{"id":461430,"date":"2011-07-15T08:05:57","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T08:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/"},"modified":"2011-07-15T08:05:57","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T08:05:57","slug":"airport-new-city-or-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Airport, New City Or Water?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

14 July 2011<\/p>\n

\n

Nairobi \u2014 Sierra Leone is desperate for foreign investment. So desperate it is that its president, Ernest Bia Koroma, thinks there is the need to spruce up its only airport, build a second one and connect it to the capital Freetown with a bridge.<\/p>\n

Lungi, a small settlement of a population of between 5,000 and 7,00 people dotted largely with isolated villages, is home to Sierra Leone’s only airport.<\/p>\n

It is on average a 30 minutes’ journey by ferry to the capita; 10 minutes by helicopter and a little less than that on a hovercraft. Freetown is reachable from Lungi either by one of the three ferries, which alternate at torturously long intervals.<\/p>\n

There are also small speed boats, but it takes more than money to board them – the roughness of the tributary that links Lungi to Freetown, discourages commuting.<\/p>\n

Freetown is also reachable from Lungi by land but the journey takes centuries.<\/p>\n

The Lungi-Freetown ferry service is the most popular option.<\/p>\n

That is not because it provides any better service. It is what most Sierra Leoneans can afford. The 10-minute helicopter ride costs $50 (Sh5,000).<\/p>\n

Apart from the United Nations office in Sierra Leone, which provides services to its staff and occasionally for Sierra Leonean government officials, there is only one commercial helicopter service run by a private company called Paramount Air.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the unreliability of the ferry service, the expensive helicopter or hovercraft ride and the inefficiencies of Lungi International Airport, discourage foreigners from doing business with Sierra Leone, which doesn’t amuse President Koroma.<\/p>\n

“We are tired of making apologies to visitors for crossing by ferry or using helicopters to reach the City of Freetown,” the president told participants at the international investment forum held in Freetown in May.<\/p>\n

“I have three big developmental projects for the next fifty years,” he said, before adding that was why he had “called our friends and other partners to deliberate on the way forward for the country.”<\/p>\n

The conference was organised under the auspices of the country’s Tripartite Investment Programme (TIP.)<\/p>\n

At the end of last month, the Tripartite Investment Committee submitted its report on the outcome of the conference to the president with Vice President, Alhaji Samuel Sam Sumana, saying that the committee was on the verge of identifying funding from interested foreign and local investors.<\/p>\n

Back to their airport dream, it is not clear whether the government plans to build a new airport or modernise the old one.<\/p>\n

The government says this project is part of President Koroma’s ‘Agenda for Change’ vision.<\/p>\n

One of its missions being the transformation of the country’s infrastructure.<\/p>\n

But since its announcement, hardly a week passes without it being mentioned in one of the country’s papers with questions as to whether the president appreciates the country’s pressing priorities or not being raised.<\/p>\n

If anything, Sierra Leone’s erratic electricity supply needs an overhaul.<\/p>\n

Its water distribution system is among the poorest in the world while prices of basic commodities continue to rise. The IMF categorises the country among the most fragile in the region.<\/p>\n

It names sustainable financing of infrastructure, among others, as a challenge for the country.<\/p>\n

In June one Sierra Leonean who left the country because of his “inability to secure” a job, stressed what seems to resonate in the minds of many, if not all, of his countrymen today.<\/p>\n

In a widely published article, Ernest Ola Cummings, who now lives in Sri Lanka, described the president’s vision as “bold, resolute and forthright.”<\/p>\n

But he added, rather skeptically: “I am also tempted to believe it is not just hot air or politics talk.”<\/p>\n

“The priorities,” he wrote, “should be water, electricity, and education, education, education.”<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Sierra Leoneans have been promised the Lungi-Freetown bridge.<\/p>\n

The opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) was the first to raise the hopes of Sierra Leoneans when it promised to link Luingi and Freetown route.<\/p>\n

Joseph J. Safa, the Secretary General of the SLPP once said President Koroma’s “three big” projects were not new ideas.<\/p>\n

He recalled that the ruling APC used the same campaign promise in 2007, when they were in the opposition, and that it was now talking about it because elections were at the corner.<\/p>\n

According to Safa “the APC government believes in capital projects because of the strong link between corruption and capital projects.”But President Koroma’s grand projects have no clear time frame, which raises the question how he will be held accountable for his promise given that in at most under six years he will have left State House? And celebrations are still going on in some quarters. However not everyone shares the justification for the festivities.<\/p>\n

Francis is a 24-year old unemployed youth. He wants to be an economist but there is very little chance he can realise his dream.”I know my parents cannot support my education because they can’t afford it.”<\/p>\n

Francis is just one of many Sierra Leoneans, most of whom are young, with such bleak expectations in life. It is problems like theirs that President Koroma’s “three big developmental project” must set out to address.<\/p>\n

In this regard, the government is taking no chances in reaching out to investors.<\/p>\n

Earlier in June, the president spread his investment fishing net to Nigeria.<\/p>\n

While on a visit to Abuja, he invited the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to help his government in addressing the scourge of poverty and unemployment, admitting that Sierra Leone had a serious problem of youth unemployment.<\/p>\n

“We need to set up institutions and structures that will address poverty and unemployment, not with a cosmetic approach, but on a permanent basis,” he said. Between 1991 and 2002, Sierra Leone was embroiled in civil war between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the Momoh government.<\/p>\n

Over 50,000 died.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nMore News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n

AllAfrica – All the Time<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

More:
\nAirport, New City Or Water?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 July 2011 Nairobi \u2014 Sierra Leone is desperate for foreign investment. So desperate it is that its president, Ernest Bia Koroma, thinks there is the need to spruce up its only airport, build a second one and connect it to the capital Freetown with a bridge. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nAirport, New City Or Water? - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Airport, New City Or Water? - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"14 July 2011 Nairobi \u2014 Sierra Leone is desperate for foreign investment. So desperate it is that its president, Ernest Bia Koroma, thinks there is the need to spruce up its only airport, build a second one and connect it to the capital Freetown with a bridge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Airport, New City Or Water?\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-15T08:05:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/\"},\"wordCount\":996,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/\",\"name\":\"Airport, New City Or Water? - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-15T08:05:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Airport, New City Or Water? - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Airport, New City Or Water? - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"14 July 2011 Nairobi \u2014 Sierra Leone is desperate for foreign investment. So desperate it is that its president, Ernest Bia Koroma, thinks there is the need to spruce up its only airport, build a second one and connect it to the capital Freetown with a bridge.","twitter_image":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Airport, New City Or Water?","datePublished":"2011-07-15T08:05:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/"},"wordCount":996,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/","name":"Airport, New City Or Water? - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg","datePublished":"2011-07-15T08:05:57+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/15\/airport-new-city-or-water\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/nation180.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}