The unfinished Roads in Makeni City: the sin of local leadership failure

By: Ibrahim Jalloh – (Jallomy)

National development does not exist in a vacuum. As a matter of fact, development is an absolute outcome of a set of activities and clearly defined objectives. Good roads are a catalyst to visible and sustainable development.

The previous government of former president Koroma noted the absolute need for revamping the urban road infrastructure and with the tax proceeds from the defunct African Minerals Limited, a near fair spread of allocation of roads for reconstruction across the country was made.

The Makeni City allocation was nationally judged to be on the upper limit for obvious and understandable reasons but the reality of the implementation and completion of allocated roads to Makeni city is painful and outrightly regrettable. The reasons were intriguing and heavily questioned the integrity of purpose.  The roaring beast of selfishness eclipsed the expected push for the common good.

The story is not behind the arras. For the Makeni City roads, the reputable European  engineering company, Saline, was contracted and thy did a great job but later lost further contract opportunities due to a very callous and sinister conspiracy orchestrated by  notable and influential local political leaders. The hidden reason for throwing Salini off board was brutally indicting. Salini could not offer the infamous but notorious 10% kick-back! Naturally, they lost it. The replaced road construction company, TSR from Burkina Faso, was appealing to the local conspirators but was extremely not up to the task. On the ground assessment suggests that TSR has an unbearable capacity deficit.  The story ends with a long list of unfinished roads in Makeni City.

The development of Makeni City has always been paralyzed by a small group of powerful local actors. Their zest for wealth building at the expense of the common good is unrivalled. Makeni City and her people lost the complete glory of good roads due to insatiable greed and massive local corruption.

Former President Koroma had the best of dreams for Makeni, his cradle and now place of retirement but finds it practically impossible to graduate from the deceptive and misleading friendship space of his childhood peers. In fairness to him, he had the best of intentions for his friends and compatriots but suffered betrayal. He is on record as the leader who never sidelined his friends but who never had the desired support and cooperation from his friends.