…Over $1Billion Gone Pheeew
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
From 2018 to date, collosal sums of money amounting to over a billion dollar is said to have so far been pumped into the energy sector in a bid to actualise reliable electricity supply in Sierra Leone.
The said money was meant to increase electricity generation, enhance the existing thermal plants, rebuild and enhance the existing distribution networks, all aimed at improving Sierra Leone’s energy sector for national development and inevitable human growth.
Despite all of the gigantic amount of money to improve the sector, it has proved to be like throwing water on a duck’s back, as egregious failures still overwhelm the sector, thus pitching the capital city now in perpetual blackout.
It should be noted that the failures in the electricity sector have reared ugly heads ahead of this time, enough to have prompted self-styled saviours to join the bandwagon. But even as it became gradually clear that the Turkish Karpowership could not serve the electricity demand of Freetonians as a result of the government’s lack of resources to regularly honour debts timely, the situation could not be treated with the seriousness it deserved.
For official ineptitude and corruption were widely rumoured to have taken the better part of the energy sector institutions, no swift action was taken to nip the anomaly in its bud even though Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY), who has now emerged as the Energy Colossus to provide solution to the crisis, was at the helm. How he has suddenly come to the fore with a zeal feigning to save the situation remains the question.
For many citizens, especially disgruntled NGC followers, KKY bears a sugar-coated tongue that makes him an artiste of deception, and he should not be entirely trusted as any man to save the country from its electricity dilemma.
The citizens say KKY was now the Chairman of the country’s highest energy institution, but was sleeping in inertia while the Bio government was being torn apart by sectoral challenges. Even when the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, the other day, raised serious alarms about the glaring mismanagement of the electricity sector resulting in huge loss of income at EDSA, KKY was blind, deaf and dumb, appearing to not witness the era on planet earth, and, therefore, not in the know.
Meanwhile, many Sierra Leoneans fear KYY could be chewing more than what he could swallow – a talker than a performer – evident in his disappointing attitude with his NGC party members, supporters and sympathisers.
“Such a man Sierra Leoneans must not trust, for he would promise them heaven, but end throwing them in hell,” a disgruntled NGC member warned, adding, “KKY thinks he kisses the blarney stone, and can carry away everybody every coming time, oblivious of the fact that we now know that the glitters about him are not all gold.”