Opinion
By Paul Conton, Freetown.
I’ve been looking at a copy of the Government Budget for the year
2010, read in the chamber of parliament on Friday 4th December
2009 by the Honourable Minister of Finance and Development Dr
Samura Kamara.
In the general remarks, paragraphs 66 and 67 are
devoted to the SLRA and there is mention of the Port Loko-Lungi
Road and the Freetown Hill-side road among others, but no
mention of the Wilkinson Rd widening project. How strange!
Turning to the detailed budget allocations at the back, one sees
specific budget allocations for all the major road projects in the
country, but again, no mention of Wilkinson Road. How very, very
strange!
Perhaps this idea was dreamt up by His Excellency over
the Christmas and New Year festivities? Perhaps later? Whereupon
Minister Alimamy Koroma and his team sprang, obediently and
unquestioningly, into action with the bulldozers. He would have
served the President and the country better if he had asked some
questions.
One interesting question that could, indeed should, be
asked: under what authority is the Wilkinson Rd money being spent? Under the constitution, after all,
parliament is the ultimate budget authority and approves in advance all planned government
expenditures for the forthcoming year when it passes the budget.
Now it’s also true that the constitution
does allow the President to
authorize extra-budgetary
expenditures in certain
situations.
Even more interestingly,
where is this Wilkinson Rd.
money coming from? It’s not
as though government has
millions of dollars sitting in a
safe at Treasury waiting for
presidential projects to come
along. Every last cent of
forecast revenue has an eager
ministry to which it is
allocated, and then the
government needs to hope
and pray that donors come in with their budget support (40% of expenditure) if they are to satisfy the
existing commitments outlined in the budget.
So where oh where is the government getting these
unbudgeted billions for this project? Oh-oh! Something tells me the APC is slipping back into another
one of their tried and tested tactics: printing money by the rice bag!
The national psyche
I have discussed this project
with a good number of people
and am aware that many,
possibly the majority of
Freetonians, support it.
Two reasons most frequently stand
out in support: (1) “Traffic will
flow much easier on Wilkinson
Rd. and it will cut many
wasted man hours on the way
into town.” But of course!
Everyone is in favour of this as
an objective! The question is
whether widening of
Wilkinson Rd to four lanes at
one go was the only, or the
best, or the most cost-effective
way to achieve this objective for a cash-strapped economy.
In the hasty anticipation of 2011 and 2012
this question was never
seriously addressed.
(2) “It will bring development.”
This is perhaps the more
curious of the two reasons in
support, and it brings me
once again to this slippery
concept of development:
What is it and how do we get
it?
A metal billboard has
collapsed and is protruding
about three or four feet into
one of the lanes on the
Congo Cross bridge. It has
been there for many, many
weeks now. Would the
people spending all these
billions on building a four Sanders
St. - in the heart of the city
lane highway to connect with the Congo Cross Bridge, the SLRA, kindly divert a tiny amount of their
resources to
removing this
hazard from the
existing four-lane
highway before it
causes a serious
accident.
Similarly, at the
junction of
Krootown Road
and Adelaide
street a manhole
has been left open
and unmarked for
many weeks. This
is not your
average SLRA
‘gallop’. A grown
man could smash
his skull if he
unwittingly stepped into this hole on a dark night. A vehicle going at speed would likely somersault.
These are just two examples from literally thousands that litter Freetown’s streets. A leisurely drive
along Syke Street, one of Freetown’s best roads, reveals in rapid succession: huge pothole, standing
water on the road, running water on the road, missing curbstones, rutted sidewalk, filthy gutters, gaping
holes in the pavement at the National Stadium entrance, utility maintenance cover sunk well below the
surface of the road, utility maintenance cover protruding above the surface of the road, road markings
faded to invisibility, small pile of rubbish on the road, huge pothole, standing water on the road, running
water…..The list is endless. In any other country these would be abnormalities.
In Sierra Leone this is
entirely normal. Indeed the average Sierra Leonean probably does not even realize that these things are
not supposed to be so, because this is all
he or she has ever known. We all, me and
you included, have become so used to the
pathetic condition of our environment that
most of the time we don’t even see it.
(Interestingly, when I took the picture on
the bridge I was trying to get the billboard,
and was not even aware there was a
gaping hole in the pavement until I looked
at the picture!)
This is how it is, this is all
we know – the three young men
miraculously escape the hole even though
their attention is far removed from it.
Parts of central Freetown smell like one
big cesspit. You venture near the gutters at
great peril of being attacked by
mosquitoes, flies, rats, and possibly a reptile or two. Babies and small children live and eat and play in
this environment. But this is entirely normal for Minister Koroma and the SLRA.
Why else would they
divert resources that could have been used to clean up the city into an unplanned and possibly
unnecessary prestige project?
The idea that a four-lane highway will somehow make us more developed than a two-lane highway is
bizarre. Sober countries build two-lane roads and four-lane roads according to their needs, which are
carefully analysed. If a Martian somehow managed to land on earth, knowing nothing about Sierra
Leone, and he came to Freetown, within one minute of his arriving here he would conclude that we are
definitely undeveloped. But he would conclude this not because of the absence of four-lane highways
(after all he would have seen many, many two-lane roads in developed countries), but because of the
filth, the lack of proper design and maintenance and the lack of order on our roads. If even we build one
hundred four-lane highways stretching the length and breadth of the republic we would never be
regarded by serious people as a developed country if we maintain our living environment in as wretched
a condition as we do now.
In discussing this issue I’ve also been surprised at how easily Sierra Leoneans who are not affected will
accept (sometimes even appear to rejoice in) the seizure without compensation of their compatriots’
property. Doubtless some of these same supporters would take a different view if they themselves were
directly affected.
Safety
Safety on the new road is a great concern, as I had mentioned in my previous article. A new safety
concern arises from the drainage problem, which is serious on Wilkinson Road and should have been
addressed long before now, quite independently of building a four-lane highway. It appears one of the
first two culverts built by the Chinese empties on to private land in between two two-storey residences.
This is a huge concern. There are large amounts of water coming down from the surrounding hills, and
as construction continues on the hills above Wilkinson Road the problem is going to get even worse.
Additionally, one of the environmental consequences of four-lane highways is the much greater run-off
from the road itself. The drainage system is as important (and perhaps as expensive) as the actual road,
and needs to be properly
designed if the houses and
roads below Wilkinson Road
are not to be subjected to
flooding. The water needs to
be safely channeled down to
the sea. Building huge
culverts under the road for
the water to pass is fine, but
presumably no sane
contractor or government
would stop there. Otherwise
at the height of the rainy
season everything in the path
of these culverts would be
swept away.
But this is precisely what seems to be the plan at present. The just-completed four-foot-high
culvert at Whitepole empties directly onto private land. Is it to be left like this, with the potential for
disaster next rainy season? Or is the government going to seize land from the edge of Wilkinson Road
all the way down to the sea to continue the culverts? At all the water crossing points?
Congo Town
In the sixties, when I attended the Prince of Wales School, Congo Town was a viable, daily two-lane
route into town. Indeed, ironically, Congo Town was two lanes and the old Congo Cross bridge was one.
Congo Town lost its importance after the new Congo Cross (Peace) Bridge was built (I think it was in
’73 – for the reader who might not know, you can still see the old bridge underneath the new one) and
was gradually abandoned by government. When the Congo Town bridge collapsed a few years back,
government ignored it completely (OK, that was that other useless outfit, the SLPP!), until a UN
Pakistani or Bangladeshi Battalion rebuilt the one-lane bridge that exists now. Congo Town could still
serve as a viable alternative to Motor Main Road and the Peace Bridge. If there is one area in Western
Freetown that has been crying out for urban renewal it is Congo Town.
In places, the road can easily be
widened and lay-bys constructed. If you have to pull down houses (and this should always be a last
resort) many of the houses along Congo Town are very old, wooden houses, on their last legs, rather
than the newer concrete structures along Motor Main Road. And if the folks at SLRA had really been
thinking about this Wilkinson Road problem, there was a relatively simple solution in Congo Town.
There was
already a small,
scarcely used
road from
Murray Town
running from
the junction to
the Total petrol
station.
Continue this
along the edge
of Vine School
(wall already
demolished),
and there is
clear access
from Murray
Town into
Congo Town
without crossing
Wilkinson
Road.
Presto,
the very troublesome Murray Town junction is eliminated at very little cost, and at least one third of the
Wilkinson Road problem is solved. Vehicles coming from Murray Town in the morning rush hour could
be required to use the Congo Town route without crossing Wilkinson Road and holding up traffic there.
This road could have easily solved the Murray Town junction problem – if only SLRA had been
thinking!
Irksome
What makes all this
even more irksome is
that had this process
not been stagemanaged
from above and had
SLRA been thinking
about their work much
of the inconvenience,
the daily transportation
delays, the lack of
water, electricity and
phone service, the
mud, the uncertainty
and mental torment for
property owners, the
increased risk of house
break-ins, the increased
risk to schoolchildren
and other pedestrians
who now have to walk
on the road rather than
on whatever sidewalk
there might have been,
all of this could have
been minimized by the
very simple expedient
of undergoing this
widening a little bit at a
time, even if the
ultimate intention was to widen the whole length of Wilkinson Road.
If there had been the slightest
regard for the affected residents
and users of the road, a sensible
gradualist approach could have
started with the design of the
intersections, the most
troublesome area, and then
moved to perhaps the Water St to
Congo Cross stretch, leaving all
other areas untouched until each
section was completed. But no, in
a rash display of impulsive
arrogance, everything from
Water Street to Lumley had to be
bulldozed at one go. As things stand now, even if the project is completed on schedule (which I
seriously doubt) many areas will remain in their sorry state for the next year.
This matter is of vital importance to all Sierra Leoneans, not just Wilkinson Rd. residents and users,
because it involves fundamental rights and freedoms supposedly guaranteed to all citizens: the right to
hold and enjoy private property, the right to privacy and to dignity, to protection from deprivation of
property without compensation, all entrenched in our constitution. The government’s actions in this
matter call into question the rule of law and mark a return to the heavy hand of an authoritarian past.
The lack of consultation and negotiation with property owners is tantamount to abuse of power and
abuse of office. What possible reason could the government have for refusing to pay compensation for
land seized? It calls into question the very free enterprise system under which we are supposedly
operating.
Because if you fail to pay compensation for land you have appropriated it means you believe
the owner has no real right to it, that you believe you can seize private property wherever and whenever
you want. It returns us to the ‘upline’ feudal system (to which some politicians would no doubt love to
consign the Western Area), where rulers reign supreme over the land and everything on it. How ironic
for a government that claims to be eager to attract foreign investors and Western funding!
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