Democracy is not just about elections that keep putting in power the same time-honored bare-face corrupt gluttons, it is also about choices, government needs to widen the choices of people to pursue their livelihood options. When people give power to a set of people to take charge of affairs, it is not to say that they should remain passive spectators of governance. It is actually a contractual situation whereby the people have the right to demand accountability while they also meet their obligations.
The dry- yai daylight armed robbery that happened some days ago to my memory has never happened before even when we had armed groups like the Black December and Main man. They most times did highway robbery and most times at night. To think that the robbery happened in Wellington an industrial area, speaks volumes of our security situation. That robbery also is symptomic of the dire and precarious situation that the youths have found themselves. They have become desperados and do not give a damn about losing their lives. Interesting stories abounding from the scene. The security manning the spot was overpowered and not shot…hmmm, kindheartedness do you ay? Well not much about the quantity of money carted away. As a nation we need to harness the energies of our youth so that those energies could not be used to terrorize the citizens So unfortunate, that robbery, and the money was meant to pay people perhaps most of which are poor!
Now let us come to this issue of the Four-lane Wellington –Masiaka highway. I read the banner headline in the May 9 Edition of the Awoko Newspaper, It read: Tolls to start in July. I was surprised to note that authorities can continue to treat people like nincompoops. They did it with the Passport price increase; they did it with the Fuel prize increase; they did it with the Vice- Presidency; they did It really grinds me inside to think that authorities are now reneging on what they told us before this road work was started. They told us in plain terms that the road work will take four years and that after the completion of the road that is when it gets to Masiaka, and then the toll will be levied. We were never told us that it is when the road gets to Waterloo then we begin paying the toll tax. Let me make one thing clear here the issue I have here is not the toll but the timing, the twist of what the people of Sierra Leone were told. Somebody is definitely trying to pull a fast one, thinking that every Sierra Leonean is as forgetful as they are gullible. That toll must wait until the road gets to Masiaka and people can start paying the toll tax after 4 years. Why that time frame and the distance have both been brought forward is unacceptable.
One very important point that government is missing is that there is yet no alternate road to go to Masiaka from Freetown, so the toll will be quite mandatory. Many a time our governments claim to be with the people but then go ahead and take actions that only get the people deeper into their poverty mostly powered by the very state actors. Tell me a pro-poor government starts a toll tax right in the middle of an economic austerity? Can a pro-poor government which has for decades spent whooping sums of US Dollar son agriculture but cannot feed her people put more economic burden on its people in the name of toll tax?
Road tolls are not new in the world. Governments elsewhere have garnered a lot of money from it and plow the money back into maintaining the roads. But look our situation here in Sierra Leone. Moneys meant for programs to improve services for the people never get there. Check the type of grave size potholes that sometimes stay for monthe right inside the city before someone gets concerned and something is done. Drivers in this country pay some form of tax on every liter of fuel pumped into their tanks. This money goes to bolster the Road Maintenance fund. Tell me do we ever get any report on how this money is used? Generally do our state actors account properly to the people? The other day somebody was saying on radio that a road Construction company is taking 7 years to make the 7 –mile road from Taiama to Njala University! This kind of thing happens where accountability is through to the winds.
On the issue of alternative road, the road in question has no alternate road which people have the option to choose. There are a lot of questions here. Since there is no other road what happens if a particular driver who takes off very early has no money to pay the toll? If that driver is delayed, what happens to the passengers? What type of toll are authorities going to install? How will they handle long queues due to the usual slow attendance of whoever is manning the toll gate if it is a gate? Oh I have just remembered that the Waterloo- Masiaka road had a toll gate at one point but was later abandoned. It is good for government to find out in the first place how that toll failed.
Like I said from the onset, we are going through a very difficult time economically in the midst of an austerity powered by the mismanagement of resources by those in whose hands those resources are placed. The irony here is that the poor people who never touched a dime are now suffering to cope with all the price increases recently introduced. Government need to play honest and keep to what they initially said about the toll and that is it will be instituted when the road gets to Masiaka and after 4 years. I challenge any authority to say I am lying!
You see this road under construction is an example of what happens when a government is not telling the people the real deal they make with their friends and contractors. I quite remember when this project was first mentioned people raised a lot of questions as to whether it was a loan. At the end we were told it was a free gesture from the Chinese. But now they are talking about recovering the $ 165 Million that the Masiaka- Waterloo Road costs. Hey wait a minute; this road is costing this amount? The other time I checked I was told each kilometer of completed road costs $1 Million. Now some calculation. Let us say from Wellington to Waterloo is 20 miles. Converted into Kilometers this gives us 32 kilometers. This multiplied by 1,000,000 US Dollars gives us 32,000,000 US Dollars. So can we say this road costs 5 times over the standard price? Hmmm, you can imagine how much the toll will be! Does anyone know how much the toll will cost per vehicle? For now what is material is that the toll tax must wait till the road gets to Masiaka as originally said. If anyone is coming up with anything different, look him in the face and say, “That is a lie, we will wait for Masiaka.” The other thing is that we are not in a hurry for a four lane beyond Masiaka. Between Waterloo and Masiaka, we do not experience any traffic Jam. Are thinking of what I am thinking? Tell them we will wait till the road gets to Masiaka and then we will discuss the toll issue. Unless we tackle the root causes of poverty which are often connected with unjust systems and structures, change will not last or be truly transformational.
By Ben Cambayma
Friday May 19, 2017.
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