TRACE Joenal: Youyi Building: Filths at the Corridors of Power

Hello folks, happy Easter in advance. While some people are yearning for the better, others are asking where Sierra Leone is heading, considering the strange things that are happening in the country.
From all points of view, Sierra Leoneans were expecting their leaders to lead by example but it’s turned out to be the opposite.
The re-introduction of the monthly cleaning in the country by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) led government was a welcome idea. About 90% of Sierra Leoneans welcome the move taken by the government. There are some gains since the re-introduction of the monthly cleaning but TRACE Joenal has realized that the gains made are from ordinary citizens while those that are running the affairs of the state have nothing to talk about when it comes to cleaning their own environment.
Youyi Building, a nine storey building located at the west end of Freetown hosted 60% of government ministries and government agencies such as Agriculture and Forestry, Health and Sanitation, Lands, Housing and the Environment, Trade and Industry, Information and Communication, and Local Government and Rural Development, among others.
With all these ministries, one is expected to see proper hygiene but it turned out to be the opposite.

TRACE Joenal moved from one stair to the other, checking every floor to know the state of that building and how things are done there. To the surprised of TRACE Joenal, after TRACE Joenal reached the fourth floor of the nine storey building, TRACE Joenal decided to watch down the building through the window as a way of getting fresh air, when TRACE Joenal looked down from that window, TRACE Joenal was welcome by filths. The back of the building along the Miatta Conference Centre axis ministers, deputies and other top government officials used that entrance as their entrance, exit and parking centre.
That surrounding is enveloped with filths, the scanning machine mounted by the Sierra Leone Police at that entrance turned to be scraped and it is only there to gather dust.
TRACE Joenal discovered that most of the toilets are not functioning properly, some toilets have been transformed into stores. Some toilets tap cannot close while some are not working, with stench of urine all over the place.
From the outside view of Youyi building, grass is all over the place with faded paints overshadowing the building, it is gradually becoming a grassland building.
TRACE Joenal was expecting change from the time President Julius Maada Bio conducted on-the-spot check on the 23rd May 2018.
His on-the-spot check was for him to warned public servants that his government is not going to be business-as-usual by ensuring that ministers and civil servants are complying with his directive to be at work at 8:30 am.

Report from State House stated that from that visit, President Bio was also very concerned with the current state of the floors looking at the ceilings and cracks on walls, but nothing happened nearly one year after that visit.
Youyi building is controlled by the Executive arm of government. The building was constructed by the government of the People’s Republic of China during the days of Siaka Stevens, ever since that building was constructed by the Chinese, the government of Sierra Leone always goes back to the Chinese government to renovate that building.
One will want to ask about the purpose of the ministry of works, a ministry that should look at government buildings among other properties.
Over decades, we have had that Sierra Leone lacked the culture of maintenance once something is damaged that the end of it.
During the regime of the late and former president Ahmed Tejan Kabba TRACE Joenal used to visit that building, at that time Youyi building was in order, there were no extension of offices as was seen during the days of the All People’s Congress (APC) government who even blocked some entrance in some floors to create office space creating an avenue of overcrowding which is seen today.
With the kind of ministries that are in Youyi building, TRACE Joenal was expecting environmental sanity. Youyi build should have been kept clean because the ministry of Lands and the Environment is there, it should have been hygienic because the ministry of Health and Sanitation is there, and it should have been kept clean because the New Direction Local Government Ministry is in charge of all local government and they are leading the monthly national cleaning.
Youyi building full of scraped vehicles, no proper parking order and where flowers and trees should have been planted turned to something else.

Hope this government is not like the previous government, they talk things they can’t do, and some are of the believed that politicians are the same.
TRACE Joenal wants to see Youyi building environment hygienic, the offices and toilets kept clean, planting of trees and the replacement of the dried Christmas tree. The building should have proper parking and the restoration of the security lights.
Trading within the building should be limited because it looks like a hugged shopping center.
Its high time Sierra Leone learnt how to do good things for themselves. The SLPP government should not wait until the Chinese Government steps in again but to act now and restore sanity to that building for the health of all.
TRACE Joenal is a regular column brought to you by Ibrahim Joenal Sesay, Senior Staff Writer of SALONE TIMES NEWSPAPER, Best Human Right Reporting award winner and Advocate for Change in Sierra Leone. You can follow him on www.samnewsplus.com,Twitter &Facebook @tracejoenal or E-Mail salonesij@gmail.com