Sierra Leone’s capital city, Freetown, is struggling to keep sellers off the streets and to deal with the menace of fuel tankers moving during days’ time risking people’s lives to death.
The new minister of Transport and Aviation, Ambassador Alhaji Turay, has a huge task ahead of him as he takes office following a swift change in President Julius Maada Bio’s new cabinet for a second five-year term in office. The President has announced his final cabinet amid national and international election observers’ controversy on accepting the official results announced by Sierra Leone’s electoral body, ECSL, on June 27.
The new Transport guy has a host of issues on the plate to chew out which represent Sierra Leoneans’ deepening frustrations.
Sierra Leoneans living in the main capital Freetown are confronting “daily unresolved” struggles in the transport sector which will be steered by Mr Alhaji Turay.
His ministry is responsible to develop policies and provide guidelines for delivery safe, reliable, affordable and sustainable Maritime, land transportation and aviation systems throughout Sierra Leone.
But this sector has fallen short of public expectations over the years. It has been unable to address the growing problem of transportation across the country.
It is common to see people forming long queues in the capital and other urban towns in Sierra Leone.
The worst example is seen in Freetown where passengers always fight hard to catch up vehicles at rush hours, late in the evening.
The 100 so-called Chinese buses bought in 2015 by the then government of President Ernest Bai Koroma are no more.
“My brother don’t ask me about those red buses, ask APC former Transport minister, Balogun Koroma; maybe he will tell you they are gone,” replied a frustrated male passenger when asked when was his last time he seated in a public bus.
Instead of fixing the transportation difficulty in the country, APC former minister of transport chose otherwise.
Many of the buses procured by Minister Leonard Balogun Koroma had been missing in action long before SLPP came to power. Most Sierra Leoneans believe those red buses were sold off to next-door neighbouring countries.
Those who wanted change in the governance voted SLPP in power in 2018. But the change does not seem to be happening, either.
SLPP campaign on the platform that they would wipe out wasteful spending on public money, otherwise, expressed as “blocking financial leakages.”
Bio’s SLPP’s team committed themselves to changing the narrative around by fighting off corruption, financial mismanagement and nepotism blamed to be bred up by APC government under former President Koroma.
But President Julius Maada Bio after winning 2018 elections couldn’t bring the change needed by Sierra Leoneans. And many local and international media reports had described the government of the new regime as very corrupt between 2018 and 2022.
For instance, at the height of Covid 19 and while people were struggling to get commercial vehicles in the capital, President Bio’s government secured, which many say were too expensive, ‘flashy’ Toyota Land Cruiser Jeeps for some Paramount Chiefs in Sierra Leone. Some critics say he had wanted favour from the Chiefs ahead of 2023 Presidential elections.
A number of Sierra Leoneans also argued at the time that the Land Cruiser Jeeps, which totaled 50, according to report, should not have been bought by the government in the first place.
But, instead, the critics said, the Bio’s administration should have used such tax payers’ money to procure medical equipment to help contain the virus, Covid.
And, the reality on the ground holds that, more public busses are needed on the streets to minimize the transportation constraints across the country.
The high paid-up vehicles across Sierra Leone which are in large number are in possession of private individuals. But they are not enough to salvage the growing constraints confronted by passengers.
And the attitude of drivers is also contributing to the hopeless situation of the Sierra Leonean transport seekers. Commercial drivers are in the habit of taking short routes without getting passengers to their various destinations. This is worsening the situation for residents living in communities in Western Area Rural district outside the capital.
This group of people are paying up a lot of money as fares daily. Some spend roughly Le 30 a day to ply them from Waterloo and Freetown and later upon their return while off from duty.
And, currently, as we speak the long queues are not ending as people travel about to eke out a living.
Since the past minister in APC government couldn’t get the buses up and running his predecessor, Mr Kabineh Kallon, faced the music—to be always blamed by most opposition critics when his government decided to donate some Toyota Land Cruiser Jeeps to paramount Chiefs.
And the new man in office might come and go and leave Sierra Leoneans being affected with the same age-old issue of transportation difficulty in the city amidst the high charges.
Welcome Mr. Minister. You have come to serve Sierra Leoneans in a sector that is not doing more to guarantee the ‘safety’ of Sierra Leoneans neither there is ‘affordability’ of public service vehicles.
Year-in-year out in Sierra Leone, there are many accidents occurring owing to reckless driving and some amount of lawlessness exhibited by fuel tanker drivers who continue to move daily at Freetown’s busiest streets.
These oil tanker drivers have not been controlled or stopped moving during the day for fearing to cause a similar November 5, 2021 Wellington oil tanker explosion that ended up killing 154 people while injuring 304 victims.
Can Ambassador Alhaji Turay work hard to address these burning issues affecting Sierra Leoneans all over?
Will you be serious enough in stopping fuel tankers from moving the streets on days’ hours?
And can assure us that you speedily work to disallow short stop drivers who are causing more constraints for Sierra Leonean passengers especially those living in the capital and its outskirts?