We are winning the Battles, but we need to win the War.

Business

The brazen preponderance of unpatriotic elements in our midst passing as our compatriots going round and cutting or stealing Electric cables and keeping scores of citizens in darkness and scores of other deprived of the bare minimum livelihood can hardly be fathomed for a country crying for investment and job creation.

They say that when the lizard of the homestead refuses to do the things for which its kind is known for, it will be mistaken for the lizard of the farmyard. Many Sierra Leoneans are behaving like lizard of the farmyard and should be treated as such.

Can you believe the temerity, the upper part of Calabar Town went without electricity for three weeks because of a blown out transformer and the day they fixed it a couple of days ago three vagabonds were caught trying to cut the cables! So every development stride is being negatively countered by beastlike nincompoops trying to reverse whatever little gain we are making as a nation.

Not even the euphoria of leone stars winning a place in the next African Cup of Nations in Cameroon seems enough to let Sierra Leoneans need to stand as one. Just as in football, in Warfare what should be the overarching objective is to win. It is not by missing several goals or by winning battles and not winning the Game or war. The sort of devious game that is being played today in Sierra Leone will make our development take one step forward, three steps backwards.

The greatest achievements are made not by chance! To become exceptional in life, career, marriage, ministry, you have to go the extra mile. Indeed, I think I agree with Leonardo da Vinci there. Abuja was not built in a month, but every government no matter military or civilian contributed its bit to have the new capital of Nigeria.

Today, the government is boasting of making several roads, and installing electricity in many parts of the country which indeed they have. What perhaps we need to know is that as far back as the 70s many projects should have been completed, but for corruption.

Listen, around 1974, the IMF/ World Bank gave funds to Liberia, Sierra leone and Guinea to construct the international road from Monrovia right across Sierra Leone and on to Conakry. Both Liberia and Guinea did their ends of the road but for Salone nothing happened. It was “feingor, mengor!”

You can count many projects we did later or are doing now that we should have done in the mid-seventies to the 80s if only our leaders showed more patriotism and less egocentrism and greed. As far back as the 1970s, we started hearing about the Lumley Bridge, Bumbuna Hydro project, the Aberdeen Bridge, the Congo cross bridge and the Bandajuma- Bo Water Side Road. These projects could have cost less if done at that time. If we were proactive enough, we would have had an alternative water supplies system with its dam located in the east part of Freetown as was mooted at the time. Now the problem is sitting squarely on our laps gnawing at our stomach.

Many citizens for their part continue to brazenly remain lawless and flout laws with arrogant impunity. On the other hand, laws are not enforced. In many instances laws are not enforced because of fear of losing votes at elections, so the problems increase and become complex. Take the issue of street trading. The Laws forbidding trading on the main streets are as old as the Freetown City Council. Over the years law enforcement apparatus could do nothing…they will tell you that their hands are tied. Most times we are told its either there are “orders from above’ or some high and mighty “has interest in the matter” every time people are arrested for falling foul with the law. Law and order cannot be upheld in this situation, talk less of accountability.

The issue of traffic congestion and environmental sanitation will remain with us for a very long time if our authorities do not get real serious and stop lip-servicing such important life threatening challenges that seem to defy every definition. When dysfunctional institutions/establishments are headed by incompetent people, we get the kind of dismally poor public service performance that is prevalent these days. After the Okada restriction, I think the Minister should work on freeing our streets of traders.

The Freetown City has unfortunately had a long string of incompetent players before the current Mayor who has been doing her best in a rather politically complex situation. Many public Servants count on their party links to be a foremost guarantee to stay in power. God bless Late Alfred Akibo-Betts whose administration as Freetown City Council Chairman/Mayor. He, especially in preparation for the City’s Bicentenary celebrations, gave the city a remarkable face lift. They got the streets of Freetown and sidewalks properly done and free of hawkers also.

Check our freetown Streets today, they are occupied by hawkers/petty traders. I can’t understand why people keep proffering rather outlandish excuses. We all know that every citizen is required to strive to survive. However the survival strategies are to be within the ambit of the law. Like I always say, what is the use of laws if they are not effectively implemented? We have witnessed the passing of so many laws, including the celebrated Freetown City Council bye laws for street littering, keeping stray dogs at bay, plus, plus, plus. They all have flopped their usual vuvuzela yap-yap gimmicks and the council juggernauts continue in office, expecting the public to go to PZ and clap for them.

In the last administration, many people lauded the bold step that the Internal Affairs Minister took. However it is just like opening a can of worms. We need to effectively deal with the issue of street trading once and for all! Currently pedestrians have no space. The traders have not only taken over the sidewalks, but have also taken part of the streets. We should remember that apart from vehicles there are other road users like wheel barrows, omolankay and with the water crisis, the “bearing” which carries five-gallon jerry cans full of water. So you see the motor bikes are just one side of the story.

By the look of things, I think the most important follow-up action government should take is checking the extortionist attitude of our commercial drivers which is making life unbearable for commuters. It is because of the insincerity of our political leadership over the years that a place like Abacha street trading has become an institution and a serious force unto itself.

Many restrictions on street trading and other regulations are embedded in The Road traffic Act of 2007, Part XI, restriction on Road use for road safety, Section 134 talks about Prohibition of Street Trading. The prohibited streets are actually listed in statutory instruments which I know the police and the Freetown City Council know about. I know that during the 50th Independence Celebrations traders were moved out of the streets. That was an opportune moment in which authorities could have got the traders to see reason to go to the existing markets. We know that some markets are not fully utilized because traders want to be on the streets.

We are yet to live with the very critically adverse effects of the loathed political interference into the work of the law enforcement authorities although the current government has strenuously tried not to. The problem of cause is with the laws. In this twenty- first century we have to think outside the box and think very critically in order to improve service delivery. Remember prosperity cannot be achieved if we spend half of our valuable time stuck in traffic and going for months on end waiting for a blown off transformer to be fixed. Like Martin Luther once said “Nothing in the entire world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscious stupidity”.

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