Paying The Price For Liberia’s Age-old Road Problem: How Speaker Chambers, Others Pay Fees For Using Ivorian Route To Get To Their Constituents
PHOTO: The Author
By Trokon A. Freeman
I slept in the popular Ivorian cities of Danane and San Pedro on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, respectively. Wondering where I’m headed? I’m on a NaFAA field trip to the Southeast. Like Speaker Bhofal Chambers and others would regularly do, I’m using the same experience to get to Maryland and subsequently head to the other destinations, including Grand Kru.
This is due to bad road in my country., Liberia. We departed Monrovia on Monday, the eve of my birthday, using a foreign soil to get to the Southeast. Fellow Liberians, responding to Ivorian security authorities’ inquiry on the reason for using their territory as a transit route, is the most difficult and embarrassing thing I’ve experienced in recent time.
“Leave Liberia, pass through my country, and go back to Liberia, why”? As we struggled throughout providing a perfect answer, the security guards would nod, and let us pass.
We were subjected to tougher security checks and paid “unnecessary fees”. When I told a Liberian woman that “this was getting too much”, the lady retorted: “You’re blessed”.
She continued: “Do you know how much Bhofal Chambers and other government officials pay here”? The speaker can pay US$500 whenever he uses this side. Go and ask other people in this place if I’m lying”.
Quoting Ivorian authorities, she said the measure is meant to motivate Liberians to prioritize our roads.
We had to use a ferry over the Cavalla River to get to Maryland.
This scenario should tell you that we still have more to do as a nation. Our votes in October should go a presidential candidate who offers a more appealing policy prescription that addresses the huge road infrastructure challenge we face as a people.
Disclaimer: Because it’s an age-old problem, I don’t hold a particular regime responsible for not doing much in fixing the problem.