By Isaac Massaquoi
If Operation WID hasn't collapsed already, then it's in deep trouble and may need a significant dose of effort, sincerity and political commitment, more structured and profound than what was required to restore New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
The failure of Operation WID will represent the defeat of our collective desire to organise our city like any modern city and to fight naked criminality and lawlessness in Freetown, a city which even during the civil war years wasn't as chaotic and impossible as it is today. From the look of things, Operation WID will go the way of its predecessors, including Operation Free Flow, if urgent and determined steps are not taken put it back on the rails.
This operation was launched in January by President Koroma at State House with all those institutions and groups that matter in the process, in attendance. Listening to the president on that day, I was left with the impression that he meant every word he uttered at the occasion. I thought to myself: Here is a man who's just being re-elected to a second and final term of office beginning the process of consolidating his legacy. The president's choice of words, his demeanour, the venue and the participants were all enough to tell the most cynical Sierra Leonean that this was for real. He cannot now allow his project to die this shameful death. There are many people who gave Operation WID no chance of survival and they are waiting to say: We told you so.
I think the first step to take to breathe a new life into Operation WID is for the president to relieve the new Minister of Health of her job as head of the Presidential Task Force on Operation WID. I have nothing against her and honestly think she was appointed because the president was convinced she could deliver. But with her appointment as minister, the president ought to have relieved her of her responsibility with the task force, to give her adequate time to respond to the challenges facing her ministry. She must not continue leading the Task Force even in a nominal way. The job needs somebody with real authority who can take quick decisions and go to the frontlines to check the progress of the operation and do bi-weekly reports for other members to consider and so keep Operation WID under constant review.
Miatta Kargbo's job has been made particularly difficult with the ACC's indictment of several senior people in that ministry for alleged corruption. There couldn't have been a worse time for any minister to take office. The people who should show her the ropes are off to stand trial and though she may replace them in name, she may need all the time available to her to get to grips with what the ministry of health is really about.
Operationalizing Operation WID has also been a great problem. Many residents of Freetown greeted the project with the usual cynicism that has come to represent the way people in this city react to such initiatives. They have been down those roads before and have found themselves at dead end. So I understand why. But I have had conversations with many people who, even at this moment are prepared to give Operation WID a fighting chance. They are among those Sierra Leoneans who are so fed up with the country’s politics that they can't really be bothered.
A lot of people have been waiting for Operation WID to be fully implemented at Sani Abacha Street. Majority of the traders there have allied themselves with the ruling party in such a way that it was expected that clearing that place first would have made a solid statement of the government's no-nonsense commitment to this operation. But even on the government’s own timetable, the guardians of Operation WID have failed to move in on Sani Abacha Street. I have only seen cosmetic movements that fail to meet the most basic pledge of Operation WID. I think it's down to lack of political will and in the end I have to conclude that the authorities are being blackmailed for votes. The risk is they may lose more by failing to follow through on their own pledges and fighting unnecessarily hard to satisfy Abacha Street Traders.
Still on the operations side, the way the police are carrying out the WID mandate is again suspect. I have been told stories of police corruption and favouritism in the course of this operation and on many occasions I have dismissed such accusations as an attempt to manipulate public opinion against the police. But when I came face-face, again, with police officers receiving bribes near the taxi park on the upper part of Charlotte Street last week, I was left extremely disappointed. Look around Siaka Stevens Street and you will notice that Okada riders are becoming increasingly bold, operating under the noses of the police and traffic wardens.
In fact Operation WID is now more about cars being parked in the wrong place than about traders flooding all our main streets. It's even no longer about criminals roaming the streets and distressing people on a daily basis. It's about the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority making big money. The SLRTA charges erring motorists unrealistic amounts of money and I hear them now talking in terms of millions of US dollars as target for this year.
In all of this, we haven't heard a word from the Mayor of Freetown who made a lot of capital out of that grand launch of Operation WID at State House. In those early days, he continued riding the wave of President Koroma’s popularity. Now, by his own steam, he has to prove himself in office. When he addressed Creole Descendants recently, he grumbled about lack of funds to run the council and his intention to sack some workers and cut the wage bill. I am waiting to see the details of that proposal. But he has to be careful not to plunge the place into chaos.
In my article welcoming him to office, I suggested that the council must sell its football team without any further delay. The team has a place in the Premier League and there are a few high quality players there. Put all that together and the council will boast of something in the region of fifty million leones. They sold just one player to money bundles, Diamond Starts, for eighteen million leones last season. That was good business.
The point is, the council is just too financially weak to own and run a football team. So when the Mayor talks about cutting the council’s wage bill, this will be a good place to start.
One piece of good news (let’s call it that) coming out of Freetown last week was the beginning of the work of the company in charge of waste management in Freetown. I can only hope they succeed. I am sure you understand why I say so. Filth is taking over. Stand on top of the bridge at Savage Street and look down into the stream and see the environmental mess we have created – people are daily pouring plastic sachets and containers, mixed with domestic rubbish into the stagnant water and they couldn’t care less what anyone thinks. All the gutters along Fourah Bay Road and Bai Bureh road right down to Allen Town are all packed with rubbish and overflowing with dirty water. Surely, the city council can’t tell me that’s not part of their job. And they can’t also tell me they’ve just come to office. Bode Gibson has been there all the time and he should have hit the ground running. I am beginning to ask myself this question: Is Bode really the man for the City?
Like many of the residents of this city, I want Operation WID to succeed and for Freetown’s facilities to improve and reflect the level of sophistication people have come to expect from modern cities, be it in West or Southern Africa. But I am hanging on a very thin thread and my hope is fading.
Operation WID should not be allowed to fail and this is the time to raise our level of optimism with concrete and practical confidence building steps and refocusing the operation.
