Debunking I.B. Kargbo’s Untruths about the Goma Hydro Expansion

In his bid to continue conjuring achievements for his All People’s Congress (APC) government after 36 spectacular months of merely completing projects that had been either nearly complete or fully funded by the former Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government, Alhaji I.B. Kargbo is busy “rebranding” such infrastructural developments as expansion of the Goma hydroelectric project from 4MW to 6MW as an APC achievement. Such brazen attempts to hoodwink the people of Sierra Leone clearly do not pass muster especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. The Goma Hydroelectric claim sounds like President Koroma re-signing laws that had already been signed by SLPP President Tejan Kabbah.

THE FACTS THAT THE GOMA HYRDO EXPANSION IS AN SLPP ACHIEVEMENT are indisputable:

1. The project was conceptualized and implemented by the SLPP government of President Ahmed Tejan-Kabbah. On June 20, 2003, President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of THE SLPP ANNOUNCED IN THE HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT that the China National Electric Equipment Corporation had “made field visits and demonstrated considerable interest” in undertaking expansion work on hydroelectric facilities and also develop new ones in Kono.
2. The SLPP government’s budget reports between 2003 and 2006 foreground the commitment to expanding the “Dodo mini hydroelectric dam [. . .]  with assistance from the Government of China” and once “rehabilitated to extend electricity to towns and villages in and around Bo and Kenema.” This, obviously, is in addition to the installation and commissioning of “a 500 kilowatt generating plant with associated transmission and distribution network” in Pujehun district and additional plans “underway to install and commission a 1 megawatt generating plant to provide electricity for residents in Makeni.”
3. H. E. Mr. Cheng Wenju, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Sierra Leone, speaking at the symposium to mark the 35th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Sierra Leone on July 28, 2006 CORROBORATES THE FACT THAT THE SLPP GOVERNMENT INITIATED AND ACTUALIZED THE EXPANSION OF THE GOMA HYDROELECTRIC DAM from 4MW to 6MW. On page 13 of the transcript of his speech, he states: “Concretely speaking, China has decided to take the following steps: the first step is to accomplish the upgrading and rehabilitation of the Dodo Hydroelectric Station with good quality and no delay to make it possible to provide more electricity to the eastern and southern provinces. Now relevant equipments are under manufacturing, and other preparation work goes on well. CNEEC promises that they will guarantee to generate power by the next rainy season on condition that the government of Sierra Leone seriously carries out the contract. By then, the capacity of Dodo Hydroelectric Station will rise from 4000kw to 6000kw, which will greatly ease the severe shortage of power in the two provinces, and definitely help the development of processing industry.”
4. The China National Electric Corporation (CNEEC) which undertook the rehabilitation and expansion work to the Goma hydroelectric dam during the tenure of the SLPP government states the following on its web site – http://www.cneec.com.cn/Achievements/Achivements/Energy/Hydropower/200905/466.html “The installed capacity was 4X1MW [. . .]. In December of 2005, CNEEC took cjarge of the enhancement of this plant after which the installed capacity could be raised to 4X1.5MW. . .The enhancement was completed in July 2007. The President of Sierra Leone and the Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone appeared at the completion ceremony.”
5. Academic publications record the expansion of the Goma Hydroeletric dam as an SLPP project and achievement in collaboration with the government of China and undertaken by the CNEEC. For example, recent work by T. Alphaeus Koroma and Wang Rongcheng in the Journal of Economics and International Finance Vol 1 (7), pp 158-171 and Deborah Brautigam’s The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa by Demorah Brautigam (OUP 2010), page 144 speak about this expansion of the Goma Hydroelectric Dam under the SLPP government from 4MW to 6MW with a further funded initiative to expand it to 12MW.

The evidence is therefore indisputable. The expansion and commissioning of the CAPACITY OF THE GOMA HYDROELECTRIC DAM TOOK PLACE DURING THE TENURE OF THE SLPP GOVERNMENT.

When will the APC government and its chief spokesman therefore stop hoodwinking Sierra Leoneans by telling bold-faced untruths about the achievements of the current APC government while denigrating the tremendous achievements of the SLPP government – 1996-2007?

Dr. Patrick K. Muana

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