By Ibraheem Daramy
Some 15 years ago, the government of Sierra Leone contracted the Senegalese civil engineering firm, Sahelian Company of Enterprise (CSE), to reconstruct the road from Panlap in Makeni to the Guinean border town of Madina Oula. The intention then was to open up the corridor that would facilitate the movement of people from the northern flank to countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, etc. etc. without passing through the Guinean capital, Conakry. Like the European Union, maybe you can describe ours as an unrealistic dream given our way of life, it’s a must for every member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, to facilitate free movement of goods and services. The contractor set up shop at Matehun and Kamalo, in the Ngowahun and Sanda Loko chiefdoms. As always in the case of projects of this scale, the euphoria was deafening for communities along the just under 120 kilometers stretch. And why not? The 98 million dollars project kicked off from either end of the road with comprehensive bush clearings – I personally witnessed the bulldozers pulling down giant tress. However, the contractor started demobilizing when he could no longer pay his workers, because of government’s indifference in servicing his accounts. Fast forward, the paving of the road only stopped at Gbendembu, some 25 kilometers from Makeni. There has never been any attempt, barring some pothole refilling, on that road for over a decade today.
The bridge, or should I say the crossing enabler, for my being lay in engineering terms, that collapsed has been waiting to claim lives for the better part of 2 decades, it could have been anyone of us, including the Chief culprits, the political elites. But like the Magbele bridge, renamed Adikali Modu today, courtesy of the money from one of our slave master benefactors, the European Union, which only got replaced over 35 years after it was deemed unfit. For your information, it expired in 1975. It would not require a mathematical genius to calculate how we’ve rode our luck commuting through it all those years.
I was detailed by the then Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED), to fill in George Street about the progress or otherwise of the road. I had a direct line to some heavy lifters at the budget bureau, just so you know I’ve got enough on the subject matter. I would be called to assist volunteers of the Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS), as they go out collecting data.
When I heard the bridge between Matehun and Gbendembu had caved in, all I asked was how much was lost – never surprised it finally happened. I remember joining others to have the authorities do something about it. The other day I told others onboard a vehicle headed for Kamakwei to take a walk across the bridge, there was this gaping hole waiting for a call to action. Thank goodness they obliged me. My unequivocal sympathy to the 3 people that got caught up in the attempted homicide – your surviving it compensates for my frustrations. No wonder the road monopoly, Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA), did a hasty release by simply throwing in the towel as the one that bears the greatest responsibility. Over to our compatriots in the legal profession.
One day, the Chairman of the Karene District Council, Abdul Kandeh Turay, in his desperate firefighting move, brought in a concrete slab to fill this huge hole, I don’t know how healthy it was, but it’s something I saw as papering over the cracks. Don’t get me wrong, this is a politician who would want his people to see him standing up to adversity.
Even when we had the defected bridge, it has always been a tough ask for motorists on this stretch of the road during the raining season. Ascending Kathonthoro, a steep, rocky hill, a few kilometers to Kamakwei has always been another worry during this time of the year – so adding the collapsed bridge on top of it does seem like the end of the road altogether. If only this had happened during the dries, we might have just found a way to cut our losses. In order to keep earning their living, motorists came up with an alternative route, though with a huge cost. They would have to go through Gbendembu or Kalangba, depending on the direction you are coming from, via Lohindi, which is like another 5-6 kilometers added. On a severe rainy day, it’s good business for those muscular village boys – they collect Le20 to get a motorcycle to the other side. In the end, the already impoverished population would have to put up with all the additional costs.
