Sam Mamie Section off main Ngallu Road in the southern city of Bo has gone for days without electricity. Other communities in Bo town also succumb to the same fate.
Darkness is almost everywhere in the nation’s second capital. It was a Sunday afternoon; this press could not reach EDSA (Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority) staff in Bo city for an interview.
But few residents spoke to this press, and the problem they share is common and the impact almost the same. One of the house owners in the community, Fanta Saccoh is troubled by the perennial power outages in the city.
Madam Saccoh, a single parent, relies greatly on the power supply to power her electrical appliances especially her freezer. In most homes like Madam Saccoh’s, income generated form freezers goes a long way to supplement family finances.
Out of the money she derives from the sale of cold drinks and other dairy products, she solves numerous domestic problems.
But, with the absence of light, talk of supplementary income is farcical. The absence of light has relegated a once bright city to a dark one, a situation that has generated mixed feelings.
A commercial motorist confirms that the energy supplier, EDSA (Electricity Distribution and Supply Agency) deeply undermines President Bio’s government in that part of the country.
“The Electricity Distribution and Supply Agency deliberately destroys generators meant for the supply of light in the township,” he said.
The motorist refused to divulge his personal details, but was quite emphatic of the gimmick at EDSA noting that President Bio’s move to block leakages landed him into trouble. He also did not hesitate to state that when EDSA officials were freely left on their own, light was a bit stable in the town.
“But, now that they have been stopped from indulging into petty corruption, you see many problems in the energy sector,” he stressed.
However, EDSA’s Public Relations Officer, Sahr Nepor holds a contrary view.
Nepor told this press, in an exclusive interview that there was no power outage in Bo for days.
“Even if there is a power outage, it would not last for days,” he defends.
He shifted the blame to the consumers of energy who he said they could probably not afford the cost.
“The blackout in Bo is caused either because consumers do not buy EDSA top-up cards or connected to the light system,” he said.
In a recent interview, The EDSA PRO could not state the exact megawatts this government inherited from its predecessor, but he was satisfied that there would be always light.
But, Hassan Umaru, a Café owner and operator in Bo town does not agree with the EDSA PRO. He says the light situation is nothing to write home about.
“Imagine where light goes off for three days or more; in such situation, you hardly talk about good business,” he said.
It is undeniable that café operation is highly contingent on energy.
The café, he says, stalls when light goes off especially when the generator also is not in good working order. Hassan struggles with a generator that is badly in need of repairs years after it has fallen into disrepairs.
He also told this press that he, most often, fall back on the old generator when light goes off.
“As usual, light has always been a big problem in Bo town for a very long time,” he said.
Hassan could not realise much in his businesses owing to persistent power outages. Abdulai Sow is another resident in Bo town who is very unsatisfied with the light situation there.
Sow saw no bright future for the light situation in the southern city.
“First and foremost, government must always work hard to fix the problem of transformers, but convincing the people of a regular supply of light,” he said.
Pointing at a transformer on an electric pole on Sewa Road in Bo, Sow told this press that the transformer has burnt down several times. He said much effort had been made to fix the problem, but it still remained.
Sow who appears very emotional about the poor energy supply made reference to a promise made by President Julius Maada Bio in the 2018 presidential election.
Sow recounted that when President Bio was campaigning during the election, one of his key promises he made to the people of Bo city was to provide electricity within the shortest period.
“Within December of 2018, light situation would be fixed in Bo town,” Sow quoted President Julius Maada Bio.
He said government’s failure to fix the transformer problems meant they could not stabilise the light situation in Bo city. As energy problem becomes constantly insurmountable in Bo, Sow compares Bo city to that of Makeni.
“When I visited Makeni, there was enough energy supply while Bo from where government emanates is zero,” he said.
President Bio’s failure to attend the convocation ceremony has been linked to the failure to actualise the promises he made to the people of Bo city. One of the key promises was to fix the light problem in the city.
Few months back, Minister of Energy and Power, Kanja Sesay, a son of the soil was accused of incompetence by residents in Bo city.
Since he took over the Ministry, one of the residents said, the energy situation had always been appalling. Minister Kanja Sesay also battles with the allegation of partiality in the supply of energy in Bo city.
Most residents have intimated this press that since the Minister grew up at New Site Section, that community almost always gets light at the expense of other communities.
Others who spoke to this press seem positive, and their hopes for a brighter future run high.
They are highly hopeful that the light situation would be normalised as Sierra Leone and other MRU (Mano River Union) countries work towards a viable energy project.
Energy projects and contracts are on-going but the light situation still remains a problem. It has been widely argued that the current government has not capitalised on the over 200 megawatts they inherited from the past government.
The energy situation in Bo city is still bad, but EDSA buries its head in the sand and pretends that all is well when all is not well.