By Mohamed Vandi
The road linking the Eastern Region Headquarter town of Kenema to the diamond-rich town of Tongo Fields has become a death trapped. This ugly development has not only increased transport cost, but has also made it very difficult for commercial vehicles to ply the route. The commercial Motor Bikes are now the major means of transportation to that location.
Saidu Sesay is one of the Okada riders in Tongo. He tells me at the Tongo Motor Park that the road condition is deployable and has had “negative economic impact” on their community as prices of rice and other foodstuff have drastically increased to an “unaffordable” cost for the poor.
Sesay says most of his colleague riders have diverted their operation to other towns because of the road condition and that they are managing to save life as “citizens of the soil”.
Sallu Jalloh, another Okada Rider says that no effort has been made by either the Government or the politicians to look into the cry of the Tongo people. He says the Mining Companies operating in the community ply the roads with their heavy duty vehicles and machines hence worsening the road condition. He pleads with the Companies to help rehabilitate the road linking Kenema to Tongo.
Musa Kawoh is one of the Tribal Authorities (TA) and has lived in Tongo for more than 15 years. He explains that Tongo used to be a prosperous diamond community before the war, thereby attracting many investors, mining companies and Lebanese businessmen. He says the Town had many facilities like a mini airport, hospitals, a post office, a supermarket and others, but that the rebel war destroyed all that.
Chief Kawoh says despite the presence of mining companies and rich business men in Tongo during its glorious time, none of them made an input on improving the road condition. He maintains that there is a lot of suffering and poverty on the faces of the bulk of the population.
He acknowledges that politicians have long deceived them with sugar-coated words and that mining is no longer glorious.
The Paramount Chief of Lower Bambara chiefdom was not present to get his view on the issue.
