The people of Sierra Leone have reacted negatively to government’s plans being well underway for the realisation of the long promised bridge linking Freetown with Lungi hence Port Loko District. The bridge has been a long promise and hope with successive governments promising but still failing to make the dream of the bridge into reality.
Concerned Sierra Leoneans who commented on the talks of a deal being reached to finally see the bridge becoming a reality have said the bridge, like the Tomabum and Gbondapi rice projects and the ‘Feed Salone’ projects are “419 projects” that will only benefit those in power, and not the people of Sierra Leone who should be the sole beneficiaries of the projects.
The Lungi bridge project much like the other unnecessary and wasteful projects this regime has unfolded will only benefit those in power. We don’t see what the people stand to gain in the meantime.
To show you that this project is not on the level, this government went with a Chinese company because the Chinese give loans without political conditions. It is the same with ‘Feed Salone.’
We know that China is very serious about agriculture so we go to them instead of any country that will consider what has been going on in our nation’s body politic.
But the Feed Salone project is not even off the ground and now we are talking about the Lungi Bridge? If we need over $800 million for Feed Salone and over a $1 billion for the Lungi Bridge, when does president Bio plan on leaving State House? We believe that the loans for these projects will be used to prop up the regime.
The work will most likely become one for another regime and not this one.
Many of the citizens that commented on the Lungi Bridge say the project as well as ‘Feed Salone’ project are cash cow projects the present regime hopes to use to continue on its stolen mandate despite widespread condemnation.
With these projects, they say Bio hopes to extend his tenure via constitutional means that many people say has already happened, except that we are waiting for this reality to be forced to feed on the people and our international supporters.
But this loan will be used much like all other loans this government has taken for which future generations will be forced to repay. The Chinese loans don’t come with political conditions as the Americans with their MCC compact.
You see how honourable the Americans behave with their loans and also the actions of others in the UK and EU withholding funding critical to the successful running of the state? Bio knows that the Chinese don’t mind as long as you repay their loans. Therefore you can violate anybody’s right, stay in power for as long as you want, and still be guaranteed of getting a Chinese government loan.
We see this Lungi Bridge before seeing the outcome of ‘Feed Salone’ as Bio telling us that he does not plan on stepping away from the limelight soon. But, the Chinese should see Bio for who he is: someone that does not keep his promises, and is not the one that will be repaying such loans. Therefore, Bio has plans to see all these projects pass off, and they would not take just one or two terms to complete.
Posing a very serious question to this medium, some concerned citizens asked for updates on the free quality education project, the anticorruption and campaigns against financial leakages, indiscipline and lawlessness.
Plans about creating national cohesion and peaceful coexistence, the Tomabum and Gbondapi rice projects and all the money secured for the Feed Salone project.
If you seriously consider all the above projects, not to even talk about all what President Bio has promised since 2018, we see that they are all white elephant projects; they are real only to those proposing them since they stand to benefit.
This is the same lie that is being perpetrated about the Lungi Bridge. We are yet to see Arise IIP and others fully operate in the country; we are yet to reap the real benefits of the FQE, and still failing to see how effective the anticorruption fight is based on how this regime has gone after its own people entrusted with state funds.
We are yet to get to the bottom of all this, but we now have these very same people now planning to handle another immoral amount of money that the people will not benefit from.
The cat is finally out of the bag. The people of Sierra Leone considers anything Bio’s second term regime does as only necessary for their own survival and continued pillage of the state, and not in the interest of the people, SLPP or the country.