By Sallieu T. Kamara
In his address during the State Opening of Parliament on Friday 14 December 2012, President Ernest Bai Koroma informed Sierra Leoneans that his government had signed an agreement with the China Railway International Limited for the construction of a new international airport at Mamamah, about 60 kilometres from Freetown. The cost of the proposed airport was put at US$315 million. This is indeed a whopping amount! The government has also earmarked the site of the new airport for the establishment of the new city. Highly ambitious projects!
Sources from the Ministry of Finance, Development and Economic Planning in Freetown have confirmed that already the Government is at an advanced stage of discussions with the Export and Import Bank (EXIM Bank) of China to secure a loan and the China Railway International Limited (CRI) for the construction of the Mamamah airport. EXIM-Bank is believed to be the world’s third largest credit export agency, whilst CRI is a subsidiary of the China Railway Group Limited that does surveys and designs, construction and installation of industrial manufacturing infrastructures.
Reaction to this has been mixed. On the one hand, these projects would serve as a big boost for the development of the country. But also there is the fear that these ambitious projects would only end up further enriching a few individuals and institutions at the expense of quality and sustainability.
Underlining that fear is that government would be using public money to develop the private sector at the expense of the citizens. This feeling is informed by experiences of the past whereby government would have to spend more money for big projects of this nature than initially estimated, due to high-level corruption perpetuated and expertly executed by the very people who were charged with the responsibility to prevent such graft.
Projects took longer than the scheduled time to be completed, whilst others were either abandoned or dismally done. I want to believe that the appointment by Ernest Bai Koroma of the former Deputy Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Morlai Buya-Kamara as Project Director suggests that the president too is aware of this fact.
I hold the view that what we should have done as a nation was to examine this project critically and thoroughly and then situate it within the context of the government’s Agenda for Prosperity to see how much it would help to promote or stifle the Agenda’s core objectives.
Will the construction of the new airport and subsequently the new city at Mamamah reduce let alone eradicate the scourge of poverty, injustice and inequality among the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans who are helplessly poor? Was it a fundamentally flawed decision by the government to have undertaken this project in the first place, judging by the present state and shape of the country’s economy? Does it make much meaning to spend US$315 million for the construction of the new airport shortly after the government had spent £ 8 million to refurbish the Freetown International Airport at Lungi, particularly when you take the air traffic in the country into consideration? These are some of the questions, I believe, should have exercised the minds of the initiators of the Mamamah Project. If after doing this, they still could not find satisfactory answers, then they should throw the ball into the court of the citizenry.
I am personally very keen on the Mamamah International Airport project and I have been following every happening that relates to it. I sometimes make brief stops at Mamamah and its environs and chat with the indigenes about their knowledge and perception of the proposed new international airport. Invariably, I also engage the indigenes of Lungi on how they think the construction of the new international airport at Mamamah would impact on them each time I visit there. The responses I always get from both communities are distinctively different, and show clearly the underlying danger in the failure of government to adequately seek the views of the populace on big projects like this.
But, the government continues to try to drill home the argument that the construction of the Mamamah airport would make the Lungi International Airport even more viable, as it will serve as the West African regional hub, an economic zone and a logistic depot for West African peacekeeping forces. I totally disagree. From my reading of the prevailing situation, and from my experience, the moment you transfer the international airport to Mamamah, Lungi and its satellite villages will immediately cease to be the economically viable communities they used to be. This is because the people of Lungi rely very heavily on the Freetown market for the sale of their agricultural produce. This is a daily routine using mostly the ferry for their moment because it is cheaper and safer.
It, therefore, goes without saying that the closure of the airport to international commercial flights could impact negatively on the effectiveness of the ferry services thereby resulting in excruciating pain and suffering for the people, as well as increasing the risk to their lives and property. Even now, the ferry services in this country are a total disgrace and an embarrassment to the state, and the handlers have little or no regard for the poor even though they are not using their services for free. They care more for those very few who have arrogated themselves the status of “God’s special species” on earth and who have all what it takes to make themselves safe and comfortable, and the rest of mankind unsafe, uncomfortable and destitute.
My projection here is that no sooner the commercial activities of the airport are transferred to the new Mamamah airport than residents of Lungi and its environs will be left entirely at the mercy of canoe operators with the attendant consequences. The services of the ferry will become more erratic because the management knows that they are now dealing mostly with Franz Fanon’s “wretched of the earth” of Paul Collier’s “The Bottom Billion”. So, how can Lungi become more viable?
However, if there is a dyed-in-the-wool commitment by the government to transform Lungi into a new city as they would want us to believe, then they certainly got it wrong by constructing the Mamamah International airport, particularly at this stage of our economic development. We can still achieve this, at least by my estimation, without going through the rigours of establishing a new airport and a new city at Mamamah. Even though the face of the Lungi airport has improved considerably, there is still room for further development and expansion, and the space is there to do just that. Why does the government not use part of the US$315 million to do that and save the rest for something else?
Again, I always believe that the major problem about Lungi hinges on our inability to provide effective means of transportation to move people and goods to and from Freetown. This problem, I believe, could be eased by using part of this huge chunk of money to either construct a bridge across the Freetown estuary or improve the ferry services. If we choose to have the bridge, then we can construct it on the shortest crossing points to minimise cost. But if we still find the cost involved to be too much, then we can go for the ferries.
We should get rid of all the old ferries that we have at present and buy at least four brand new ones. The landing points at both Kissy Dockyard and Targrin should also be improved and increased to at least four, so ferries can ply the route at any point in time. There is absolutely no need for commuters to have to sit for a whole day or for several hours in scruffy environments just waiting for these rickety ferries to move. It is not good for economic activity either.
With an effective ferry service that ensures departures on either side of the estuary every 15 – 20 minutes, there will be increased economic activity among the people of Lungi and Bullom which will improve incomes, and more locally-produced food will be available. It will also ensure accessible and relatively cheap goods on the market resulting in government generating more revenue in taxes, amongst other benefits. This can be done in tandem with the reconstruction and expansion of the Targrin-Lungi road to a four-lane highway. Once we are able to do this, I am pretty certain that many residents of Freetown will move over to the other side of the river and more development projects will be springing up all over the place. Freetown will decongest without the police involving in any brawl with anybody. You only need to go to Dakar in Senegal (Goree Island) to see what I am saying. There is nothing wrong for our children to reside in Lungi and attend school in Freetown.
Further, if it is the intention of the government to make Lungi a viable regional economic zone after the Mamamah international airport will have been constructed, then the government should begin to put the appropriate measures in place to give it the necessary facelift, in addition to what I have already mentioned. Government should note that for the proposed regional economic hub to be established and working, certain infrastructure and key components of government offices, departments and agencies should not only be established there but must also be working effectively and efficiently. This will ensure that business people and other investors coming into the country will carry out a plethora of activities in Lungi with their local partners without having to cross over to Freetown. I am sure this is in line with the president’s “visionary approach to infrastructural development”.
Writing in Agenda for Prosperity document, President Koroma affirmed that to achieve a sustainable future for all Sierra Leoneans, the challenge of unemployment must be addressed. I cannot agree with him more. I can only dare to ask if the president genuinely sees unemployment as one of the stinging challenges of his government, why then does he not use the money for the new Mamamah airport to create sustainable jobs for his people? We have the orphaned Industrial Estate at Wellington in the eastern part of the city lying waste and in ruins.
Several years back, the estate was home to many industries, factories and other companies that were providing jobs to thousands of people, mainly artisans and unskilled. The advantages were many, and the government was the biggest winner of it all – there were more people in employment, citizens’ capacity in terms of skills acquisition and incomes strengthened, both workers and companies were paying taxes to government to bolster the national coffers, there were stable and peaceful homes with improved living conditions.
Yes, we can blame the 11 years of civil war for the destruction of the Estate. But what have we done as a nation after the war to resuscitate this once viable place? Very little, if anything! The Wellington Industrial Estate, which used to produce quality confectionaries such as sweets, mints, biscuits and other good quality products, and which used to be a spectacular hub for bright and breezy workers, has today become a monstrous eyesore.
Perhaps, the most disturbing aspect of the Wellington Industrial Estate is the way and manner the government sits by and allows people to encroach on this very important place. In fact, some people have even taken illegal occupancy of some of the buildings that used to house some companies in the full view of the government. This is one very important place in which the government should have placed premium. This is where the need and importance of public-private partnership comes in. Revive the Estate and put people to work.
I am not in any way saying that the Mamamah project is not a good one. It is excellent. But looking at it from the context of the Agenda for Prosperity, and from all our yearnings for poverty eradication, who stands to benefit most? And who loses most? Is it the poor people or those who are already rich and powerful? Whose interests will the airport serve most? Is it the poor people or the economic vampires who are always thirsty for more? Who will be squeezed out of their traditional homes leaving behind all their sources of livelihoods to face a new and uncertain future? And who will then come in to fill the space that these helpless people have left behind to establish and expand their chain of businesses?
I will, therefore, conclude by saying that if I were Mr President, I would not have committed the government to undertake this flagship project at such a huge cost to the nation. I should have thought of better and more profitable ways of utilising that money. I quite agree that the Mamamah project is very important and could be necessary in time to come. But, for now, it is neither urgent, nor a priority to our present development aspirations.
(C) Politico 15/07/14
