Sierra Leone Telegraph: 10 June 2025:
Speaking yesterday Monday in Nice, France, at the 2025 High-level UN Ocean Conference, President Bio deliberately oblivious to the emergency he left behind in Freetown, said that he joined global leaders to advocate for urgent action to protect the oceans and marine resources while advancing SDG 14.
“I announced three bold national commitments: expanding marine protected areas, restoring mangrove forests, and reducing plastic pollution,” he declared, whiles the people of the capital of Sierra Leone – Freetown brace themselves for a shocking blackout that awaits the city, starting this Thursday, if the government does not come up with the $50 million unpaid electricity bills it owes the Turkish electricity provider – Karpowership.
Freetown, indeed, the whole of Sierra Leone is no stranger to intermittent electricity power cuts.
Since the 1970s, successive governments have failed not only to prioritise the supply of electricity across the capital but shown acute incompetence, indifference and bad governance, driven largely by corruption.
Monies meant for paying electricity providers are siphoned into the personal bank accounts of those in power, while sick babies die in hospital due to blackouts.
Dr Kandeh Yumkella, the government’s spokesman – cum presidential aspirant, confirmed on national television yesterday, that the government had received a disconnection notice from Karpowership on May 28; and that talks with the company to extend supplies for another year had collapsed.
The company said it will switch off most of its power supply to the city at midnight on June 12 but will continue to maintain six megawatts of electricity to support hospitals and other essential services.
Yumkella said that all measures are being taken by his government to mitigate the risks of the all-out black out that will hit Freetown in two days.
Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, said she is “very concerned about the impact the power cuts will have on Freetown’s families & businesses. Keeping the lights and lifts on at City Hall will require 1500 litres of fuel at NLe41,100 a day – money that should have gone towards delivering services to Freetonians.”
One commentator on social media said that “the only load we should be shedding is Julius Maada Bio”.
Few in the country will disagree. Maada Bio has been an absolute failure and a disgrace to democratic governance.
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