The people of Sierra Leone are going through the hardest and most difficult times ever in the last twenty years or so. And as the economic situation in the country continues to get worse with the people facing the worst of times ever, another round of skyrocketing prices of goods and services has befallen the nation due to the recent exponential increase in the pump price of petroleum products in the country. The latest situation is that pump price for fuel has skyrocketed from Le18, 000.00 to Le22, 000.00 or Le22.00 (an equivalent of about US$1.8).

The unfortunate situation of an uncontrollable rapid rise in the pump price of fuel that is painfully being experienced by the people of Sierra Leone is speedily leading the nation to doom, wherein all hell may break loose as Sierra Leoneans could no longer stomach or bear the brunt and killing situation of the prevailing economic circumstances in the country. Every day, prices of goods and services are soaring mainly as a result of a weak currency, infinitesimal exportation of finished products from the country and most of all the rapid increment of fuel pump price hitting the nation.

Of recent times, the rapid rise of fuel pump price has continued to hit the nation hard as the effects of the price increase permeate all sectors of the economy causing nationwide inflation that has continued to hit the transport sector, and generally all sectors of the economy and goods and services in the country.

While the government has somehow been handicapped in controlling or steadying the rapid increase of price of petroleum products, abandoning the welfare of the nation in the hands of petroleum dealers, the people are being left to face the bitter brunt of the attendant inflation and economic hardship being caused by the fuel crisis. And as the country treads this path of uncontrollable increase in fuel pump price and skyrocketing prices of goods and services, the nation continues to head for doom, since it will definitely reach a point wherein the people could no longer bear the pain and burden of surviving the hardship and difficulty being meted out on them by the general hyper inflation in the country. Every day as the prices of goods and services are increasing by leaps and bounds, bringing to nothing the income the people generate from their work and businesses and rendering them valueless, the people would eventually kick against the wall and rise against the powers that be for a thorough redress of the economic status quo in the land.

There is no need emphasizing the fact that rapid or galloping inflation has continued to hit the country hard over the last four years and more so in recent months, weeks and days, thank today fuel pump price has increased by 250% (from Le6,000 to Le 22,000) in four years of the Bio administration.

It is also a fact that the people of Sierra Leone are confronted with increasing hard times and difficulties day in day out as they work hard to improve their living condition in this part of the world.

Recent reports by Statistics Sierra Leone – the institution that is charged with the responsibility of collecting, researching, collating and keeping records of national facts and development in Sierra Leone – have shown that the country’s inflationary trend has continued to soar into the stratosphere, which is tantamount to making life more difficult in the land.

The unfortunate situation of the uncontrollable rise of fuel pump price that is painfully being experienced by the people of Sierra Leone and its attendant soaring inflation in the country is mainly attributed to the Russia-Ukraine war. But is this the whole truth or causative factor?

It is a fact that both the Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic have seriously affected world economies including the Sierra Leone economy, causing shortage of petroleum products and hike in price of fuel and gas across a large part of the world.

However, there is still more to the uncontrollable rise of fuel pump price and the soaring prices of goods and services in Sierra Leone than meet the eye (thanks to economic conditionality from some international partners and donors). It must also be said that wide-scale removal of subsidies used to cushion cost of goods and services in poor Africa would always cause untold suffering for the people, which is suggestive of what is presently happening in Sierra Leone.

The fact remains that the country is also challenged by bad economic management by the Bio administration, as Sierra Leone’s uncontrollable rapid rise of fuel pump price and runaway inflation is also largely due to poor handling of the economic, social and political affairs of the country.

Hence in recent times, the hardest hit on the life of people in the country has been the skyrocketing pump price of petroleum products, which has seen gasoline and kerosene pump price rise to Le22,000.00 (about US$1.8), and it is expected to soon rise again. This rise in fuel pump price has shot up the cost of transportation and prices of virtually all goods and services in the country, leading to a killing cost-push inflation that has aggravated hardship and poverty in Sierra Leone.

The negative economic realities of the country have gone so bad that today there is so much cry in the heart and eyes of Sierra Leoneans as regards the current dire straits of the national economy, which has rendered the country and the people in a state of sixes and sevens. And with the runaway inflation terrorizing the economy of the country, more suffering, hardship and poverty continue to be the portion of the people under the current state of affairs.

The current spate of rise in fuel pump price in the country has also gone so bad and unbearable that Sierra Leone and her people are heading for doom, since the situation would continue to eat into their income, causing more hardship for them that would ultimately push them to react ‘positively’ to rise against the economic system and powers that be.

The runaway inflation or rise in prices of goods and services that is largely being caused by the uncontrollable rise of fuel pump price in the country has as well continued to cause so much trauma and setback for the masses of people in Sierra Leone.

And inflation, which is merely a persistent rise in the price level of goods and services, needs effective management from the relevant state authorities such as the Bank Governor, the Finance and Economic Affairs minister, the Trade and Industry minister and others. Inflation, therefore, should be managed so effectively and well that it is prevented from going galloping or runaway.

By and large, economic management requires effective and efficient managers who are prudent and genuine in serving the nation, using transformative and carefully selective actions or steps – even if it involves subsidizing essential goods, services and sectors for the good of the people – to build the economy and keep drastic suffering at bay.

Forum is therefore afraid that if the uncontrollable rapid rise in fuel pump price continues unabated, Sierra Leone is heading for doom.