By Idrissa Bangura
After the announcement of the recent hike on the fuel pump price by the Petroleum Regulatory Agency, the increment has caused a lot of hue and cry to a lot of people in the country.
This increment on the fuel pump price, citizens say, have caused serious hardship on their lives as Sierra Leoneans. Even though government boasts of Sierra Leone having the lowest pump price in the sub-region, it is still not an enough stance to solving the current economic ramification.
This situation has caused ordinary citizens a lot of suffering taking into consideration the financial earning power of majority of the citizens.
In an interview with the drivers and riders within the capital of Freetown, they said, the hike on the pump price of fuel has led to a dramatic increase on the basic transport fares within the city.
That is, areas which they had been taking commuters for NLe5 has now gone up to NLe8.
And the same is for the tricycle riders and the motorcycle riders who are grumbling mainly due to disastrous effect the sad situation has caused which is affecting bike riders and commuters altogether.
On the side of the commuters, some are now deciding to trek to short areas where they used to take vehicles or bikes for.
While the drivers and the riders are constantly doing their normal routine work, they have been unable to realize the intended money for which owners of their motors and tricycles expect them to pay daily or on weekly basis.
This grim situation, if continues, will result to lose of jobs for both drivers and the riders alike.
According to an interview with a lady who is a local food producer from the provinces, she said the sharp increment on the pump price would render their business to be seriously affected.
This, she added, would make it pretty difficult for them owing to the exorbitant prices in the transport sector.
She said they are buying the local produce out of the tiny profits they realize from sales. As things get tougher for her, an alternative is being sought by the local foodstuffs producers.
The woman said she has decided this time around to stop doing her business under this current increment on fuel products which has caused a ripple effect on transport fares. She narrated that she deemed it as a waste of energy for having not realizing much more from the business sales.
The woman said she would have to take care of her family and that means a meager profits isn’t just enough to foot that bill.
Speaking to some petty traders at Guard Street Market in Freetown on the increment of fuel price which has recently jumped from NLe21.5 to NLe25, they said the new adjustment will have to affect all spheres of their lives including a good many of Sierra Leoneans.
This increment, they said, will not only affect the market products alone but is also knocking hard on aspects that have to do with human survival.
They told this medium they, the women, will have to be the scapegoat in this current trend given that most men will still tend to ignore the current situation everyone has been going through in Sierra Leone.
They accused the men to continue to be giving their wives the same amount of money they used to be giving them for feeding.
They said men would bank on the belief that the cost of living could now be dictated according to one’s salary scale, but they are forgetting that one piece of onion which used to be NLe 5 has skyrocketed to NLe 10.
So, the women argued, that men must be shifting the blame game on them who are going to the market almost on a daily basis.
“They’re forgetting that everything in Sierra Leone’s market is constantly skyrocketing like a flying kite,’’ they compared.
Additionally, a trader at Kroo Town Road market by the name of Salamatu Jalloh, in her submission told this medium that this is the time in which majority of the citizens cannot afford to buy the necessary foodstuffs to feed their family.
This is mainly due to the increasing prices on basic foodstuffs like a bag of rice, palm oil, and the like which is making it difficult for a family of five to sustain with a meager salary earned by a head of a Sierra Leonean family.
“There would be high risk of nutritious diseases like kwashiorkor and the like,’’ she stated.
This situation may also lead to worsening health crisis to most people who are medically advised by doctors to abstain from taking certain foods as a result of their condition to fall in for such unnourished food.
The appropriate food for them may be expensive to buy due to the current economic situation in the country. She said these citizens are sometimes medically advised to stay away from other food in order not to exacerbate their already disastrous conditions.
The increment on the pump price has posed a lot of threats on those medically unfit people who are not fully capacitated to survive through these trying times in a country where prices of commodities keep increasing almost on a daily basis.
This current status of affairs is making the living tough for Sierra Leoneans as food availability and cost becomes a challenge.
Some people, however, are appealing to the business women not to take advantage of the situation by extorting consumers.
“We know they are playing a vital role in the economic survival of any state, but we want them to continue on that trajectory,” some concerned Sierra Leoneans expressed.
“The government again has a crucial part to play in this current trend especially on the side of the market women,” they said.
They said at crises and natural disasters, some scrupulous traders would increase prices on products, further exacerbating the situation.
And now some stand to doing the same in the name of the current increasing pump price on fuel products.
As this happens, they added, the people may tend to be vulnerable.
The government should recruit an emergency market monitory team to check all business places within the cities to know how business owners in Freetown, the concerned citizens suggested.
Government needs to know the reactions on the recent fuel increment and how are people being directly affected by the attitude of the business people.
The usual habit overtime has been over pricing on businesses.
And government is advised to send out a list of prices of main food stuffs like rice and the like in order to ease the burden on the people, and should give a stringent warning on whosoever is caught flouting the government’s prices to face penalties.
There has to be an emergency implementation of laws for motor drivers and tricycle riders at this point in time so that they can abide by the government assigned prices for both tricycle and vehicles’ prices.
This can be done through the invocation of marshal officers with sufficient training to be able to perform their duty effectively and efficiently through the continuous checking and probing of activities of both riders and drivers and to stop them from taking half ways, an age long wrong activity adopted especially for those passengers staying far away from the heart of the city.
They [marshals] should be recruited to check drivers to know if the government’s transportation fares list is accurately used and comply to.
We believe with these measures, the rising cost of fuel pump price and increment on transport fare, market products and other issues will be mitigated and settled for the general good of all citizens.
Prices would be watered down leading to a situation where citizens are able to solve other important family basic needs like health, education and the like.
We are looking forward to seeing an immediate action into the measures proffer in this article in line with the current trend of the fuel pump price increment, the concerned citizens wished.