…What other Lies can Paopa Tell?
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
The chronic electricity crisis in Sierra Leone under the Julius Maada Bio-led ‘New Direction’ and ‘Paopa’ Government has left the citizens in worries over when an end to the unwanted situation would occur.
President Bio’s maiden Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, who served throughout the Paopa government’s first tenure and a year or more into its second term, was suddenly sacked without advancing any reason(s), though some rumours suggested he resigned as a result of apparent betrayal by others within the government.
In a bid to restore sanity to the sector, therefore, the President himself had to quickly assume direct control of the ministry as its minister.
The ‘New Direction’ government with its attendant catchphrase “Paopa Salone for Betteh” came with a vow of transforming Sierra Leone for the betterment of citizens. Prior to taking over the seat of power in 2018, Sierra Leone’s capital city was relatively enjoying uninterrupted electricity supply of at least 18 hours a day.
However, despite moves and efforts to fulfil the vow of changing Sierra Leonean things for the better, the energy sector remains a clear failure for the Bio Government, as the country remains pitched in electricity challenges more than any other time.
Electricity is essential for communication, computation, and medical equipment. It powers homes, businesses, hospitals and schools and communication services, making it very vital to making life modern. Electricity is also a clean, renewable energy source that can reduce environmental damage.
Notably, incessant blackouts inhibit investment and foils touristic attraction. Manufacturers grapple with high production costs by using fuel to generate power from their private plants, with the consequence later shifted on the poor consumers. So, massive failure in the energy sector badly affects businesses, and thus exacerbates the plight of penury-stricken Sierra Leoneans.
As we go to press, residents in the nooks and crannies of the country’s capital city, Freetown, are in the lowest spirit over the endemic lack of electricity supply in their various communities, now worrying that their city is reverting to its onetime classification as the world’s darkest city.
What is more, however, other than rolling up sleeves and doubling efforts towards putting mechanisms in place how to find and harness usable energy, store electricity in a convenient way, and how to apply strategies towards meeting people’s electricity need, energy sector authorities continue to advance one excuse after another, and one promise after the other without fulfilment.
If it was not an excuse of unfortunate challenges along the energy supply chain for the endemic outage, it would be the non-payment of debts owed the Karpowership, and other flimsy ones! And even as they had repeatedly assured Sierra Leoneans of utilizing all available resources to nip the situation in its bud, and meet the electricity need of valued customers, it has remained like throwing water on a duck’s back! This conventional trend remains a shameful reputational stain on Bio’s government, coming from the blatant failure to adequately bankroll the energy sector.
Meanwhile, consumers have been aggravated on the basis that they continue to pay for a service not fully rendered, accusing the concerned authorities in the sector of ineptitude, lack of the masses’ interest, and corruption to fill up their individual pockets.
They believe that almost seven years in governance, the Paopa government should be in place to make more improvements on the fairly stable energy sector they inherited, instead of dwelling in persistent plays of deception!