By Samuel D Tweah Jr
The idea of getting away from Ivory Coast for electricity is a misunderstanding of the issue. CLSG is for the four countries: Cote d’ Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It’s like a highways passing through the four countries, but on that highway, it is current, not cars, that are trading or passing through. So one cannot move away from that highway. Countries with electricity surplus will sell to others and those with deficit will buy from others.
Buying from others does not mean Liberia does not have a long term plan. Liberia does. Our people say “dried dog is sweet, but what will you be eating while they are drying the dog?”
We buy power from Cote d’Ivoire while we work on our long term plans. There is no way around this. These include the Via River Dam project. The CDC administration signed a World Bank project for this. Cost will be around $200 to $300 million for some 200 megawatts or thereabouts.
Via is the golden standard for Liberia’s sustainable electricity. It is our energy future. Studies say if optimzed it can produce more than 900 megawatts of electricity. If we achieve this we would then be able to sell power through the CLSG lines. The agreement we signed was just a small part of this but we can and should go big.
The country should work with its international partners seriously to make this happen. President Boakai should insist to partners that this is the future. China is building the world’s biggest dam and we here should be doing the same.
So people should stop acting like Liberia did not have a plan or does not have a plan. The plan is there. Some actions have been taken by the previous administration but the current one can go way bigger if it presses hard and insistently to solve the energy problem of Liberia.
Explaining honestly to the Liberian people has been the issue. During political campaigns, we should tell the Liberia people that the structural problems of Liberia are grave and that political rhetoric and lies to win election will NOT solve these problems.
We should stop lying our way to power and start discussing the complexity of the Liberian situation. Our people should stop listening to politicians and start understanding the real issues of the country.
As Mimister, I explained a lot of these real issues but they were buried in propaganda and the passion of politics over the last six years. The reality is now sinking in.
If Liberia is not developed we all face an existential threat in the very near future. Stop the politics of lies and hate and focus on building Liberia.
