'Don’t push to get on the bus!'

Sierra Leone’s government has signed a  deal for new buses, a news report said recently. According to the papers, the Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Company in China is expected to supply 200 buses. The agreement was sealed at the China-Africa Summit, where President Maada Bio led a 15-man delegation.

For now, just three minibusses serve hundreds of students at Fourah Bay College, which sits at the top of Mount Aureol in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

When it's home time, students who live off campus spend hours in long queues.  Typically, only the strongest make it into the jampacked trucks and minibusses.

Minus the minibusses, a few taxis ply the route from downtown to the hilly campus. But even getting into those is a struggle. Past 5:00 pm, the taxis hardly come by.

"The other day, I nearly broke my wrist trying to gain into a taxi, “ complained Haja Kadiatu Kamara, one of the students waiting in line. “It was so scary the way fellow students pushed to get in the taxi. We need plenty of buses to solve this problem."

During rush hour, the minibusses do not use the Peninsula route, a ring road that bypasses bottlenecks downtown. Students who can’t get minibusses have a hard time getting home.

"I live far from town, and every day after classes, I spend over two hours waiting. I can't afford a bike ride, so it's either I ask for a lift, or I walk home," said Bashiru Mansaray, a  student who uses the Peninsula route.

"Our hearts sink once it's time for home,” said Kumba Mattia, another Peninsula route user. “We don't have good transportation services. It’s either we force our way into crowded taxis or risk our lives on motorbikes. Most times, we beg lifts from strangers but what choice do we have?"

Students have access to transportation services in every university around the world, but at Fourah Bay College, students are tired of pushing to get on minibusses.

For Young Life in Freetown, I'm Inyilla  Borteh Conteh reporting.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 2, 2019 at 3:55 AM

    It needs an urgent attention form both the university authorities and the government.
    Thanks for bringing it to the notice of the general public.

    ReplyDelete

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