Samura Kamara Comes To The Rescue
When President Bio assumed office as President, it is not known whether he and his generals wanted to undo all the progress made by his predecessors or not, but he has since been flip flopping over the mining contract of the railway and Port at Pepel, moving from one problem to another.
His first negative action was to terminate the contract between the government and SL Mining, which resulted in a Court action that the government lost and had to resort to an out of court settlement, costing colossal amount of cash (tax payers money). As if that was not enough, the government, with all its team of technocrats with doctorate degrees, made another monumental blunder in terminating the contract it signed with Kingho, early this year, and signed another one with ARISE IIP, a neutral player, who is determined to transform the country’s economy with its expertise in the establishment of a Special Industrial Zone, which was launched in April 2023 at Koya, amidst pomp and pageantry.
Unfortunately, less than a year into the contract, President Bio has again terminated the ARISE IIP Rail and Port contract, leaving room for another Court action that has the potential to spell disaster for the country’s economy, as the lawyers of ARISE will be seeking injunctions, arbitral claims for interim relief and claims for damages.
However, Sierra Leone’s Presidential Candidate for the 2023 June 24th Elections for the main opposition party, the APC, Dr. Samura Kamara, a seasoned Economist, has warned the government to tread cautiously, so as not to plunge the image of the country down the drain, and advised that the government engage all parties concern with a view to finding a lasting solution. This is what he tweeted:
“I listened with keen interest, as an experienced Sierra Leonean in national economic management and nation building, to recent broadcasts by very senior government officials relative to a tripartite investment relationship between government, ARISE and KINGHO. I would want to caution that whatever difficulties there are bordering on this relationship, we desist from going public until the relationship is orderly mended.
It is not impossible.
Let us urge ourselves to handle the matter thoughtfully to prevent potential state embarrassment. Investor appetite for Sierra Leone is still lukewarm. It is strongly advisable to bring both companies to the table for resolution and avert any subsequent legal entanglements.”