One of the things you can’t take away from many cabinet ministers in the government of President Julius Maada Bio is their irresistible knack for lying with the frequency with which they breathe air.
At any given opportunity, they will lie to the nation as if Sierra Leone is a nation of sheep. And on Tuesday this week, the Deputy Minister of Finance 1, Mrs. Kadiatu Allie, and Chief Minister Dr David Moinina Sengeh doled out some propagandistic lies and half-truths which have made them to top the SLPP lying chart for this week.
Few days ago, when the Karpowership switched off electricity which left the capital, Freetown, in total darkness; Sierra Leoneans were told that the Government of Sierra Leone under the watch of President Bio owed the Turkish electricity providers about US$48. Later, after negotiations which resulted in the sudden resignation of Energy Minister Kanja Sesay, we were again told that the government had paid about US$17 million to offset a pinch of what it owed Karpowership.
But like the proverbial monkey which takes along its black palms wherever it goes; the Deputy Minister of Finance 1, Mrs. Kadiatu Allie, told journalists at the usual Tuesday press conference by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education that, “the Ministry of Finance has been making payments over the past 6 to 7 months to the tune of $36 million dollars to Karpowership”.
Now common sense dictates that if Karpowership claims that the government owes them about US$48 but the Deputy Minister of Finance 1 is claiming that the Ministry of Finance has been making payments over the past six to seven months to the tune of US$36 million dollars to Karpowership; then how come the government allegedly paid US$17 million to Karpowership when the arrears should have been US$12? As Dr Sama ‘Puawi’ Banya would have said, “it doesn’t add up”!
And to add lies to deceit, the same Kadiatu Allie tells journalists that EDSA “pays Karpowership NLe50 million [monthly] while the bill from the ship is US$5million monthly”. If this is really true, then we need to take it with a pinch of salt considering the unyieldingness of Karpowership for the Government of Sierra Leone to pay up its debts! But for the sake of “long bench” argument, if the bill from Karpowership is US$5million monthly and the government circumstantially spends about US$5million monthly in several fruitless Presidential and Ministerial oversees travels; why can’t they trim the useless travels to save enough of half that monthly bill from Karpowership?
And the Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh who appears to be now showing a Macbeth-like ambition to succeed President Bio, rounded up the half-truths when he said that Freetown now has more megawatts than ever before. But the factual fact is: Freetown which now has more megawatts than ever before is facing one of its worst blackouts than ever before in its history! In fact, the best the SLPP government has been providing to Freetown residents is what we, in The Nationalist newspaper, will refer to as “Christmas Tree Light”.
It is on that note that we, in The Nationalist newspaper, are just asking President Bio and some of his cabinet ministers to be nice to the citizens of Sierra Leone by reducing of some of their half-truths and downright lies!