It is often commonplace to hear people saying that Freetown is not Sierra Leone. Quite true! But again, when one considers the over-centralization and over-concentration of various government businesses in Freetown, you are pushed to think that Freetown perhaps is Sierra Leone.
There is no doubt that the decentralization process has made commendable leaps over the years, no doubt. However, we still have a very long way to go. Take the issuance of driving licenses and the Sierra Leone passport. Definitely, you have to come to Freetown before things happen. According to the Decentralization Policy, on average, the Western Area…has better indicators of well being than all other regions.
Indeed a more equitable distribution of resources need to be devised, otherwise the current population drift to the capital Freetown, will cause a population density that will have telling consequences. If we go by somebody’s estimation, over a year ago, the population in the Western Area could now well be in the region of 3 million.
Now think of the way the city of Freetown is so overpopulated. There are lots of issues attendant upon this. With the elections only a couple of months away, there is indeed an issue here. What are the implications of a swelling population in Freetown? Apart from the health hazards, there are a number of political implications.
Firstly, we cannot definitely work with the same constituencies that we used in 2007. Apart from the fact that many of our children who were 13 years old in 2007 are now 18 years and therefore eligible for voting, scores of people have moved into Freetown. Technically, this warrants a re-delimitation of the constituency boundaries. Perhaps this is why the registration seems slow. Not that it is actually slow.
What has happened is that more people are now in the constituencies in the Western Area. When the voter registration exercise finishes, it will be interesting to see how the figures stand. Even before that one can easily see that the Freetown election results to a large extent will determine who wins. This is why the battle for Freetown is going to be very stiff indeed. After all, is it not political advantageous for any political party to have control of Freetown and its surroundings?
How about the City Council? For all intents and purposes, control over the city is very crucial. A major issue that seems to have been politicized is street trading. The whole thing now seems an extension of the already seemingly entrenched ethnicity or regionalism. You see, we have to look at the natural realities of the situation. Because of the proximity of the Northern Province to Freetown, you should expect more northerners to come to Freetown for the purpose of doing business. Logically therefore, any political party needing their votes will obviously be flexible with them. Is the issue of street trading and how it is handled by politicians therefore not a dilemma? In fact it gets to a point where some kind of blackmail sets in. It is just like the issues of female circumcision and universal adult suffrage for Paramount Chieftaincy elections. Politicians normally maintain sealed lips on these.
These are real challenges for any government that comes to power after November 2012. Freetown needs to look better than it is now. The City Council needs to regain its credibility fast and do well to garner in the necessary funds to move its development agenda. We need to be able to encourage Freetonians to pay their taxes while they feel obliged to get their Council to ask them to account. Call it a social contract.
Our political landscape is full of life’s controversies. Well, indeed there are so many things in life that are too contradictory to believe. They say that anything that does not kill you makes you strong. Freetown’s population increase is not reflective of growth rate; rather, it is on migration. What is worrisome however is the feeling of insecurity in Freetown which is largely due to the huge influx of people into the city.
I really hope Statistics Serra Leone can start throwing some light on issues around the growing population of Freetown. Do we stop a minute and ask ourselves why we experience shortages of almost everything that are basic necessities for this life we are living? We are just too much for the limited resources. The irony is that in the West, where people are much more affluent, they have fewer children, but out here where poverty is our surname, we take pride in having lots of children we cannot take care for. With the news of climate change brazing itself to hit humanity really hard, can’t we just change our mentality for once?
Don’t tell me that in this 21st Century people are still with the illusion that children are given to them by the Almighty God and as such, they can have as many children as possible. No! You might want to say that God makes provision for every living thing on earth… yes, but what people need to know also is that god will definitely not put food in people’s mouths. We all know that in the abundance of water the fool still remains thirsty.
Think of the story of the monkeys and the groundnuts. It was one of my favorite during my Primary School days. There were these ten monkeys who went to steal groundnuts from a big jug that had a very small opening. The opening was so small that a monkey’s hand could only enter when all the fingers are squeezed together. In turn, they placed their hands into the jug to bring out the groundnuts.
All ten tried but could not get the groundnuts out because each feels its hand in such a way that it could not come out, so each abandons the venture and stayed hungry. Well after some days the monkeys are getting thinner and thinner and stood the danger of starving to death. One day, one of them thought of an idea, what if he took out the ground nuts one by one. That way he will get the quantity he wanted, with some patience. He goes and tries and succeeds.
Every day he has enough to eat, but never tells the others because he is a greedy monkey. When the others realized he is the only one surviving, they enquired. Since he could not let them into the secret, the others closely observed him and found out. The rest might be mere digression….The point here is that there is so much provision made for man’s comfort but then full advantage is not taken of them rather, at the end of the day inadequacy sets in.
Who knows the huge potentials they have? The big irony we have to live with now is the fact that we have been at the bottom of the human development index partly because of maternal and under-five mortalities. Now we have the free health care which is reducing deaths and therefore bringing more mouths to feed. The point here is, if we do not cater for the children we bring to the world, we are merely breeding malcontents. Indeed there are some contradictions.
Death exposes us to the poor health provisions, but staying well shows that more people will survive and grow old. When more people stay alive there are issues of education and then employment. When you move around Freetown, the scores of youth that you come across are so alarming; just their sheer numbers is scary. While we observe everybody’s rights, we also need to know the livelihood alternatives that are available to us within a given environment then we know the survival rates.
Take down town Freetown; almost 90% of people on the streets are doing one kind of business or another. The bulk of them are youth trying the easiest options to eke a living. Can you compare the youth who carry people’s luggage either on wheel barrow or on their heads for a fee and those selling mints or chewing gums for a commission? It is strange, but this is the situation. They will tell you that it is better to sell mints than to go and steal. Yes! Agreed, but how sustainable can selling mints be in this difficult Sierra Leone? Truly, as Emerson once said, we Sierra Leoneans live like magicians!
It is very interesting to look at some of the findings of the 2004 Census. The Western Area and the Southern province are classed as rich; the Eastern Region poor and the Northern Region poorer. At the district level the poorest are Koinadugu, Tonkolili, Moyamba, Bonthe and Kailahun. According to that census the rich districts are Western Area, Port Loko, Bo and Kono. No quarrel with this, that was then. Today, perhaps a different situation obtains. Just look around and see the squalid conditions in which some of our compatriots who claim to be city dwellers are living. I only hope that those who created the pains of yesterday do not control the pleasures of tomorrow.
By Ben Cambayma
ADVERTISEMENT