By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Amidst the long queue of weary-looking passengers at Regent Road in central Freetown, sweating profusely is Ibrahim Kargbo. They are eagerly waiting for the next available Poda Poda (commercial transport vehicle).
In the meantime, they are discussing the failures or mistakes or inactions that allow commercial transport drivers exploit commuters, forcing thousands of Sierra Leoneans to hassle daily for transport, with impunity.
“It`s difficult when you have just Le 1,000 these days when drivers are into this ‘half-way’ syndrome,” Kargbo laments.
An acute shortage of transport vehicles has left endless queues everywhere in the city – from the east to the west. Reports indicate the situation is the same elsewhere in the country. The hassle this shortage creates poses an even bigger challenge to disadvantaged categories of the society, like the disabled and the elderly.
At Bombay Street car park, in the east of the capital, as usual the place is parked full of commuters anxiously waiting for vehicles. From this park you can get transport to many parts of the Western Area. But because of the same shortage in commercial vehicles, passengers with their luggage wait for endless hours. Jeremiah Dwohin, who works as a printer in one of the local tabloids, says for him it has become a difficult routine.
“I sometimes stand in the queue from noon till night,” he tells Politico.
With this situation, Jeremiah adds, he often arrives home very late. He says this has made it difficult to travel between Waterloo and Freetown.
Police harassment
As a low income earner, Jeremiah says, he finds this very difficult to handle. Like him, all the anger from passengers is directed to the drivers.
But Ibrahim Bangura, a driver, says the blame goes to the Police, whom he says are constantly harassing drivers. He explains that this police harassment takes the form of arresting and prosecuting drivers for minor offences. He says most times even when drivers commit no traffic offence the police create excuses.
Bangura describes the situation as frightening and contends that it has led to a situation where many drivers have changed routes that they previously plied, hence the ‘half-way’ syndrome.
“I am afraid to go to areas where police officers would arrest me,” he says.
But to many, justifying this half-way practice on alleged police extortion is untenable, especially when viewed from humanitarian grounds, given the endemic level of poverty in the country.
A great majority of Sierra Leoneans cannot meet the financial demands that guarantee unhindered journey from one point to the other. This situation is terrible especially for employees since they have an obligation to report on time. And many fear the worst with the coming rainy season.
100 buses
Abdul Karim Dumbuya, Public Relations Officer of the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA), says they acknowledge the situation and have been working very hard to address it. He adds that he has engaged several media especially the electronic ones to discourage drivers from demanding double fares from passengers.
“The situation would be solved when the hundred buses arrive,” the SLRSA spokesman says, referring to the much trumpeted pending arrival of the buses government says it has ordered from China.
Ansumana Ngobeh, Secretary-general of the Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union (MDGTWU), says the demand for transport services far exceeds the supply. And this, he adds, creates room for the drivers to put up the wrong attitudes.
Mr Ngobeh also shares the blame with passengers.
“Passengers usually volunteer to pay the two or three-way transport fare,” he says, adding that it will be difficult for a driver to refuse the offer.
The union hopes to tackle the issue through its Traffic Marshals who have been deployed at strategic points to regulate the conduct of drivers, as well as passengers. Ngobeh says passengers are sometimes violent to themselves whenever they are in the queues.
“I have witnessed a situation in which a passenger slapped a colleague when trying to enter a vehicle,” he says.
Ngobeh also highlights the concrete steps the union has been taking to bring sanity to the transport sector. He cites numerous meetings his organisation has had with key stakeholders in the transport sector, including the SLRSA and the Ministry of Transport, all geared towards ensuring that passengers adhere to the queue system to avoid fighting and quarrels.
The National Traffic Coordinator of the Sierra Leone Police, Supt. Ambros Sovula, says he is also aware of the situation. He explains that the Sierra Leone Police being the principal law enforcement agency is determined to nip in the bud the two-way syndrome. He says several arrests have already been made in that direction and that the fight is on-going.
The traffic coordinator cannot give exact statistics of the number of drivers charged to court and he says the matters were all pending.
“We will continue to charge those drivers,” he says.
If their testimonies are anything to go by, the reality on the ground though does not reflect on the work which all these authorities say they are doing.
© Politico 09/06/15
