Weah: Quick Fix Leader

Community residents and Liberians plying the Redlight-ELWA road are commending the Liberian Government for the construction and expansion of the road to a four lane. According to the exuberance Liberians who spoke with this paper expressed joy that the government was quick to notice the importance of that route leading to the commercial hub of Redlight.

Our reporter said the excited citizens were in a jubilant mood for the ongoing road constriction works, but were quick to appeal to the government to ensure the engineers speed up their works because their slow pace is causing congestion in the already densely populated communities along the road and the Redlight market.

It can be recalled the news of enlarging the road from Red-light to ELWA was received by many with joy, but since the Liberian Government announced the opening or reconditioning of the road corridor about three months ago, the process has been moving at a snail pace, this, according to some citizens and motorcyclists in the surrounding of the process is lowering their personal development activities. 

Speaking with our reporter in the area, Darlington Kukai, a motorcyclist who runs his transportation between ELWA and Redlight said he believes that the process might be completed maybe in 2023 due to the slow works by the engineers.

Kukai added “When I get passenger, I am not allow to cross the checkpoint. What I have decided to do now is to just run between Royal Plus for L$20.” He said the process is a good one, but it needs to be done with speed

Also speaking, J. Momo Cooper, another motorcyclist said “For now, we want the engineers to speed up with the process.” According to him, the road process has slowed down their movements on the Red-light to ELWA thus reducing his take home per day after.

“It is not convenient for us because looking at the way the project is moving, it is slow, but we are hoping that one day it will be completed and the four lanes will be here for us to use,” he said.  

He said although development comes with pains, but called on the government to increase the number of workers on the road so as to increase the speed of it. 

He added, “Yes, at the end of the day, we can survive just that we are not reaching our daily target before the road work started.”

Jerry Mullah who has been living around the Royal Plus environment for over five years has also observed the snail pace of the road work.

He said “The government needs to force the workers to hurry up with the work. Since the work started, they will only do small here and there spending more time.”

At the same time, Francis Yealepale,a resident of the community for over ten years said “The road project is fine and it will be bringing relief to the people of the community and people use the road for their daily activities.” 

According to him, government promised that the project would have lasted for one year six months, but the way the project is moving, he is not sure that the project will be completed in time. He said it will be prudent for the Public Works Ministry to make sure that efforts are made by talking with the engineers to speed their works.

Carsee Vanes,a student at the United Methodist University (UMU) said the process is not bad and it is a good initiative by the government.

He said, “I have been living around here for over 15 years and for the past 15 years, the road has been like this.”

Vanes said, “When the government announced that they were fixing the road, we were very happy and to see the government working on this road is something that we should commend.”

According to him, although the process is slowing some movements, but on the overall, it is in the best interest of the general public adding, “We all need to embrace the government’s initiative and pray for the betterment of it.”

For her part, Josephine Jones, a by-passer who refused to be photographed said, “For me, they are making fun here because what kind of road you will see people just staying this kind of long time in just one place?” 

She said if the government is serious about the road, they need to put fire on the backs [pressure] those who were contracted to have the road done.

Meanwhile, some of the people who spoke behalf of engineers on condition of anonymity said the slow pace is due to the illness and subsequent demise of Minister Mobutu Vlah Nyenpan, but said the works will be speed up as requested by the concerned citizens very soon.