Jendema Road Nightmare

The rugged and repellent road linking Zimmi and Jendema, along the Sierra Leone-Liberia border, is dying slowly, apart from being a national disgrace. I will never forget my nightmare of traveling along that gutter-laden road stretch which serves as Sierra Leone’s main road to and from Liberia through the Southern District of Pujehun.

Traveling on the twenty-seven miles unimaginably deplorable road took me centuries even though I used a commercial motorbike locally called Okada which is the fastest and most popular means of transportation along that terrible road stretch. Pained by the gallops of the motorbike, I ran to the nearest pharmacy to buy pain killers as soon as I finally arrived in Jendema.

The Jendema road reminded me of the herculean task ahead of President Koroma; though the president has succeeded in constructing and rehabilitating several major roads, he is still faced with the big task of rehabilitating or reconstructing many other major roads that continue to be eyesores, the Jendema road being the worst eyesore as it is the first road you experience when entering this country from Liberia, making it an international route.

Minus being a national opprobrium and a health hazard to travelers, the very bad condition of the Jendema road is a symbol of scandalous inefficiency on the part the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, (SLRA). Worse of it, the pothole-laden road is undermining our national economy as its repellent condition propels traders and farmers to divert all their businesses to Liberia to where the road is smooth and transport fare less expensive. The terrible road has almost succeeded in separating Jendema from Sierra Leone as most Sierra Leoneans in that border town have less to do with their own country but concentrate on Liberia.

Travelers spend more time and money on the twenty-seven miles Zimmi-Jendema road than on the Jendema-Monrovia road which is about eighty miles. Very few vehicles and more Okadas ply the Zimmi-Jendema road due to its awful state. The question that torments me is why the Sierra Leone Government has allowed such an international road to degenerate to such disgraceful proportions. The road is a vivid manifestation of the nonchalance of successive governments of this country, otherwise, such important road must not be in such an opprobrious condition.

Government should do everything possible to ensure that the Zimmi-Jendema road and even the Potoru-Jendema road, which is also in bad shape, are rehabilitated to ease and make less expensive the travelling from Sierra Leone to Liberia via the Pujehun axis in the Southern Region.

By Joseph Milton Lebbie

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