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KIn a recent interview with a journalist in Sierra Leone, the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Dr. Kelfala Kallon, brazenly tried to escape being held accountable for his willful damage to Sierra Leone’s economy by claiming that he, too, is a victim of his actions.
Thereby, Kallon added insult to the injury of his victims – the people of Sierra Leone who have been victimized by Kallon’s incoherent and uninformed economic policies. The most egregious of those policies is his meaningless and extremely harmful “remove 3 zeros from the Leone” redenomination, which he willfully insisted upon implementing despite being repeatedly told that only a revaluation of the Leone will reduce the escalating cost of living in Sierra Leone.
Now that Kallon’s predictably moribund redenomination has indeed produced astronomical inflation, Kallon now pretends to be surprised. Worse still, he surreptitiously seeks to escape being held accountable for his willful action in generating hyperinflation that has deepened the poverty of millions of already long-impoverished Sierra Leoneans. Let us go to the evidence:
Here is what Kallon reportedly told his interviewer: “I also want to tell the people of this country that I am gravely sorry that I am in a situation where I know we are all hurting but I can’t get rid of that hurt”.
The purpose of this article is to correct the unfortunate falsehoods attending the Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Dr. Kelfala Kallon’s statement quoted above:
Kelfala Kallon is not hurting. Only Kallon’s innocent victims – the people of Sierra Leone – are hurting. Moreover, their hurt is a direct result of Kallon’s ill-advised and inappropriate redenomination of the Leone on July 1, 2022.
It is a matter of public record that it was Mr. Kallon and his boss, Pres. Julius Bio – not their victims, the people of Sierra Leone – who redenominated the Leone. Tellingly, Kallon and Bio did so despite 11 months of my published warnings to them that they would thereby cause massive inflation and suffering for millions of Sierra Leoneans.
Therefore, it is unconscionable that Kallon would now seek to escape accountability for the damage which his willful actions have caused to the economy of Sierra Leone and the lives and livelihood of millions of Sierra Leoneans. It is especially egregious that Kallon is pretending that he did not deliberately redenominate the Leone despite being repeatedly advised that only a revaluation of the Leone would reduce the cost of living in Sierra Leone.
It is indeed true, as Bank Governor Kelfala Kallon reportedly confessed, that he could not know how to reduce the cost of living in Sierra Leone – but I clearly showed him how he could do it.
Specifically, I respectfully showed Dr. Kallon how to revalue Leone – and also why a mere redenomination could never reduce the cost of living in Sierra Leone. See, “Why a Revaluation – not a Redenomination – is What Sierra Leone Needs to Strengthen the Leone and Reduce Poverty”.
Yet, Bank Governor Kallon deliberately chose to do the foolish thing – merely redenominating Leone – despite my clear public warnings to him for nearly 12 months, starting in August 2021, about the predictable disaster he would unleash with his meaningless redenomination.
Contrary to his false implied claim, Bank Governor Kelfala Kallon did not sit passively by and have the predictable current hyperinflation happen to him and the millions of innocent Sierra Leonean victims of Pres. Julius Bio’s and Kallon’s moribund redenomination of the Leone.
On the contrary, Kallon directly caused it to happen by his stubborn refusal to listen to my sound advice not to redenominate Leone because that would have zero positive effect on the cost of living. In particular, I clearly and openly advised Kallon that his ill-advised and inappropriate redenomination of the Leone would make the cost of living worse by unleashing even greater inflation.
In conclusion, Bank Governor Kelfala Kallon is not a victim of unforeseen circumstances, as he wants the journalist who reportedly interviewed him, and his victims – the people of Sierra Leone – to believe.
On the contrary, Kallon took active steps to cause this latest inflationary disaster solely for his and Sierra Leone Pres. Julius Bio’s purely selfish interest in hanging on to power after the upcoming 2023 presidential election – no matter the damage they cause to the economy of Sierra Leone and the livelihood of millions of Sierra Leoneans.
