Liberia: Controversial Economist Sam Jackson Slammed over Cynical Comments on Donors' Effort to Restore Electricity to Monrovia and Its Environs
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Loading... - Sandra Afful
- 24 Mar 2022
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Liberia’s foremost energy specialist Christopher Zeohn Neyor has taken issues with controversial economist Samuel Jackson for “misrepresenting the facts” in his recent comments denigrating the efforts applied by experts and foreign donors towards the restoration of electricity in Monrovia and other parts of the country during past governments.
Mr. Neyor previously served as the Managing Director of the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) and Senior Energy Advisor and President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) during the administrations of former Liberian Presidents Samuel Kanyon Doe and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
He is presently the Chief Executive Officer/President of Morweh Energy Group, Inc, a Liberian-owned and managed enterprise, which engages into consulting and investment services across all facets of the energy sector and provides strategic guidance for infrastructure project finance.
He played a pivotal role in advising Madam Sirleaf and the former Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy on post war power restoration, spearheaded the writing of the current Liberia National Energy Policy (LNEP) and initiated the conceptual framework for full development of the nearly 1000 MW capacity of the St Paul River basin.
But in recent times, his cousin renowned Liberian economist Samuel Jackson has been making disparaging comments to discredit the efforts applied by him and several others to restore the supply and distribution of electricity in Liberia during the regime of Madam Sirleaf.
Mr. Jackson blamed donors, especially the Americans for being responsible for the declining state of Liberia’s energy sector due to their alleged interference.
“LEC is bankrupt. ‘Chronic illiquidity’. The Mt. Coffee Hydro Dam or TJR Faulkner Dam is the dumbest infrastructure project on the planet. 88 megawatts of pure technical nonsense. Cost. Nearly 400 million dollars to refurbish. Loses 2/3 or more of its capacity in the dry season. Run of river. In 2004, the USTDA spent 500,000 dollars to have Stanley Engineering conduct a feasibility study to rehabilitate a 64 megawatt dam built in 1966 when our population was just 1.2 million. In 2004 when the study began the population of Monrovia alone was almost 1 million due to the inorganic growth of the city from the 14 years of fratricidal conflict. By the 2008 census the country’s population was 3.2 million” Mr. Jackson stated.
He continued: “Which Liberian energy experts sat in a room with their foreign counter parts and thought it was a great idea to refurbish an old dam on the St. Paul River? Which president thought it was genius to do small light today and big light tomorrow? Which countries or bilateral partners thought spending 1 billion dollars over 7 years in something called EPP1 and EPP2. LACEEP. LESEEP to produce the low electricity access rate we have today is correct? What we have today is a colossal mess. We have a choice. Pretend we can fix it or start from scratch. Yes. The one billion dollars spent is not even sunken cost. It is wasted money. President Weah can put on his big boy jockey shorts and fix it tomorrow morning. He can tell the partners. Thanks but no thanks. Ask accountability from the Sirleaf Administration. Shame the designers and implementers of our current energy mess and inform the Liberian people with figures that he tried to fix the mess but the cookie is burned. The stove overheated. He did not bake the cookie. He came in too late”.
No same political view
But in his response posted on his official Facebook page early Sunday, Mr. Neyor informed Mr. Jackson that their biological relationship doesn’t not in any way call for them to have the same political view or life philosophy.
He recalled that following the inception of the CDC led-government, Mr. Jackson approached him to use his high-level contacts to secure genuine funding for road infrastructure because loans they had consummated were not coming through.
“I was disappointed that after packaging a $700 million proposal at my cost, that instead of engaging us on how the proposal was structured and what were the steps to full implementation, a proprietary document presented to the government was used to frame a public bid (of course there were no takers as expected)”.
The duo presented the proposal to the Weah led-administration in early 2018.
According to them, the proposal is not just for the loan but a comprehensive effort to support infrastructure financing in Liberia through national development bank finance and bilateral economic cooperation agreements. The loan was proposed through Morweh Energy Corporation, a duly organized Liberian corporation.
Morweh Energy has the capability to provide research, economic, geological and environmental studies and technical advice including risk analysis and mitigation strategy to firms and governments in order to enable them to make an investment decision for medium to large projects.
Error Researched Info
Mr. Neyor maintained that the researched works on the energy sector provided to the public by Mr. Jackson were totally false and misleading.
“You wrote in your FB post that I provided advice on your London School of Economic project paper and listed me as source of verification on assertions you made in the post. Such insertions in your post and tagging me insinuate my agreement. Because many of your statements were erroneous or misrepresentation of facts, I’ve a reputation to protect and must therefore say something”, Mr. Neyor stated.
He continued: “First, I’ve over the years provided designated outside thesis guidance on energy to students from various graduate schools including Harvard and Princeton. Yours was not an official advice because it was a direct request from you, the student. I tried to inform you that many of your “researched” information about the Liberian electricity sector were in error and therefore your conclusion about private sector investment as immediate solution was misleading”. Read More...
