By Umaru Fofana
It was a senior police officer who said on Radio Democracy not long ago that if they got the necessary instruction and support to rid the street of traders, they would do so accordingly and effectively. Two – may be three – key things that statement clearly tells us: Political interference with the police in the discharge of their duties, or gross incompetence on the part of the force to wait until there is a political order to do what they are mandated to do. Or, perhaps, a combination of both. Bear that in mind please while you continue to read this piece.
Now, at the turn of the year things looked promising for a breath of fresh air in central Freetown. At State House on 28 December last year President Ernest Bai Koroma looked in his usual upbeat mood as he talked tough to those who cared to listen – or hear – that lawlessness was engulfing the country if not already. He blamed everyone for this. Note that he blamed everyone, but himself. But the occasion was for those traders who have turned central Freetown into an eyesore. And the commercial motorbike transport riders who have caused as many injuries as they have transported passengers. He vowed to do what no president before him had done.
Among the reasons Charles Margai gave at the Paddy’s Restaurant at Aberdeen when he resigned sometime in 2002, or so, as Minister of Internal Affairs, was that he felt betrayed by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah over the street-trading conundrum. It was clear he had his eye on challenging the president for leadership of the party but at the press conference, which I attended, Margai said that the president undermined a cabinet subcommittee he had set up to rid the streets of traders. The committee itself comprised Mr Margai as internal affairs minister, Haja Affsatu Kabbah as Minister of Lands country planning and the environment, and Minister of Trade Abdul Thorlu Bangura. The government would not deny or confirm the accusation but it came in the back of a commitment by government to clear the central business district of street traders. It never happened.
When it emerged that President Koroma was taking the bold step to do what those before him had failed to do, I rubbed my hands with glee thinking that alas someone was venturing to do what everyone knew needed to be done but no-one wanted to do it. Even a child born yesterday knows how much of a menace street-trading in Freetown’s central business district has been. Not to mention the motorbike transport riders aka Okada Riders. The two epitomise the classic case of the failure of government – successive governments in our case – to provide for the basic transport needs of their people, and to control defiant traders who feel they can undo any government hence must be allowed to do whatever they wish.
At the State House garden on that fateful Friday, and in what looked well choreographed, the leaders of the traders and bike riders pledged their commitment to decongest central Freetown by supporting Operation WID – an operation to properly manage waste and to decongest the central part of Freetown. So did the police and the Mayor of Freetown on behalf of the municipal police. And so did the Sierra Leone Roads Authority and the Sierra Leone Road Transport Corporation, among others. It seemed Operation WID was here to weed them out. But it seems it has become the real weed.
On the start of the operation a few days later, the Sierra Leone Police showed they could have long done it, lending credence to the statement by the police officer who spoke on Radio Democracy. Men and women in blue were all around the streets in the central business district to effect the no-street-trading edict. It proved effective, even if only just and just for a few days.
Days turned into weeks and the enthusiasm of the police petered out. They disappeared from the streets. Either by coincidence or well orchestrated, just as the new minister of trade, Usman Boie Kamara was being ratified by parliament, traders – mostly those selling on the streets – danced to and from the House with their new man. They sang his praise, and, it would seem, succeeded in blackmailing him. The days that followed witnessed streets that had hitherto been spared the trading menace even in the worst of times being annexed by the buoyed street traders.
It seems someone, or some people, in authority told the street traders – most of whom support the governing party – to stay put even if in a different way. They were asked to leave the top of Siaka Stevens Street and take over all other streets linking it to Lightfoot Boston Street; thereby making nonsense of the proclamation of the president and the commitment made by their leaders. Now it is impossible to park a car in central Freetown. I mean even in those areas designated to do so.
On Howe Street the other day, some six traders audaciously walked into my office around 09:00 am. I had parked my car where and how the traffic rule says I should. Avoiding the yellow line. Then the women traders said that I had parked where they were “supposed to put” their wares for sale. Not wanting to go into detail, they said that they had been Okayed by the City Council to sell their wares there. I later learned that the council collects market dues from them on the spot. That happens on the street from its top. So does it happen on Charlotte Street and many others streets that hitherto were free to park and catch a breath of fresh air. Yesterday road transport officials chained the wheels of a car whose driver had been forced by the traders to park on the yellow line because they had their wares spread on the street. But there were no metropolitan or regular police officers to arrest or at the very least drive away the traders. Rawdon Street is fast becoming Guard Street and Short Street, among others, which have been lost to street traders.
Perhaps the most notorious of them all is Sani Abacha Street. Good thing is that they have opened it now. But they are still nibbling around the edges and remain on the footpath. And what does it benefit if pedestrians can still not use the footpaths which have been taken over by the traders. In fact I wonder what the road transport authority boss committed his agency to do when he made a speech at State House. Many slabs have disappeared. Many people have injured themselves as a result. Yet no-one cares.
The Okada Riders also committed themselves to subjecting themselves to law and order and decency and decongestion. For some unrelated matter, I had gone to police Local Unit Commander at Ross Road a couple of weeks ago when the leaders of the bike riders showed up in his office. They were vehemently protesting that their members were not being allowed to ply Kissy Road leading to Dan Street. The LUC said that was the instruction he had had from his superiors. The Okada leaders said they had it on good authority and “from above” that they should be allowed to ply the said route. He made phone calls to senior government and municipality officials in my presence to prove his point and to have his way. The LUC insisted that he must speak first to his superiors to know whether the original plan had been amended. I later left his office before he could find out. A few days later I drove on Kissy Road and the Okada riders had had their way.
Who can say the police officer on Radio Democracy was not right. The men and women in uniform enforcing Operation WID have all but disappeared. And the president at State House warned against the use of “Orders from above”. It is being used and misused. The leader of the market women’s association, Marie Bob Kandeh warned at State House against ”selective justice”, yet the clearing is being done selectively. May be President Koroma has just bitten more than he can chew. And those who are bent on positioning themselves for the next elections are undermining him to pave the way for themselves even if at the expense of the welfare of the majority and the implementation of an edict of the president which he seemed very determined to pursue. Or maybe, like Kabbah and Momoh before him, he is thinking with his heart or with the head of those interested in his heart. Operation WID has been overgrown by weed.
