By: Winstanley R Bankole Johnson
I am sure I wasn’t the only one to have noticed the gaffes in the recent Ministry of Transport and Aviation (MTA) Public Notice dated 22nd January regarding vehicular traffic management along the Sani Abacha Street effective Sunday 28th January instant.
In essence (and without attempting to reproduce it verbatim) it proscribes vehicular traffic movement along the entire Sani Abacha Street strerch between the hours of 6AM and 1OPM daily effective 28th January.
No Restrictions
The aforesaid Public Notice goes further to say that during those proscribed hours for vehicular uses of the Sani Abacha Street (that is between 6AM and 10PM), neither Registered Importers expecting offloading/onloading of their Containerized Merchandises, nor those ordinarily resident both along the Abacha Street stretch and its adjoining axis with garage spaces available on their premises for their vehicles, and not even entrepreneurs operating from their business premises situate, lying and being along the Sani Abacha Street or its adjoining axis will, effective Sunday 28th instant will be allowed vehicular access along the Sani Abacha Street. And that is irrespective of the fact that their vehicles have been duly registered and licensed with the SLRSA to ply streets countrywide, and without the restrictions connoted in the Public Notice.
Concern
The only exception to that during those proscribed hours are for Sierra Leone Public Transport Authrity (SLPTA) Licensed Operators.
The SLPTA is the new government agency created under the SLPTA Act No. 21 of 2023 which in essence replaced what formerly was the SL Road Transport Corporation. Its main objective is to improve on public transport services delivery, and that being the case it is clear Per Sec. 16 (n) of the said Act that in the conduct of its roles, prior consultations with all stakeholders involved in the operation and management of Public Transportation Services must take place. This is necessary otherwise its interests will not transcend beyond Public Transportation Services operated by the government. And that is my concern here.
Ad-hoc
Now within the Traffic Laws of Sierra Leone (both vehicular and pedestrians) – and even where distinctions exist between the two – there exists no provisio determining or connoting discrimination – neither between vehicle specifications (as between those operated by the government and private transport operators) nor between pedestrians. So it seems odd to me that even after vehicles would have been duly registered and licensed with the appropriate authorities (SLRSA), the government should in-between the validation of their licenses, take the advantage of further distressing an already hard-pressed and overtaxed community with ad-hoc regulations (such as the GOSL Public Notice would seem to infer), and the cumulative impact of which are not in the best interests of the wider community, in this case including residents, property and business operators along the Sani Abacha Street and adjoining environs.
Constraints
Let me just list a few of the constraints and chaos resident and business enterprises along the Sani Abacha Street will suffer in the event this “poorly thought through” once this new Sani Abacha Street Traffic Management regulation becomes effective on 28th January:
1. All those ordinarily resident along the Sani Abacha Street and its adjoining axis (and/or are operating shops and offices there) will not be able to park their private vehicles within their own private premises until after 10PM.
So it will be for them to either open their shops, offices before 6AM and be forced to remove their vehicles to other commutable locations or to take their children to school before that timeline, or they involuntarily become moribund.
And even if they are able to so comply, they will not be able to return until commencement of the stipulated Container offloading and onloading hours of 10PM and 5AM.
2. By this new aforesaid Sani Aba Street management guidelines, absolutely no consideration is paid to emergencies, such as during outbreaks of fire and riots requiring deployment of vehicular logistics and or even to medical emergencies for residents/business operators.
3. And incidentally didn’t it occur to anyone at the Ministry of Transport and Aviation that their is a Holy and Sanctified edifice along that same proscribed Sani Abacha Street called “The Gibraltar Methodist Church”, the membership of which from time immemorial have been parking their vehicles alongside that Church for Sunday Worship Services and or Funerals or for other Holy Ordinances as their liturgy may dictate?
All Church activities are conducted within the proscribed hours. So could this “poorly thought through” MTA Public Notice be some surreptitious “avant garde” government ploy (or even decoy) to begin stifling alternative freedoms of Common Law Worship as guaranteed in Chapter 3 of our National Constitution?
Why the haste to introduce and implement such an outlandish and poorly thought through Traffic Management Regulation without proper consultations with those in the Civil Societies (Drivers’ Union, Indigenous Transport Operators, The Gibraltar Methodist Church Trustees etc) that this new regulation is expected to impact adversely?
As stated already Sec.16 (n) of the Act makes prior consultations with stakeholder mandatory. But no such consultations would appear to have taken place indeed because evidence of that is not referenced in that MTA Public Notice.
Falamakatta
Or again could it be that by such a poorly thought through Traffic Management promulgations (that is by blocking off and making the Sani Abacha Street free of vehicular traffic between 6AM and 10PM Daily), this pro-tempore (or rather transient SLPP government) that has always complimented itself for equaling both the good and bad deeds of their precussors, are working towards equalizing (falamakatta) former APC President Koroma’s blockade of the upper tracts of Rawdon Street in their desperate bid to woo the Abacha Babes?
I know that the last thing this government would accept are advices from some of us, but whatever betide it would be good for them at the MTA to revisit their proposal in order to hold much wider consultations starting with the Freetown City Council, and thereafter with the relevant Civil Society stake holders (Indigenous Public Transport Owners and Operators Association, the SL Drivers’ Union, Methodist Church Sierra Leone etc) to ensure a much wider community ownership of their proposed Sani Abacha Street Traffic Management regulations.