By Isaac Massaquoi
Rameed and Sons entertainment joint is just about fifty yards off the Kambia highway and to me it’s the only place that offers something of a night life in the entire district. There is Moon Lite Club around the corner but if you have to cross a lake to get into the main club house, it probably should be closed down now. How can the owners allow dirty rain water to settle in a night club’s compound and expect to stay in business let alone expect people to come visiting?
Rameed and Sons is an open space about ¼ of the size of a football pitch, covered with locally made mats. It attracts many young people because they charge no entrance fees and they sell all sorts of booze. Somehow in all three hours I spent inside the place over two days, they played only three tracks from Emmerson’s new album for 70% of that time. Well, I never get tired of listening to him, but I was very surprised that the DJ never thought for one moment that he would bore nearly one hundred other guests to death by playing those songs repeatedly.
On my final night in Kambia, I spent an hour with some colleague journalists in the club talking about the coming elections over drinks. I found myself answering to many questions about the coverage of the coming elections. I was in Kambia to help prepare journalists from Portloko and Kambia for the task of reporting the elections due in November.
But apart from this they also wanted to hear my views on the recent bid by some colleagues to gain political party symbols to run for public office. I can’t remember how I took myself out of that situation but I refused to be drawn on this issue. It’s not in my nature to shy away from such issues but on this night I was determined to keep the discussion on the subject of my training program. I needed to cover some little gaps opened up during the workshop which I didn’t have time for.
Occasionally, the roast meat seller who – by the way she wriggled her body to the music – called attention more to herself than to the meat she had on display. She would interrupt our discussion calling and asking if we wanted some of it the meat. I have gone too far in my project to quit eating meat to fall for it on this night and besides I was determined not to be admitted to the cholera ward in Kambia.
I was in Kambia again after six years. I always compare Kambia to my home district of Pujehun. They both have some similarities – they are on the recognisable borders of our two neighbouring countries of Guinea and Liberia and so all the trade passes through them. They have a small population. They both have a huge body of fresh water. And they have politicians who, over the years have cared little about their people.
The major difference now is that recently Kambia scored a fantastic goal with the completion of the road going to Guinea making travel to the place a real joy. The road through Pujehun to the Liberian border is the worst in all Africa. But in both townships the roads are very bad – the result of many years of criminal neglect.
President Koroma’s project to pave a few kilometres of roads in the headquarter towns of all districts has run into serious trouble in places like Moyamba, Pujehun, Kambia and Kono. The contractors have failed to deliver and I am surprised that action has not been taken against them. Here was a project I felt very proud about because for once we were using locally-generated money to construct our roads. Now things have completely collapsed and no work is taking place. The road to Kambia is world class. No doubt about that. But why do we still have that death trap called Magbalay Bridge outside Masiaka. On our way to Kambia we spent about one hour waiting to cross the single lane bridge. Apparently a petrol tanker driver and a taxi driver were blocking each other’s way refusing to pull back for the other party to go across with arguments over which vehicle first entered the bridge. The only reason that happened is because we have that kind of bridge linking the two important places in 21st century Sierra Leone. As part of the workshop’s practical exercise, I went along to the main government hospital in Kambia to see it at work. I was very disappointed.
When I first visited Kambia as a journalist in 2004, the hospital was well and truly up to standard. It was very clean, always bright and there was a sense of pride in the air when I asked questions about the functioning of the hospital. I saw, myself, smartly-dressed nurses genuinely working to save humanity. I went there unannounced so it’s not as if they were acting some drama. I was in Kambia to help set up what is now Radio Kolenten so my visit to the hospital was just out of journalistic curiosity. At the time, the hospital had two generators providing electricity for about 18 hours a day. Today people have to bring generators from home for Community Health Officers to perform surgery. In the children’s ward, I saw at least three beds with dirty foam mattresses and refugee tarpaulin spread over it for the children to lie on. There’s
no sober ambulance in the whole of Kambia – they call what they have PUSH ME AR START.
Seeing the condition of Kambia, my mind raced back to the country’s main referral hospital in Freetown, Connaught. In the week leading up to my departure for Kambia, I had cause to pay frequent visits to Ward 10 to see my cousin who was sick. Now I can conclude that despite all
efforts made so far and some improvements here and there, we have a real problem in the heal sector. The linens, the floor, the toilets in both places were so dirty that they pose a real health threat to even visitors like me. Kambia was miles ahead of Connaught in 2005.
So how did we get to where we are today? There was no medical doctor around for the three days I spent in Kambia.
Gbalamuya customs post is a changed place today. The police officers and soldiers who find pleasure in extorting money from the travelling public are still in place but the whole area is clean and nice – I was proud to see the new joint Sierra Leone /Guinea Revenue Authority building. Those I spoke to couldn’t tell me why the doors were still locked even after that lavish opening ceremony attended by the presidents of both countries.
Kambia woke up on Sunday morning to the sound of music coming from the main junction leading into Kambia town itself. I saw lots of people in the green and white colours of the opposition SLPP. One of them told me their presidential candidate Julius Maada Bio was due in the town in a few hours.
Kambia is predominantly APC despite the fact that there are small pockets of support for the SLPP which I believe they were trying to mop up. Maada Bio’s convoy headed deep into Kambia district before returning to Kambia town later in the afternoon. The fact that the
opposition could so freely organise and campaign speaks loudly of Sierra Leone’s democratic maturity. In fact I was told of an incident early that morning when APC supporters in a car covered with posters of Ernest Bai Koroma were stopped by police and told to clear the way for the SLPP to receive their flag bearer. Up to the time I left Kambia in the early afternoon of Sunday, there was no trouble.
I will not be returning to Kambia any time soon but my feeling is that there’s a lot of work to do not just in Kambia but all over the country. There are bright spots in Kambia and I met a lot of exciting young people who are determined to help bring about change, the journalists made insightful comments throughout the training program.
It’s a pity I was unable to answer them directly about whether it was a good idea for journalists to seek public office. I have my own views on that but I have been reading around that issue to see how other countries have dealt with the issue. I have found an interesting report
compiled by professional people on how different countries have answered this important question. I will publish that next week.
