He is considered the founder of the modern ruling house of the Massaquoi and the kingdom of the Gallinas (1814), which was the only one in Africa to have a crown designed after the European model.

[4] From 1931 to 1946, Stevens worked on the construction of the Sierra Leone Development Company (DELCO) railway, linking the Port of Pepel with the iron ore mines at Marampa.

When the talks concluded, however, he was the only delegate who refused to sign the agreement on the grounds that there had been a secret defence pact between Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom.

Another point of contention was the Sierra Leonean government's position that there would be no elections held before independence, which would effectively shut him out of the political process.

After successfully exploiting the disenchantment of northern and eastern ethnic groups with the SLPP, along with the creation of an alliance with the Sierra Leone Progressive Independence Movement (SLPIM), He was one of the 8TH member's of the APC after it was formed on 20 March 1960.

The All People's Congress (APC) was formed at 5 Elba Street, Freetown, and it consisted of the late Alhaji Chief Mucktarru Kallay, the party's first chairman and Leader and who gave the name and the symbol.

Kamara-Taylor, First Secretary General, Alhaji Sheik Gibril Sesay, Treasurer, Kawusu Konte, Organiser, S. A. T. Koroma, Public Relations, Kotor AbuBakarr Sam Bangura, The Artist who drew the Symbol, were the first seventh and later added six to thirteen members.

In elections held on 17 March 1967, the APC won by an extremely narrow margin, and Stevens was appointed prime minister, but he was arrested only half an hour after taking office during a military coup led by Brigadier David Lansana.

Due to the complex process of ending the monarchy, Chief Justice Christopher Okoro Cole became interim governor general in late March.

[6] Throughout the remainder of the 1970s, Stevens continued to consolidate his power, which culminated in a 1978 referendum on a new constitution that would create a one-party state with the APC as the only legally permitted party.

On 12 June, 97.1% of voters were reported to have voted for the new one-party constitution, an implausibly high total that could have only been obtained by massive fraud.

[9] President Stevens served as Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) from 1 July 1980 to 24 June 1981, and engineered the creation of the Mano River Union, a three country economic federation of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

The Internal Security Unit, a gang of unemployed urban youths amply supplied with drugs, was deployed as Stevens' personal death squad.

[11] Among his close associates sent to the gallows were John Amadu Bangura, who had once plucked Stevens from political oblivion when the army obliterated civilian politics after the 1967 Huha elections; at that time, Stevens had been down and out, living in exile in Conakry, Guinea, with his main remaining option, a planned assault on the sovereignty of Sierra Leone and her citizens.

Although he had retired by the time of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1991, the impact of his political, social, and economic policies directly contributed to that conflict.

Stevens stated that Spain had no legitimate claim to Gibraltar and he had Sierra Leone's delegation to the United Nations vote accordingly.

Despite forming ties with communist nations that were opposed to NATO and the west, Stevens said that outside of Africa, the United Kingdom would remain Sierra Leone's best and truest friend.

He outlined "football, rugby, cricket, boxing, trial by jury, habeas corpus and parliamentary democracy" as all being things Sierra Leone inherited from Britain that he was fond of.

[16] Partly due to Stevens' authoritarian excesses, Sierra Leone's current constitution limits the president to two five-year terms, even if they are nonsuccessive.