By Mabinty M. Kamara
Welcome to Bo! A signpost at the entrance to the district reads.
A Police officer orders all passengers onboard a vehicle to get down and wash their hands. Hand washing is one of many routines practiced to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.
But like in many other makeshift checkpoints across Sierra Leone, there was no thermometer and there were barely enough soap for every passenger in the vehicle to wash their hands.
Sierra Leone had gone through an Ebola epidemic five years ago, through which the country has learnt and used some of its experience in fighting this pandemic.
In April this year, as a way to curb the transmission of the Covid-19 to other parts of the country, President Julius Maada Bio announced a blockade which prevented people from travelling between districts. The exception was only for goods and essential personnel.
As much as this measure was meant to protect people from the virus, the outcome was different. On April 12th, when the inter-district lockdown came into effect, the country only had 10 cases, on June 24th when the lockdown ended the country had 1,354 COVID-19 cases with 460 of those cases coming from outside the Western Area.
Public Relations Officer for the Civil Society Coalition on Epidemic and Natural Disasters, Thomas Moore Conteh, said this drastic rise in number of cases in other parts of the country was down to the structural loopholes in the country’s response.
“As the time progresses, we started realizing that the inter-district lockdown was not actually yielding it desired effect because of certain lacunas either in the security system or in the overall system fighting the coronavirus. So we started advocating for [it to be lifted] because we started experiencing cases in districts that had never had cases prior to the lockdown,” he said.
Effect on businesses
The inter-district lockdown lasted for about three months, from 12th April to the 23rd of June 2020. This period for many local business people, including drivers, was a hindrance in their livelihood and sustenance.
And the brunt of this impact has been felt by traders in the informal sector. Because the informal sector doesn’t have any proper structure, it is difficult to measure the extent of the impact in terms of cost, profit and loss. But owners of small and medium businesses that we spoke to described the impact it had on them.
Mami Alpha, a trader who deals in Palm Oil in Bo, said she almost lost her business due to the lockdown.
“I know the Inter-District lockdown was to stop the transmission of COVID-19, but it was bad for me again as a poor business woman. My husband lost his job two weeks before government announced that Sierra Leone had recorded it first COVID-19 case. The Palm Oil I sell is all we have to survive from. But the inter district lockdown almost put me out of business, because it is only when I go into the interior to buy at a reasonable price and bring to Freetown that I can make profit to take care of my family,” Mrs Alpha explained to Politico.
Fatmata Kamara is a single mother who sells Garri at Bo Central Market along Fenton Road. She described the lockdown as a punishment to businesses.
"I had just bought 50bags of Garri at Sowa Chiefdom the previous week. When the President announced the inter-district lockdown, my family was suffering, because I had invested all the money I had with the hope that when I sell my goods I will have money,” he narrated.
She added: “I am the bread winner of my family, my husband died during Ebola, but with the inter-district lockdown, life was difficult for me and my family."
Jeneba Koroma sells mixed fruits and vegetables at the Kapuwa Lorry Park, commonly known as ‘How for Do’ Market in Kenema. She said the lack of transportation meant that all the fruits that she was supposed to transport from Kailahun to Kenema districts got spoiled.
“Over six bags of bananas, potatoes, ginger and pineapples got rotten because I could not get them from Kailahun to Kenema because the drivers were asking for too much money. When you bring the goods in at that price, you find it difficult to make your money back. So I preferred to leave it there,” she said.
Before the lockdown, Madam Koroma said they paid between Le40, 000 and Le50, 000 as transportation cost for themselves and their goods. She said that went up to between Le150, 000 and Le200, 000 during the inter district lockdown, at least a 300% increase from normal transport fare for that route.
Drivers lamented that they had to go for more than two months without passengers to transport and make money.
“For close to three months we had no jobs. I almost got frustrated sitting at home depending on my wife to take care of the home,” Mohamed Kanu, a driver based in Freetown, told Politico.
And it is perhaps for all these reasons why President Bio lifted the inter-district lockdown. “The fight against COVID-19 is a fight between life and livelihood, it has to be measured,” the president said as he announced relaxation of the blockade.
He added: “We should not kill the economy, especially in the region by continuing to maintain the rigid or hard lockdown that we have put in place.”
But small businesses like those of Jeneba, Fatmata and even Mamie may never recover. If they do, it will take quite a long time and some resources. SMEs and other relief schemes have to target these sorts of businesses.
What did we gain?
The inter-district lockdown was not all bad; it also came with a lot of good. Yes, cases surged, defeating the very logic behind the decision, but authorities have said the general COVID-19 pandemic could have been worse across the country had it not been for the lockdown.
Districts with much weaker health systems had time to organize and make a stand against the virus. It took Bonthe 28 days since the virus reached the country to record a case; it took Bo 32 days, Falaba 39 days and Karene 87 days.
As of July 7th, the cumulative total confirmed cases of the virus stood at 1, 547 cases. Recovery has also been high, at 1, 086 recorded as at the same periods. So it has not all been bad.
The way forward
Thomas Moore Conteh called on the government and other relevant authorities to step up and set their priorities right by taking care of the health care workers, quarantine residents, and strengthen security at border crossing points.
“If we continue to have porous borders, we continue to have quarantine homes not effectively catered for, if we continue to have our healthcare workers not happy, then the whole fight against corona will be an effort in futility. That is why we have advocated for us to go to the basics,” he said.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
