By Abdul Bero Kamara (Chief)
For President Bio, Dr Kelfala M Kallon was a celebrated and accomplished Economist who has the acumen to handle monetary policies.
He appointed him as Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone after Dr Patrick Conteh was wrongfully sacked two years before his tenure expired
The Professor Emeritus, who was a lecturer at the University of Northern Colorado came at a time when the exchange rate left by the APC government was Le 500 to $ 1.00 and the Leone was stronger than the Guinean Franc (GF), and at the same time small businesses were doing well and the economy was on a good trajectory.
During the tenure of Professor Kallon at the BSL ( 2018 -March 2023,) whilst his counterparts LouncenyNabé, of Guinea and Jolue Aloysius Tarlue Jr of Liberia were doing exceptionally well on monetary policies, Our Bank Governor was busy applying impractical solutions.
Truth be told Professor Kallon could not measure up, consequently, he exposed his incompetence and inability to do the job.
As the Leone was made volatile and exposed to high risk, this inevitably made the Leone embark on an exponential free fall that has put It on the verge of becoming a worthless paper like the Zimbabwean Dollar in 2016
The overrated Dr Kallon who holds a PhD in Economics applied all his classroom theories which didn’t work, subsequently, in his desperate attempt to solve the exchange rate saga he came up with his voodoo economic policies by selling the Bank’s forex and bribing forex hoarders sixty-eight million dollars. Sadly, that also didn’t work.
Amidst the most difficult condition the coconut head Professor wasted 68 Million US Dollars to bribe people who were hoarding the Leone to bring it into the banking system. He made this statement in front of the country’s honourable members of parliament and journalists.
Certainly in any serious country that has a serious anti-corruption commission, Governor Professor Kallon should have been behind bars or police cell awaiting trial on direct corruption charges including bribery. Ironically, as usual, the ACC Ben Kaifala later exonerated him that he did nothing wrong.
Besides, the Bank of Sierra Leone policy-induced hyperinflation is causing 73 per cent of Sierra Leoneans to be food insecure (World Food Programme (2022); www.world bank.org /retrieved on March 17, 2023).
Further, the depreciation of the national currency in the last quarter of 2022 brought the value of SLL to 2, 070,54 against the US Dollar closing the year with a loss of 61 per cent of its value.
At a time when the depreciation of the Leone was affecting the pay check of the majority of Sierra Leoneans, and increasing the poverty rate, the fed-up Bank Governor went on National TV and told the world that he could not salvage the exchange rate situation.
Ideally, because the professor was bold enough to say the truth- two scenarios could have happened immediately: he could have resigned or been sacked by the President; unfortunately, neither of them didn’t happen
Evidently, the Leone-Dollar exchange rate has been suffocated and severely compromised to the point that our currency is the second least valued on the continent.
The New Leone (NLe) is now ranked the second weakest legal tender or currency in Africa after the Dobra (Db) of São Tomé (Sierraloaded 2022). The exchange rate is 1 USD = 2070 SLL Mar 17, 2023.
The sacking of Professor Kallon the Voodoo economist’ a couple of days ago is not news that was worth reporting because that action was long overdue.
Professor Kallon may have gone, but his controversial monetary policies will continue to be a topic of debate among academicians now and in the future.
Compounding the messed up interest rate the inflation rate as of June 27 2022 according to the IMF (2022) stands at 27 per cent (source: www.imf.org /retrieved on March 14, 2023).
For many Sierra Leoneans, the economic outlook of Sierra Leone seems to be dire rather than hopeful, unless there is a dramatic change after the June 24, 2023 Polls.
There comes to mind Dr Samura Kamara, the DO and TALK, the problem solver who understands both the economic and political dynamics of Sierra Leone.
Dr Samura Kamara is overcharged and more than ready to clean up the mess of President Bio, the challenges ahead are herculean and might seem impossible, alas! the APC standard bearer is well prepared and ready to lead for God and the country. It is but fitting Sierra Leoneans should rise and unite to make President Bio a one-term President