Hon KKY Comments on the TRANSCO-CLSG Line 24/12/21

Congratulations to HE Bio, HE Ernest Bai Koroma and the Late HE Pa Kabba for the partial completion of the long awaited CLSG interconnection project.

The turning on of the switch for the TRANSCO-CLSG interconnection is a victory for WAPP and many donors and development finance instituitons. Finally, a two decades ECOWAS vision has been partly fulfilled.

We commend all the successive governments in the 4 countries for putting regional energy cooperation above narrow political interests, and nationalistic chauvinism.

Congratulations to our successive governments in Sierra Leone for staying the course. Our government should have used this occasion to invite EBK to this launch as a sign of gratitude for the foundation he and Pa Kabba laid. The gesture would have sent a message that government is about continuity of the good policies.

It was a missed opportunity to teach our people that transformative infrastructure projects, especially energy projects and major highways take several years to design and implement (from conceptualisation, pre-feasibility and feasibility study, engineering design, environmental and social impact assessment, financial engineering and closure etc.).

Regional projects are even more complicated because of all the ministerial and presidential negotiations that are required. So in leadership there is a time when we must go above chauvinism and narrow party interests to build national cohesion, and mobilize the people around a vision of one country, one people. We also sometimes need to show humility in leadership by giving credit to our forebears