By Sallieu T. Kamara
It was Saturday 18 May 2013. A rude awakening it was for residents of Kenema, the regional headquarters of eastern Sierra Leone. Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, Musa Tarawallie reportedly led a group of youth armed with machetes, hammers and axes and demolished hundreds of kiosks and market stalls along major streets in the township. The streets affected included Blama Road (from C-Curve to the Kenema branch of Ecobank), Maxwell Khobe Street, Kombema Road and Humunya Avenue. Some people have described the action of the minister simply as “a brazen demonstration of political high-handedness” that left distasteful and devastating consequences on hundreds of thousands of people who fall largely within the poverty bracket of less than one United States dollar a day. What is bizarre about this demolition is the fact that the minister acted solo, a baffling mystery which only he, the minister, can unravel. I am not against sanitizing and decongesting the streets of our major cities and towns across the country. But the way and manner it is being carried out is what I really have problems with. Actions of this nature should not be seen to be done with venom. The people involved are also citizens of this country and they deserve to be treated as such. Civility always pays and makes things work; but force does not always pay off and sometimes begets force. Why has the minister not learned from the Freetown experience with Operation WID? Even though Operation WID itself is a failure in many respects there are very important lessons the minister should have learned from it. For many years, whenever the Freetown City Council made attempts to rid the major streets of the city of traders, those attempts would be met with stiff resistance resulting in colossal damage to life and property. But for Operation WID, the story is different. This is not because of the high personal interest President Ernest Bai Koroma has shown in the exercise. Rather, right from the outset those assigned the task of leading the process recognized and appreciated the invaluable role that all stakeholders, including the very street traders themselves, would play in making things work for the good of everyone. And indeed, things are somehow working. If anything, this is the first time we are seeing traders along the infamous Abacha Street voluntarily moving their wares from the streets even before the expiration of the grace period given to them to do so. This is the result of a series of consultations and planning meetings that were held before the commencement of the exercise in which all parties - traders, Sierra Leone Police, Office of National Security, Freetown City Council, Sierra Leone Roads Authority, drivers and bike riders - placed their cards on the table to engender open and rational discussions. This is the way civilized people should behave and the way a civilized government should treat its people. Did Minister Musa Tarawallie know this before he embarked on this abrasive venture, which has the potential of causing serious political backlash against his party, particularly in the eastern region? I understand that he started on a good footing, though, but apparently his cavalier attitude swayed him to do things his own way. He initially had a meeting in Kenema with some senior stakeholders, including the Mayor of the city and his team, and officials from the provincial and district offices, to discuss plans to remove makeshift business structures from major streets in Kenema with them. His plans received the endorsement of everyone present at the meeting. The Mayor, Joseph Kelfala, only requested the minister to give them three months to further discuss the issue with the traders and other stakeholders so as to enable them get appropriate locations for those that would be affected. The minister agreed to a one-month grace period, instead of three. For those that were at the meeting, that was the deal. But little did they know that the minister had his own plans up his sleeves. He embarked on the demolition exercise less than 72 hours after what seemed to be “a successful multi-stakeholder meeting”. So, one can see that the authority of the minister was never challenged here, even though many people believed that he was exercising it wrongly and despotically. This is where I am really confused. I really don’t know. Perhaps, somebody needs to educate me. Between the minister and the Kenema City Council, who has the responsibility to demolish “illegal” business structures in the township, particularly in the face of the Local Government Act 2004 and the ongoing decentralization process? I ask because I believe that it is indeed the responsibility of the minister to ensure that the policies of the government are fully complied with. But does that mean that he himself should be the one to directly and personally implement them? I also believe that, as minister, he should be playing more of a coordinating and supervisory role than an implementing one. Again, why was the minister oblivious of the fact that carrying such a perilous exercise all by himself without the knowledge, support and collaboration of local and state actors in Kenema could lead to unnecessary loss of life and property? No wonder both Mayor Joseph Kelfala and the Senior District Officer, Mohamed Sheik Kargbo were quick to distance themselves from the action. What if the exercise had met stiff resistance and become violently explosive? Didn’t the minister know that if this had happened he would have been the first person to be arrested, tried and, if found guilty, sent to jail? I am pretty sure that being a minister of government is by no means a license to usurp the authority and functions of other institutions of the state. I am very much aware that successive governments in Sierra Leone have been under tremendous pressure from cross-sections of the citizenry to clear major cities and towns of street traders. Fine! But much as removing traders from the streets is a fine idea, it is not as simplistic as many people would want us to believe. Whilst those pushing for the removal of traders from the streets are arguing for a cleaner and healthier environment, those urging caution are equally looking at it from the spectacles of livelihood and right; the right of the traders in the street to live and to live with dignity. Both are very important. Therefore, in dealing with one, attention must be paid to the other. Sierra Leone has a very high unemployment rate, particularly in the formal sector of the economy. The closure of the Ministry of Works or Public Works Department as a result of World Bank/International Monetary Fund conditionality and the demise of several industries at the Wellington Industrial Estate and other parts of the country as a result of the 11 years of civil war further exacerbated the unemployment problem. Today, many homes across the country largely depend on businesses and petty trading to eke out a living and keep their children in school. I know of many homes, even in Freetown, in which the women are the breadwinners and these are the people we daily see in the streets of Freetown and other towns and cities toiling under heavy rains and under the burning sun. I am sure these people don’t like the situation they find themselves in. They are only enduring because the government has failed to create the conducive environment that will enable them carry out their economic activities in dignity. This is a responsibility that falls squarely on the domain of government. It is, therefore, not just about arming thugs and getting them to destroy their tables and cart away some of their wares, but, also, it is about providing them with alternatives, so that when you move them from the streets, you have somewhere to take them to continue their businesses. This should be key if the government is really serious and cares about the well-being of its people who make up a large chunk of the world’s bottom billion. By removing traders from the streets so irresponsibly as was done in Kenema, the government is throwing tens of hundreds of children out of school and denying hundreds of others access to school, causing over one million children to go to bed on empty stomachs every night, increasing prostitution and teenage pregnancy, throwing many youth to stealing and other criminal activities and causing people particularly children and women to die of preventable diseases, among many others. Over and above all, the government will create a niggling society that is always gunning for revenge at the slightest available opportunity. Has the minister forgotten so soon the events that led to the Tunisia uprising, which eventually blossomed into the Arab Spring? Or was he too busy to did not even know or hear about it? Mohamed Bouazizi, 26, sold vegetables and fruits in the streets of Tunis to support his family. Bouazizi was ten years old when he became the main breadwinner for his family after his father died when he was only three years old. But the attitude of the local police towards him, like the highhandedness we saw in Kenema, made him to see life differently and even hated the day he was born. What did he do? Out of frustration and deep-seated hatred for his society because of the way the society treated him, he doused himself with inflammable liquid and set himself alight outside the municipality office. His death sparked a spontaneous protest that eventually brought to an end the 23-year rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. So Mr Minister, do you know how many Mohamed Bouazizis there were amongst the traders in Kenema and in other parts if the country whom you treated with extraordinary humiliation? I hope you clearly understand what I have said. I know that President Ernest Bai Koroma asked you to understand what he did not say. Maybe, this is the reason for all the haughtiness happening all over the place. So, just understand what I say and spare yourself the pains of searching for what I have not said yet.
