By Hoccas Siwel
Sierra Leone is a country lost in analysis. From the earliest levels of our education odyssey, we are required to memorize and regurgitate information without any concern or care for how to apply such knowledge. And just as anything out of sight, when that knowledge becomes dust on a shelf in the further recesses of our minds, we forget them.
For a people that’s big on facts, ask the average Sierra Leonean about the country’s perennial problems, even an omolankay puller or wheelbarrow rider, a podapoda driver or apprentice, yes even the lady selling her wares on the street, and they will break it down with the accuracy and passion of a global news specialist reporter.
That said, we all know our problems. But sadly we are so caught up on analysis that we are lost in it, engaged in the intricate art of trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Case in point: electricity or power generation, storage and distribution. Since 19 Jubilee – Independence to date, lack of sustained power source has negatively impacted this country’s developmental aspirations as anything that has to do with infrastructural development IS TIED TO POWER GENERATION; but not only that, also maintaining and expanding and storing electricity.
So yesterday the president went to the provinces to launch yet another EDSA plan for power supply to the further reaches of the country. Now, how is the average man supposed to read into this? If we still can’t effectively supply Freetown, what are you doing upline?
So, I decided to talk to the very same distinguished aforementioned analysts, and you’d be surprised to know that analysis is alive and well in Freetown, “especially with the repeal of the seditious and criminal libel law.”
“No matter what government we have in place, they have not been able to sort out the issue of electricity, and we are such a small country. Remember when as children in Freetown with our very tiny population of under 500 thousand we used to holler ‘aaayyy’ when power went off and ‘yaaaayyy’ when it came back on? Well, all these decades later, we still do the same,” said Omolankay puller Musa at Abacha Street.
Musa said Sierra Leone’s developmental problem started when she decided from the onset not to cut off the apron strings that tied her to her erstwhile colonizer, the Great Britain. “They provided everything,” and who does not like free things?
“Since the then British Empire started doing almost everything for us after independence we have maintained that system of dependency for everything so much so that now even our budget is being supplemented by foreign donor agencies and organizations. Imagine, we used to be the ward of foreign national governments, now they have downgraded us to their agencies and organizations.”
For Sylvia, her analysis of Sierra Leone’s power generation marathon led to questions. “Do you think we can produce enough power for the country? What happened to how Bumbuna, the ship docking outside Kroo Bay, EDSA, the Chinese and cellphone lights, and so many other schemes that were going to change our power narrative? How about this West African power pool? I am tired of waiting,” she said.
Well, my sister, Bumbuna, karpowership, Chinese and phone lights and the numerous monetary supports we have received from all and sundry to sort out our power issues are not going to solve our power generation problem. You might as well do like they do in Liberia: forget the national grid and instead invest in a little generator or plant.
Despite all the actual and potential millions of dollars the Energy Ministry is sitting on, the number of schemes by governments to sort out our off and on power supply including all the monies spent, why are we still so energy dependent?
The answer, like all that analysis without action, is right in front of our eyes: continuity for the sake of national development.
As mentioned earlier, electricity is the common denominator of all our infrastructural ambitions. For you to run a port/quay, you need power; for you to run construct a bridge/school/office/housing space, you need power; to set up and maintain a telecommunications setup, you need power. There are very few things required for the life of a modern nation state where electricity is not needed.
Analysts that we are, we all know what goes on at EDSA. No need to court a lawsuit here, but we know about the alleged diversion of billions Leones into employees’ instead of the national coffer, the connection issues and the like; don’t want to mention EDSA house. The Ministry of Energy needs serious help. How can they qualify all the budgetary allocations over the years and there not be an end in sight to our blackout issues?
As a country Sierra Leone is materially endowed to generate its own power and supply the entire country. We can even generate enough to sell to neighbouring countries. But why aren’t we?
You see in the game of musical chairs our ruling parties have come to play with our national funds and our complicit inactivity to query and hold our leaders accountable have made everything in the public space good for the taking. A friend once suggested that the police don’t not solve all problems because if all criminals were behind bars, what would the police do? Now, this is the thinking, he said, in severely backward countries. Are we such?
With the amount of money pumped into the power sector over the past 59 years including from our gracious former pillagers turned advisers, why can’t we once and for all deal with this? Answer: there are millions of dollars made in a country where giving an account is not a common practice.
“So den dey thief the money?” asked Sylvia. My sister, read between the lines.
While the country is failing to attract investors because who would want to spend unnecessary millions of dollars running power plants to exploit the full potential of their investment, we are still trying to keep one section of town connected in our perennial load-shedding stunts. ArcelorMittal in Liberia, London Mining and most of the mining, telecoms and other businesses pulling out of Africa have a huge energy bill as one of the pressing issues standing in the way of profit.
So, the Ministry of Energy should stop playing games and see the critical role it plays in not only power generation, but yes attracting direct foreign investment for that all important foreign currency to do business with. Do the work. Posterity will praise you. You will be a hero. The nation will thank you.
This call for a synergy of all the factors responsible for our lack: we need to produce the students that will do the work; procure the necessary equipment; make a final commitment as a people that regardless of the government in place, certain developmental aspects should be maintained (continuity); and guarantee us light at the end of the tunnel.