Following the rise to power of Siaka Stevens, Momoh was appointed force commander in 1971, promoted to major-general in 1983, and became the secretary general of the country's sole legal party, the All People's Congress in 1985.

In 1991, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group incited the Sierra Leone Civil War with the goal of overthrowing him.

Despite this, he was overthrown in a coup d'état the following year led by Valentine Strasser, who cited his government's unpaid salaries and poor logistical supply to frontline soldiers fighting against the RUF as motives.

Joseph Saidu Momoh was born on January 26, 1937, in Binkolo, Bombali District in the Northern Province of British Sierra Leone to Limba parents.

[1] He was appointed deputy force commander in 1971 by President Siaka Stevens, after a coup attempt by Brigadier John Amadu Bangura.

Momoh declared a state of economic emergency early in his rule, granting himself greater control over Sierra Leone's economy, but he was not regarded as a dictator.

Instead, his people viewed him as far too weak and inattentive to the affairs of state, allowing his notoriously corrupt advisors to manipulate matters behind the scenes.

Sierra Leone reached the point under President Momoh where it could not afford to import gasoline and fuel oil, and the country went without electricity for months at a time.

Momoh took huge strides to root out graft, cronyism, embezzlement, influence peddling and extortion from within Sierra Leone's government.

[2] On 23 March 1987, police reported that a group of conspirators was plotting to assassinate Momoh and stage a coup d'état after they raided a house in Freetown and discovered a cache of weapons, including rocket launchers.

[3] James Bambay Kamara, the Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police, gave the order to arrest First Vice President Francis Minah, G.M.T.

[4] A team of international oberservers from Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Algeria and South Korea all concurred that the trial was justified, and was not politically motivated.

[4] Under Momoh's leadership, Sierra Leone joined the coalition of nations that opposed Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kuwait.

[6] SCIPA bought its way into Momoh's favor by providing the government with loans and enabling Sierra Leone to enter into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

[6] In September 1991, after the start of the Sierra Leone Civil War, Momoh ushered in a new constitution which dismantled the one-party state established in 1978 and instituted multiparty democracy.