H.E. President Bio completed his primary, secondary and undergraduate education in Sierra Leone. Always driven by a passion to serve his country, H.E. President Bio started his illustrious public service journey as a school teacher before joining the Sierra Leone Army where he rose through the ranks as Brigadier. He previously served as Chief Secretary of State, Chief of Defense Staff, Minister of Information, Minister of Marine Resources, Deputy Head of State, and ultimately as Head of State of Sierra Leone from January to March 1996.
As Head of State, President Bio presided over the conduct of the first democratic elections in Sierra Leone in nearly three decades. In Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Wonie Bio is popularly referred to as the “Father of Democracy” because of his outstanding contribution towards the restoration of democracy and attainment of peace in Sierra Leone.
President Bio is a well-known Philanthropist and Humanitarian through the work of the Maada and Fatima Bio Foundation. The Foundation donated food and other items to victims and families affected by the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and during the environmental disasters of 2015.
Most recently, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bradford, United Kingdom, pursuing a doctorate programme in Peace Studies.
H.E. President Bio credits his mother, Mamie Amie, as the person from whom he acquired all his driving principles in life – calmness, hard worker, and a staunch believer in God.
Bio Family
President Bio is married to the beautiful First Lady Fatima Maada Bio.
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 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 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.
Education is the leveller, hence I've made it my mission to provide free quality education to every child in Sierra Leone during the last 5 years.
Early Life
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.