The NASSIT Crisis: A Nation’s Pension at the Crossroads

By Sallia Fawundu Jr
In the hallowed chambers of our Republic, where the destiny of Sierra Leone is debated and decided, Hon. Jaway Sesay of Tonkolili District has sounded an alarm that reverberates far beyond the walls of Parliament. His words, uttered not in the august House but on the airwaves of radio, carry the weight of a national security crisis. They speak of mismanagement, of betrayal, of a pension fund that should be the sacred trust of our workers but has instead become, in his telling, a theatre of waste and corruption.
The Allegations: Contracts Inflated, Trust Betrayed
Hon. Sesay alleges that under the stewardship of Fouad Daboh as Director General of NASSIT, projects were not merely managed, they were manipulated. Contractors were removed without due process, replaced by a myriad of others, and costs ballooned like a storm cloud over our fragile economy.
•⁠ ⁠The Sewa Grounds Project, once valued at 12 million dollars, with 7.8 million dollars already paid, was torn from its original contractor and scattered among new hands. The cost rose to 15.5 million dollars, and by 2025, Daboh himself declared it had consumed 20 million dollars of pensioners’ money.
•⁠ ⁠The Pension Administration and Biometric System, a project of 5.5 million dollars entrusted to a Sierra Leonean contractor, was allegedly stripped away and handed to foreign firms, its cost swelling to 19 million dollars.
These are not mere figures, they are the lifeblood of our workers, siphoned away in the name of progress but delivered in the currency of betrayal.
The Facts: Audits and Courts Confirm the Rot
Independent audits by the Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) have confirmed irregularities that echo Sesay’s charges:
•⁠ ⁠Loans to subsidiaries worth Le161.8 billion unaccounted for.
•⁠ ⁠Duplicate social security numbers assigned to pensioners.
•⁠ ⁠Pension payments made without valid identification.
And in 2026, the High Court of Sierra Leone ruled against NASSIT for discriminatory promotion practices under Daboh, exposing administrative recklessness that undermined both staff morale and institutional integrity.
Sesay’s lament extends to NASSIT’s investments, Commerce and Mortgage Bank, Radisson Blu, Kimbima Hotel, Regimanuek Estates, all described as unprofitable, all draining resources rather than replenishing them. How, he asks, can a bank remain unprofitable after years of service? How can hotels and estates, symbols of prosperity, become monuments of failure?
Yet here lies the paradox: Hon. Sesay, a sitting member of Parliament and of the Pension Committee, has chosen the microphone of radio over the gavel of Parliament. Why has he not summoned witnesses under oath, where testimony carries the weight of perjury? Why has he not compelled the truth in committee hearings, where accountability is forged in the crucible of law?
If his words are false, then NASSIT and the institutions implicated must rise to defend their honor, to sue for defamation, to clear their names before the people. If his words are true, then the President must act with urgency, establishing a Commission of Inquiry to investigate, to expose, and to reform.
Let us speak plainly: Sierra Leone stands at the precipice. The pensions of our workers, the sweat of miners, the toil of farmers, the sacrifice of teachers, are not mere numbers in a ledger. They are the covenant between the state and its citizens. To betray that covenant is to invite collapse.
Parliament must rise from its slumber. Honorable members must summon those implicated, not to the comfort of radio chatter, but to the solemnity of committee hearings where truth is bound by the threat of perjury. If these allegations are false, let NASSIT and its partners sue for defamation and defend their honor. If they are true, then the President must act with the urgency of a nation on the brink, establishing a Commission of Inquiry that will shine light into the darkest corners of our institutions.
For as Plato reminds us, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” And as our African elders teach, “When the roots of a tree begin to decay, it spreads death to the branches.”
Sierra Leone cannot afford indifference. Sierra Leone cannot afford decay. The time for half measures has passed. The time for decisive action is now. Let the Parliament act, let the President act, let the people demand, for if we do not, history will record that we stood idle while the tree of our nation withered before our eyes.