The Inevitability of Gradualness!
I have returned to the above headline in view of all that continues to be said and written about Bumbuna after its recent commissioning. To begin with I must salute the APC government and the President that Bumbuna has at last come on line which is in conformity with the President’s election pledge to provide energy within a stipulated time. But I particularly appreciate the candour with which the Minister of Energy and Water Resources answered the question from UN radio’s anchor man Reginald Strasser-King, that the project was contributing only one mega watt to the grid. Readers may recall that shortly after his Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma’s public declaration on the BBC network that he had commissioned Bumbuna and that the people of Freetown were now receiving “clean and affordable electricity,” Consumers continued to complain that the electricity supply was more erratic than ever before. In the first place I still do not understand what the expression “clean” means as applied to electricity and trust that Sheikitmus Saffa or I B would enlighten the uninitiated like me as to the meaning of the expression. Mind you my limited Higher School Certificate knowledge of Physics and electricity is still with me and could be brushed up any moment on demand. As to the electricity being affordable as I said last Monday, that I will to my co-consumers to judge for themselves.
I had three days of uninterrupted power beginning last Friday lasting until about 9 o’clock on Monday evening. Fortunately I still had some reserve fuel in my Kabbah Tiger; with that I carried on my evening activities until the usual 11 pm. This has been followed by the disturbing news first on SLBS radio that two contractors had been electrocuted while on demolishing exercise of structures along the high tension cable lines. Then Tuesday’s newspapers carried front page headlines about the World Bank’s concern over the disbursement of the 12.5 million United States dollars meant to be compensation for the people whose structures were to be demolished. Readers would recall that an expert who had been engaged on the Bumbuna project was reported in some newspapers recently advising the government not to be tempted into rushing to commission the project. He said that while the project was completed in principle, there were still matters to be tidied up in order to prevent any future problems. He added that it was up to the government to make its deadlines a priority rather than the complete safety of the dam. Well, Bumbuna is after all only being tested instead of the continuous flow of affordable electricity which his Excellency had assured us his citizens. Secondly we are having these disturbing accidents like electrocution which has necessitated closing down the power supply until that and all other matters have been attended to. What was the reason for the mad rush to commission the project when all those problems still had to be addressed? Now we must wait, for how long I would rather wait to hear from the Professor rather than from the President’s spin team.
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