next what do you do
when you're the youngest president in the world and now you're exiled by your country leaving you
with nothing well you do what every other young president who is exiled by their country does
you go back to school young valentine went back to school to study law and a few professors refused
to teach him saying that stressor is implicated in atrocities and breaches of international
criminal law that he is guilty of human rights abuses their campaigns conducted by his fellow
classmates to kick him out of school and they were successful so what else do you do when you're the
youngest president in the world and not exiled by your country leaving you with nothing and now
you're kicked out of school well you spend the remainder of your days drinking being laughed at
by children being stoned and stabbed undergoing several assassination attempts being made fun of
aren't you supposed to be the former president valentine is subsequently kicked out of several
other countries as well he finds himself begging on the streets of senegal and later returned back
home living with his mother living off of two dollars a day when asked if he had any regrets
valentine commented not at all it was what the country needed at the time it was my
military government that was able to build the institutions that actually did build a democratic
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