APC needs to clean up Freetown!

“What goes around comes around,” this is an adage that I am never ready to use in my conversation, and it is only the APC government that is forcing me to use it because of the reckless way they are handling the state of affairs of my darling country, Sierra Leone. When the opposition (SLPP) was in power, Freetown was a very filthy place. There was refuse all over the city and until the SLPP left power, the authorities were not able to identify the reason for the massive filth that was found in every corner of the city. It was not an easy thing to control the stench situation of the city. The expertise German government was employed and the filth was somehow put under strict control. There was a clean environment when that happened but the amount of filth that was cleared by the GTZ in the city per every hour was unimaginable. The city rubbish disposal (Bomeh) became a no go area and eye sore to citizens. It is for that reason the United Nations Peacekeeping force decided to make a wall round the Bai Bureh Road Bomeh to contribute to the country’s development. That was what it took for the SLPP government that took power in the middle of a chaotic war country. Frankly that was a difficult task for the SLPP to handle. There were too many challenges on the SLPP’s plate when they were elected to power. They had to secure peace at a time when the country was a failed state,  reform the ex-combatants, restructure the Police, restructure the educational system, create a corrupt free environment, rebuild the infrastructure, reform the civil service and on and on and on. It takes a whole intellectual team to stand up to that kind of enormity of a problem. It was a difficult task! There is not a single Sierra Leonean that is expected to deny that fact.

Many Sierra Leoneans have deliberately refused to talk about the reason for Freetown being as dirty as it were and in fact as it is up till now. This is not my first time to talk about the filth issue this year. In 2005, I called on the U.N. radio Night Line program and lengthily discussed with D.J. Base the causes and solutions of the menace of filth in Freetown. In that program I said it very clearly that it was the work sabotage by the then opposition (APC) which controlled the City Council responsible for cleaning the city.  The APC surreptitiously mobilized youth, market women and business people to always deposit filth in the streets of the city. The APC knew very well that the SLPP will not try to implement any laws that will make the general populace especially traders stage strikes. In other words the SLPP was intimidated by chaos especially coming after a war with former rebels all over the city. There was the willingness to make laws that will prevent people from messing the country as a whole but it was also believed that the country was just trying to move away from war. Because of those reasons it was agreed that any law that may ignite fire should not be enacted. That was what the APC took advantage of. The APC talked the Abacha street sellers and all other petty traders to always continue to mess the country and refuse to move away from the streets even if they were going to lose their monies by way of seizure from the Police. At a time Sam Sumana jetted in with some money to give these market women to continue selling in the street even when their commodities were seized.

The APC provided money to the market women in secret places and told them to sell in the city centre and refuse to clean all the refuse that is being put there. There were special people being paid to block the gutters and sewages in the city. The APC at that time mastered the massive movement waste into the city centre and drainages throughout the city. They connived with the waste control officials to leave the city filthy so that it will appear as if the government then is never serious to do anything about it. All efforts were made by the SLPP government to combat the menace but could not succeed. I remember at one time the present resident Minister South, Musa Tarawally, and other SLPP youth, with the support of the former vice president, Solomon Ekuma Berewa, cleaned the city from Allen Town to Lumely. I implore my readers to know that Musa Tarawally was at that and if not still a strong member of the SLPP. Those efforts were thwarted by the secret APC filth propanganda. A day after that massive cleaning was done, the city returned to massive dirt once again like nothing was done the previous day. It was a surprise for everyone in the city. Many people knew what was going on but refused to talk about it, journalists inclusive.

Now, it is the same APC government that is in power. All the sewages that were blocked by them are still blocked. That is the reason the city has become filthier than it were during the SLPP. It is the reason Magistrates at court No.1A are not able to sit in their court because of the offensive odor that keep the place unbearable, the reason Swizzy boys are not able to earn their living because the place is stinking, the reason heavy flood is taking place at Mabela, the reason for the streets of Freetown to be on the standstill during the rainy season because of excess water in the street, the reason for Abacha street not be accessible, the reason for all major streets to be littered with street trading, the reason for containers to kill people because of inaccessibility, the reason for the frontage of diplomatic missions like the British High Commission to be so nasty, the reason for a dustbin to be placed at the back yard of State House, the reason for foreigners to seize the main street of Freetown; Siaka Stevens Street, to flout the laws of the country and create a special park area for their convenience, the reason for Indians to place their football betting game in the middle of Siaka Stevens street and go scot free and the reason for State House itself to run out of water in the toilets. So, what the APC did has become an overwhelming task to them. The worst thing is that the people has become so used to the bad habit, they will hardly be able to remove themselves from it. The petty traders have vowed not to move from the streets even if classic malls are being built for them and for free. The youth that were paid to throw trash in the streets are now used to it and have become part of their life styles. The waste management officials that were hired to clean refuse have become lazy and therefore not able to do their work anymore. The SLRA workers that were lured into messing up with the clearing of the gutters are now thinking it is their rights to be given extra money to do their job.

That is how everything is messed up in that country right now. It is how the APC set themselves up with a problem that they will never be able to solve. They are bound to clean the city because it was they who messed it up. APC should clean Freetown otherwise the people will kick them out of power.       

By Umaru Sitta Turay, New York, USA

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