In the rain, they are gathered. They do not seem to have many options. They have to wait in elongated queues to board public transportation. Ideally, they were supposed to pay the sum of Two Thousand Five Hundred Leones from Bombay Street in Central Freetown to Waterloo—Western Rural Area, outskirts of Freetown. However, the transportation constraints have led to people paying the sum of Five Thousand Leones and even more to make the brief journey. These situations continue to pose a serious threat to thousands if not millions of our fellow countrymen.
Driver, Waterloo - Ten Thousand Leones? That’s what I normally pay from central Freetown, and that is just if I decide to occupy the front seat of a public vehicle. Now imagine that? From Waterloo to town, chances are that the front seat would cost around Five Thousand Leones and over. Things are just not normal, you’d want to say. In central Freetown, drivers ask for Four Thousand Leones from Regent Road/Circular Road to Lumley. In most cases, it is the average persons if not the upper class that’d decide to exceed the normal fares of Le 1,500 or Le 2,500.
I have seen people fight and even injure themselves just to get on board some of these public vehicles. This problem has been in existence since some of us were kids in this country, and it appears that such stories do not seem to be getting better. The other day, the Sierra Leone Police issued a statement that called on Waterloo drivers not to overprice fares and to avoid the halfway nomenclatures. That’s so horrible. There are vehicles that are meant to reach Bombay but will call for Jui right from Waterloo. That’s pathetic. And from Jui, others would call for Calaba Town. Do you see that?
In most of these cases, it is the poor people that suffer. There are people that would travel with a mere Three Thousand Leones around town or just Five Thousand Leones if they were to go farther. Such persons cannot afford to overpay and surely, overpaying must be a commuter’s discretion; not to be vehemently forced on people. So, there’s this passenger’s welfare association that must really step up and help the police in some regard. We need not overstate that the SLP is unstaffed and under-resourced. Let us allow them to concentrate on much bigger pictures.
In instances where we place firm laws, people may not have to go through hell to travel. This is why the government must continue to provide more busses for Sierra Leoneans. This will greatly help in ameliorating things. It is worrisome that we still find ourselves in situations where the aged and suckling mothers have to fight and force their ways onboard public transportation. By now, we should have realized that the population in Freetown is growing by the day and that the public wants and needs are also expanding.
I am very sure that state actors that reside in East Freetown are surely seeing the constraints that Sierra Leoneans are going through. From Savage Square, Cline Town, Up Gun, Ferry Junction, Shell, Congo Water, PMB, Calaba Town, Allen Town, Jui, Container, Deep Eye Water etc, passengers always wait and sometimes almost in vain just to get to Waterloo. Sometimes, the same war is in central Freetown just to get to Lumley. In that part, they could be lined up from Model, Campbell Street, St. John, Bus halt, Congo Cross, Aberdeen Road etc. It is my conviction that we should have passed this stage as a country. You begin to wonder what may have happened to the hundreds of buses that were purchased to salve some of these unfortunate occurrences. The poor maintenance culture in this country has seen to it that most of those vehicles are now stationed in garages, with little or no hopes of hitting the roads again.
In all of this, drivers have to be more cautious. We all may have heard of the fatalities that have happened along the Jui Bridge. Care has to be taken. We should trust in the Lord, but our efforts also matter. There is every need to promote responsible driving. It pays. Let us go back to the constraints. Surviving in this country is a big deal. It’s not child’s play. Most of the people that pile up for public transportation very early and late at night are business people. They have to put food on the table. For them, it’s a weekly if not a daily routine. That is the only way out. You ever wondered why the prices of basic commodities do not seem to be decreasing; they all cast the blame on not just the wholesale, but also the transportation fares.
The transport ministry is surely expected to be monitoring some of these concerns and not just to rely on the police and military. Those two forces have a whole lot to do. Let us save them from those hassles and amend what needs to be amended. This land that we love deserves better. It has to realize this and make things right. Remember, the bad policies we implement today have the aptitudes to disrupt and distress us tomorrow. People have so much to carry. Let us not allow transportation to be one hell of another solvable problem. We can make a positive change in this sector. We still have the coronavirus with us. What is happening in the transportation sector does not seem to be taking that into consideration. We have to fix this and now!
By: Sheku Putka Kamara