May 25, 2021
Albert Baron Ansu
The cruciality of electricity to a modern state cannot be under-stated. The domestic essence of power in homes, not to talk of the turning of the production wheels of institutions and companies are critical for human development and security. Little wonder it has in our context become the barometer to grade a government on its service delivery to the citizenry.
We have to be upfront about the conversation that the proven electricity outage must be elevated to a national security issue. In effect we stand with the Minister Alhaji Kanja Sesay that those saboteurs on the prowl destroying power generation and transitions wherewithal must be treated as enemies of state.
It is not strange to us that energy and power had always been used as a political capital building factor. The seat has always been a hot seat. In the crass nature of some political bigots, any effort directed at improving power generation and distribution is bound to arouse ill-motivated response from elements of the other side.
The SLPP has put forth uncontested figures of elevating the megawatts from a low level to considerable height. This truth cannot be contested. What this means is that many areas hitherto unserved have been brought on the power grid and are now accessing light, however fluctuating it may be.
The critics trumpeting issues with the state of the power generation and distribution characterized by load shedding must not be celebrating the state of affair but should rather be supporting the government in responding to the national crisis. For the state of the power had not been any better off.
Here the President on this: We now generate sufficient electricity in Freetown. But we inherited a defective and decadent transmission and distribution system that is incapable of evacuating and transmitting the power that is generated. This is made worse by the deliberate vandalisation by ill-motivated citizens of transformers and installed equipment.
Those who are discrediting the state of the electricity are not honest enough to bring out the negative external effect of their ilks and partisan cronies. For ten chances to one, all those harping with glee about the bad state of electricity without referencing the underlying causes are from the opposition.
We who come to this conversation about the need to have steady flow of electricity with a free mind and patriotic spirit see the prospects that power and energy are incentives for development and national good. Even in the challenging times, those are crying out are drinking chilly cold water. Where is the source of the cold water? It is not from generators aplenty as it were. It is from the bad light as they are calling it.
The Ministry of Energy and Power under the watch of Minsiter Kanja Sesay has never been a man that settles for the mediocre. Hearing on television elevating the sabotage with Freetown power abstraction to a national security issue and as he is enjoying the support of the other security outfits including the Police, the wicked machinations of those inside and outside miscreants will be exposed and prosecuted.
President Bio was stern on this point when he said: Therefore, let me state that citizens who are engaged in such vandalisation activities will face the full force of the law.
The power may be fluctuating as opposed to perpetual blackout of the past. That should not be the reason to regress. And this government is lighting up the interior. Those who wish that the power situation will get worse off to win votes are going to be disappointed when things get better.
The President showed us a ray of hope in the horizon: With support from the World Bank, my Government is currently addressing the perennial problem of load-shedding and massive inefficiencies in power evacuation and distribution in Freetown by expanding or upgrading the 33 kV / 11 kV grid in Freetown. Distribution transformers and lines are also being installed in 33 unserved communities. A vendor supply process for electricity meters means that meters are now easily available.
This is doable; this is going to happen for all those with dark designs to benefit in the improved access to steady light. But the sustainability has a caveat: we must be willing to provide the intelligence that will make it very risky for those bent on keeping us in darkness to be tracked. It is national effort bigger than crying foul about bad light…