Asks Asmieu Bah
The whole country was upbeat because of the move made by President Ernest BaiKoroma on the burning issue of decongesting our streets to allow for the free movement of vehicles and pedestrians. Presidents and governments, past and present,had shied away from going down that path, i.e. taking traders off the streets.
Close to the 2007 elections the then Vice President and flag-bearer of the SLPP Solomon Berewa ordered a halt to ‘’Operation Free flow’’ to not hurt voters so as not to lose votes. That notwithstanding, lose he did the election as the same traders he had allowed to go on selling on the streets voted against him.
Following the 2007 elections the city saw an upsurge inthe number of commercial motorbikes (Okada), as well as increased street-trading thereby causing congestion in the central business district. President Koroma took five years to at least find a beginning solution to the menace that street trading and commercial bike riding have caused on the lives of our people. Agreed that commercial bike riding has created jobs for most of our young compatriots, but on the flip side these are young men whose ingenuity has been under-utilised or untapped.
Agreed also that it is the fastest means of transport in the city but the disadvantage is that it is also the riskiest means of road transport, with the most basic regulation such as the use of crash helmet by rider and passengernot heeded.Many well-meaning lives have been lost, many sons and daughters have had severe injuries with some having arms and limbs hacked off owing to reckless commercial bike riding.
Okada riders comprise a potpourri of young men some of whom dropped out of school just after attempting their school-leaving WASSCE exam and those who never darkened the walls of a secondary school. The country is losing a whole generation with the riders preferring commercial bike riding to going to tertiary institutions because of the immediate financial gain bike-riding brings.
Prior to the launch of Operation WID by the President at a well attended ceremony at the State House gardens, Kissy Road had become the epicenter for commercial bike riding. Okada boys as we normally refer to them had taken the whole streets leaving no room even to swing a cat. Drivers spent two hours from Goderich Street to Up Gun, a distance of about 2 miles and in a free flow of traffic takes 5 minutes to ply.
One month since the launch of Operation WID, I think the planner and executors of should go back to the drawing board and measure their highs and lows and reset the button if they want it to succeed.
From its inception the operation was not only to rid commercial bikes of the central business district but it was also the intention of Health Alert, the organisation which gave government a 100-day ultimatum to get traders off the foot paths, control vehicle parking at random without regard parking space, and mitigate the increase in garbage and filth in the metropolis. However it seems as if focus has only been given to motor bike riding with police officers overusing or even abusing their power, traffic wardens toeing vehicles even when they are parked or stationed in the right place.
The specified parks have been overtaken by street traders. Rather than toe vehicles parked in the wrong place why not ask traders out of the streets where these cars should otherwise be legally occupying?
I have gone to the length and breadth of the city, it is unbelievable to still see commercial bikes on the streets that they had been earlier on asked to vacate. The operation has been overdone in certain places. Much as we want to ask traders off the streets the truth is that in certain areas that they are not disturbing traffic. For instance I do not think the stalls along the perimeter fence at CCSL headquarters should have been broken. What should have been done instead was to redesign the stalls and push them off the footpath.
Like most other curious Sierra Leoneans I cannot help but wonder when Operation WID will reach Kissy Road and Abacha Street – two streets that are ruled by traders who have converted them into markets. Or maybe the operation is just a palliative solution to this age-old menace?
I think the police should maintain Kissy Road as a no-go area for commercial bike riders especially during daytime. As I write Okadashave started using Kissy Road again even before the 9:00 PMtime allowed them.
The Freetown City Council and the road transport authority (SLRTA) should specify places where cars are allowed to park especially in the central business district as it has the concentration of offices and businesses.
Because of the absence of Okadas on the streets, passengers are finding it challenging to access public transport, in this kind of dire and chaotic condition it behooves the Road Transport Corporation (SLRTC) to flood the streets with more buses as a way of ameliorating the suffering of the vulnerable masses. You only need to go to the far east and far west and see how people fight to board commercial vehicles, see how many pupils get to school late and consequently miss out on classes.
Another important issue is the role of politics in the execution of Operation WID. Our politicians have tied every development of this country with the rope of politics. Did the President need to wait until elections were passed to ensure the unclogging of the streets of traders and abandoned vehicles? Do we need to wait after elections to enforce the law? Is that not a license for voters to hold the president to ransom or strangle his plans to develop the country?
In my presence in the office of the LUC of the Ross Road Police Station, the head of the commercial bike riders threatened the LUC who was insisting that they would not be allowed to use Kissy Road. The rider kept saying that they had made calls to those who are ‘’above’’ and they had been told to use Kissy Road. To all intents and purposes this is complete double standards by our leaders, saying one thing to the police and saying another different thing to the riders.
As a nationwe have to untie and disentangle politics from national development. Otherwise we are wasting time and resources and energy.
Asmieu Bah is a broadcast journalist working for the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation
