By Dadson A. Musa

Sierra Leone came from an eleven-year civil war with the country badly devastated and the rural communities badly deprived. Reaching out to rural areas had been a huge challenge especially due to bad road network. So, life has only been convenient in urban areas where business and other government functions are done with ease. Roads, being the catalyst for the growth of any country have been in bad shape across the country. The advantages of having good roads are so huge that one needs not over emphasize its importance. Travelling from the provinces to to regional headquarter towns or the capital, Freetown has always been a nightmare or something that lasts for days in a small like Sierra Leone that is far smaller than some states in Nigeria let alone talk about states in the great United States. This state of affairs has had negative impact on our development as a country.

Having realized this, government and development partners decided to invest in roads infrastructure to change the narrative. Key roads have been worked on within townships and between districts or regions across Sierra Leone. This has helped change some development trajectory in the country. In Lebbie who happens to be the district engineer in Bo district admitted that “road construction is capital –intensive and so government alone cannot handle it at the moment so the European Union has been a huge help in doing bridges and very key roads.” EU helped with construction of the road from the capital, Freetown to the second city Bo. And they also initially helped with the road from the regional headquarter town of the northern province, Makeni, speaking to drivers and motorbike riders across the country it is an appreciation of improvement in the road network. “Our vehicles used to break down easily in the past because of bad roads,” said one retired driver, Mr. Sandy who is now into business in Bo and who got amputated due to accident on the bad roads then. Alusine, an okada rider in Bo who happens to be a park chairman appreciated the fact that their “Okadas do not need much repairs again from plying the streets of Bo city due to the fact that the roads have been improved on.” The government of Sierra Leone under the current regime of SLPP having realized the importance of road network decided to dip into government coffers to improve on more township roads across the country without waiting for donors. This has helped to improve so many things in the various district headquarter towns across the country.

Interestingly most of those running government are from the provinces or the interior inclusive of the president who comes from far away Bonthe district. The road to his home town, Tihun, needs repairs or reconstruction which is under way currently. And a Ghanian construction company, Maripoma is undertaking the reconstruction of that road leading to the president’s hometown. It has been in pretty bad shape due to long years of neglect but work is well underway and in advance stages. Almost all culverts have been done and most stretch of the roads has been graded. Already motorists find it easy to ply the road. The spread of granite and then asphalt tar is what they are about to commence very soon. Consultant engineer for the road, Ing James Gbonda told this medium this, “that road works like this are capital- intensive and require complex and heavy machinery which were all imported from abroad. Even the technical workers to ensure a good job is done are foreigners which makes the job not easy to complete.” But locals along the route seem very happy and optimistic. “We are going to do business with ease and it is going to be better.”