WITHDRAWING MONEY FROM BANKS vs. SOCIAL DISTANCING
Surely there has to be a better way to deal with customers turning up at our various commercial banks to do business with the few hours the banks now operate due to the restrictions imposed by the authorities to fight coronavirus. The Sierra Leone Commercial bank at Siaka Steven Street has constructed a canopy outside to shield their customers from the elements. Frankly, we think that thing looks ugly in the heart of our city but we applaud the management for putting the welfare of their customers at the heart of their operation in a very practical way.
The pictures we saw the other morning of public sector workers – mainly teachers crowding outside banks to receive their salaries were very scary at a time when social distancing is being recommended as a potent weapon against the spread of coronavirus.
We certainly cannot understand why the banks didn’t see this coming. This is the end of the month – there is always a rush for money, apart from that we have just returned from a long weekend and we thought that should have alerted the bosses in those banks to the reality we saw on Tuesday. Now we have to pray that people were not infected with the virus in those crazy queues.
Why can’t these banks set up temporary paying centers away from the banks under police protection and serve their customers? These are not normal times so let’s do all we can to make something as basic as getting money from a bank, less stressful.
LIMKOKWING TO REGENT ROAD PROJECT GOING VERY WELL
The road project from Limkokwing University to Regent is progressing really well. We are not experts in the business but as ordinary citizens of this country, we are reasonably satisfied with what we’ve seen so far. The Chinese company doing the job is basically making a good case for themselves for future projects in this country.
We hope our readers understand why we are so excited. We were here when Wilkinson Road, Hill-Cut Road, Hill- Cut Junction to Limkokwing University and King Jimmy Bridge projects were all done under King Messi. Today Hill-Cut Road is incomplete and nobody knows what the truth about that road really is.
The road from State Lodge Junction to Limkokwing looks paved but it’s so bumpy that drivers have to run well below the required speed limits on such roads to be safe, Wilkinson Road will be under water for the better part of the rainy season. We invite our readers to visit the Limkokwing University to Regent Road to understand why we believe this country should never sacrifice value for money on the altar of cronyism and corruption. Now having said all this we want to put some issues on record for the authorities.
1. The police and the Road Safety Corps should rigidly enforce the speed limit on that stretch of road. It’s sad to observe that even now with the road nearing completion reckless driving is common. We don’t want to celebrate having a good road only to start killing people tomorrow.
2. Please let there be NO STREET TRADING on this road. We see people preparing to erect stalls already. Let’s have at least ONE street in this city that is free of petty trading.
3. We call on the Chinese Company doing the road to also properly handle the entrance to dwelling houses and the road going to the UN embassy area. Pave them well.
WHEN WILL THE FREETOWN – MASIAKA TOLL ROAD CONSTRUCTION END?
At the current pace this road construction project will be completed in 2023. Meanwhile our friends and their local counterparts are behind the walls of the toll-gate compound counting the daily collection and laughing all the way to the bank. The agreement that brought our friends from so far away is in the hands of the Red Camp and was never crafted to get the best for us. Slowly but surely we are getting totally fed up with the crazy turn this has taken – our patience is running out.
Instead of focusing on finishing off the few kilometers of road, our friends from far away are very much concerned with collecting millions and millions of Leones on the backs of our people. There is some construction activity inside Masiaka town now but the idea is to distract from the huge job that remains along the way.
The New Direction administration to do the following with that little rogue project on our main road out of the city:
1. Please publish the project documents approved by that RED Camp dominated parliament. The people DEMAND that. We want to see what King Messi did on our highway and who are the people continuing his work there.
2. We want to know the exact completion date, even if it’s a new one.
3. How involved are the local people along the road in monitoring the project and have they been appropriately compensated for their land and the troubles encountered during the on-going work.
4. We also want independent experts to check the quality of the road being constructed. We don’t want another Wilkinson road swindle.
5. Please open the gates of those toll road compounds to the public. We want to know what else is taking please there apart from receiving and processing cash bound for that far away country.
THE DRAINAGE SYSTEM NEAR EASTERN POLICE IS POOR
How long is it going to take the SLRA to fix that drainage system near Eastern Police station? Whenever it rains the whole place is messed up with debris caused by small scale flooding. We complain a lot about over-crowding and people avoiding the footpath along Kissy road, this may be part of the reason. We know that work is done almost every year to deal with that situation but we are not anywhere close to a solution to a problem that has caused so much structural damage to that part of the city. SLRA may have to overhaul the place just like what has been done at Brookfields Main Motor Road – King Harman Road junction. Or let’s consider the following:
1. City Council must do more than putting photo-shopped images of the Mayor of the Sun visiting here and there and deal with this problem because all kinds of domestic waste are being dumped inside the gutters, sometimes in broad daylight.
2. For how long are we going to have military police officers controlling vehicular and pedestrian movements in that area? At which point would the Road Safety Corps and the Police resume their responsibility in that area?
3. And while on this drainage stuff maybe we should have checked how much the work now being done by the military has disrupted criminal activity around that place.
5. We should also check how the presence of the military has affected the daily flow of people into Eastern Police station. If there has been any drop in that number it may also have affected the happiness of the Sovula people out there in more ways than one.
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