TRACE: Nationwide Sensitization For Only Two Nonfunctional Traffic Lights?

Hahahahahaha, hey folk, TRACE mind ran to a cultural song sung by Culture and it goes this way:

“…I wonder why politician them won’t go ‘way

Rasta can’t get no peace inna this land

I wonder why politician them won’t go ‘way

Rasta can’t get no peace on the land

Rasta children run them ‘way

Drive them ‘way

When them come, come talk ‘bout election

Iahbingi run them ‘way

Drive them ‘way

When them come come talk ‘bout election

I wonder why the old tief dem won’t go ‘way

Can’t get no peace inna yard

I wonder why old PJ him won’t go ‘way

Can’t go no peace down a yard,

A two a dem

Run them ‘way

Run them ‘way

When them come, come talk ‘bout election

An a fi we run them ‘way

(Nia bingi) run them ‘way

When them run come talk ‘bout election

Eddie, I wonder why politician them won’t go ‘way

Rastaman can’t get no peace a Jungle

Wonder why politician them won’t go ‘way

Bingiman can’t get no peace in a ‘Jungle

Tivoli and Jungle unite

Drive them ‘way

Run them ‘way

When them separate you with election

(Them a friend say) Run them ‘way

Bingiman a drive them ‘way

When them come, come talk ‘bout election

As God live we must unite

You think I never see when you go a Switzerland, go

bank up all the people dem money

You think I don’t know seh when you a buy places and property all

Bout where poor people can’t read back fi get back

some of dem tax money (Watch it!)

Depression, frustration

The poor man people hungry just a few days

Frustration. Wise fowl walk like man

Poor people money bank away

We nuh want no politics

Wonder why politician them won’t go ‘way

Bingiman want some peace on the land, Chuh.

Wonder why politicians them won’t go ‘way

Bingiman, we want some peace of the land

Kings and queens, president

All them do is oppress God’s people

Prime ministers, underdogs,

Cat a lick, while Jah Jah Lion a watch

Cat a lick, dog a watch

Listen what them say in society

(No Anglican)

Cat a lick, while old dog a watch

Jah bound to man crotch

Come down off yah high horse!

Boy, mi nah pile up no nuff pon plenty and me nah give

no man who have already

The man who hungry haffe eat

And the man who have already haffe share

You know, you a hear mi man?

And me have something fi tell yuh inna the next version

Come down off yah high horse!

Some people a kick fast too long

Big fish a rain from the sky fi you

Everything too easy for you

And it seem to me that the rich man tax write-off

And the poor man haffe pay that

Boy? Them send very likkle for your money, them no own a joint..

Ya no understand?” 

For months now when traffic lights surfaced in Freetown but yet they are still not performing their actual purposes.  The coming of the traffic lights made some section of the Sierra Leone Police to panic because the drivers believed most of them will be asked out of the streets. The dream of the drivers is still suspended because the traffic lights are not function as they should be.

TRACE was seating on a taxi and had the driver was saying “Very soon I will stop listening to radio,”

His statement made TRACE eager to know why and TRACE asked him. That was the time gang of gangster’s uprooted corpses from the graves in Freetown.

“The evil that is taking place these days is too much than the good. Out of 100 things that are happening 98% is evil while the 2% is good,” he told TRACE.

The driver went on to express his frustration again.

“Another man went to the radio this morning saying he is a coordinator for traffic lights. I was thinking he was going to talk about the installation of more traffic lights in the city but to my surprise he said they are doing sensitization for the two traffic lights they have installed… which kind  of thing is this in this country?” the taxi driver asked.

Just like the traffic driver, many others are still asking the same questions in their little corner but they don’t have a way to express it.

Now what is playing on TRACE mind are:

Is the government taking the people for granted?

Do we need national sensitization for only two traffic lights?

How many road users are using that area on a daily basis?

Who is benefiting from this project?

How many months will the sensitization last for?

Why are they doing months of so called sensitization that does not even exist?

If the government can sensitize the public about the removal of fuel subsidy in less than a month, why they don’t do the same for the traffic lights?

TRACE wants to believe there is something more than sensitization which they can’t talk about. Now they are hiding it but when the situation gets out of hands, that is the time they will waste the state resources in the name of educating, informing and sensitizing the public, just like when austerity griped them on their throats, they began to suppress citizens.

Why is it that when the people wants to rejoice somebody will stifle their joy? Some of the drivers TRACE spoke to were so joyous about the news months ago.

“The coming of the traffic lights will help to reduce our stress from the Police, they can be seen in every corner of the city which does not supposed to be the case,” said Foday Kamara a taxi driver.

Mohamed Conteh, a bus driver that is plying from Aberdeen far west of Freetown to Regent Road the central part of Freetown said the Police are forcing them to give Le 10,000 on a daily basis at one of their Stations, he added that the Police called it  ‘booking fee’.

“When you booked, you will not be disturbed by the police for that day but if you fail to book they will waste your time and make false charges against you,” he alleged.

Sierra Leone got her traffic lights decades ago but lack of maintenance made the system collapsed. Some of the traffic lights were looted and removed during and after the country’s civil war.

Youyi building Bus Halt in Brookfields west of Freetown where most of the government ministries are located was the first area that one  traffic lights was installed, followed by Congo Cross-Girl’s School Junction.

The traffic lights history was first made when a Sierra Leonean born Engineer Josephus A. T. During who studied in Russia designed and constructed the first home-made traffic lights in Sierra Leone with locally produced materials using solar panel and mini batteries at his 52 Johnson Street Aberdeen home in Freetown but he did not get support from the Government to do more.

Can you imagine, only two traffic lights were installed are now they are sensitizing road users for months now by the time we get four to six traffic lights, we will take one year to sensitize, “hahahahaha, oh Salone”.

TRACE wants to believe that the people of Sierra Leone deserve more than this, it is their rights to enjoy such facilities. They are paying for the road they are using. This is not the time until one person is satisfied before others can benefit, it is a time for the people to grow as the country is growing which President Ernest Koroma spoke about on the 7th November, 2016 during his speech marking the end of Ebola.

 Allow the right people to do their job; this is not the time to stop them from doing their  job, they are the professional in their own filed. TRACE is waiting to see action now!