Freetown, oh Freetown, nothing is free in Freetown o!
That’s Uncle Jimmy Johnson’s message to me when he read last week that I am in Freetown. He is right, nothing is free here.
I have learnt that in the four days I have spent here in Sierra Leone. I have had to pay in cash or kind for everything I have been experiencing in this enchantingly, old fashioned city, cruising peacefully at a leisurely pace after the lessons learnt from a devastating war, that now leaves visitors salivating to have more of its present tranquility.
Yaw said to me:” Uncle, I am planning to come back here soon to shoot a movie. I love it here”.
By the way, Yaw (Steve Onu) is a Nigerian, a big star in Flatmate, a popular tv series on the Magic channel on DSTV. He is also a well known radio presenter on Wazobia FM in Lagos, a comedian, film producer and fantastic compere.
We have been together in Freetown, having met at the Lagos airport, outward bound. It made sense to get better acquainted as we journeyed together seeing that we were going to the same event in Freetown.
He is the MC at the event being organised by Lefete Magazine, a Sierra Leone -based international publication and events company headed by Maraya Mushkat, a hardworking journalist and former staff of the BBC.
The event is a conference to empower young Sierra Leonian entrepreneurs with the knowledge and experiences of successful CEOs from various sectors of the economy across Africa.
Several speakers are invited. I am one of them. I am also a discussant in a panel session on ‘Sports as an economic tool for national development’.
After 4 days, the entire visit has been a nostalgic, revealing and beautiful experience. I already feel like returning soon, like Yaw, to see and to experience more of a town that offers immeasurable opportunities yawning for lack of energy due to weariness after a stupid war that reduced the city to rubble, plus the devastating effect of Ebola, one of the most dreaded viruses in the world, and even the frustration of politicians that have turned Africa and Africans into perennial victims of poverty, ignorance, hunger and disease.
Freetown, unfortunately still carries the scars of the frustration and failures of the black person to make a dent on the struggle against underdevelopment. The city is just marginally more developed in terms of infrastructure than when I last visited some 40 years ago.
The conference is a direct effort by Maraya and her partner, Kennedy Okezie, a Nigerian based in Sierra Leone, to change the story!
I don’t recognise most places in Freetown from my faint recollection of the past but, I am convinced it has not made much progress developing to its potential.
Freetown fascinated me in those days, and still does now with its unashamed lack of sophistication; houses built on mountain slopes; narrow side streets, mostly untarred; young persons everywhere, mostly girls in their school uniforms walking to and from home in droves, twice a day, every week day, with two sessions of classes (morning and evening); schools without play grounds because there is not enough landspace; unique topography of huge mountains ringing the city, with hills and depressions, rising and falling, all over town in a spectacle of houses and roads chiseled out slopes that remind me of the french principality of Monaco that is also built on the slopes of rocky hills; long beach fronts washed by gentle waves; old buildings with foreign exterior designs (probably Brazilian or Portuguese) reflecting the architecture of the originating countries of the returning slaves ‘freed’ during the abolition of slave trade, and dumped in this uncharted peninsula along the west coast of Africa, somewhere close enough to their origins back in the day when millions of the strongest and healthiest amongst them were caught, sold and shipped to plantations and construction sites in Europe and the Americas. Their new homeland would be appropriately named Freetown.
Now, I no longer wonder why the international airport in Sierra Leone is in Lungi and not Freetown, and why most schools, and indeed, the town itself, do not have open fields and play grounds. The city is packed, and does not have grounds glat and large enough to accommodate the length of a runway, or large open fields for proper sports.
We stop a few times as we drive around town to take pictures that ‘speak’ better than words. For an artist Freetown is an excellent subject for the canvas.
It is Sunday already. Yaw and I are heading to the Freetown International Airport for our way return journey back home to Nigeria.
We cross the wide expanse of sea again, the one that left me with my heart in my throat when we first arrived and had to cross in s speed boat wading through some mild turbulent waves. This time it is not quite as frightful. The journey is fast – 25 minutes. I wonder where I got 45 minutes from the last time going to Freetown. Must have been the product of my phobia. The sea is relatively calm this morning.
The five minutes road trip from the jetty to the airport terminal is also uneventful.
Sitting in the lounge, we now have two hours to burn before boarding the ‘bole kaja’ flight to Lagos with stopovers in Monrovia and Abidjan, again.
It is hard to believe we have spent 4 whole days here.
The days have been devoured by activities that refuse to give me any breather to pen my travelogue. Morning has been following night very quickly.
Now is the time to construct my diary.
I have reported about the day we arrived here. That’s the day I was a part of Olusegun Jaji’s birthday celebration at his seaside resort and jetty. The rest of that day was for dinner at a beachside lounge and bar, and a good night’s sleep.
The beachside is a long stretch of bars, hotels, casinos and restaurants that creat a very busy night life and sustain a thriving night economy of social and commercial activities. Lebanese and Chinese businessmen control the bigger and better hangouts. Their presence is strong and felt in the city through the big companies they run.
We hang out at one of the lounges, feast on special lamb pepper soup and boiled rice prepared the Saro way, and go back to our Radisson Blu hotel to retire for our first night in Freetown.
Day 2
I sleep well through the night.
I wake up early to join Aliyu. He is the tennis coach I hired last night to play tennis with me during my stay in Freetown inorder to fulfill my daily dose of at least one hour of vigorous exercise to fight back the threat of High Blood Pressure that manifested during my trip to the UK some weeks ago
By the way, I am yet to receive my BP test results from London. The other results are out and, with gratitude to God, I am clear of any emergency. Truly, “Exercise is medicine”!
I am feeling a bit tired, but I still manage to teach Aliyu a lesson never to take anything for granted.
Obviously, he arrives the tennis court with a swagger, assuming that I am a learner. I let him think he is coming to teach me tennis, and not to play a match.
He is shocked to his narrow, uncertainty scripted all over his face. I start to do to him what Evans in Ikoyi Club, Lagos, and Ruffy at the Abeokuta Sports Club, do to me mercilessly on the tennis court. I toss him around with my ‘poisoned’ backhand slice, as he tries to avoid my weaker forehand. He must be thinking I am like most right-handed players whose forehand is usually stronger.
Playing my second tennis game in several weeks, I still win the one-set match rather easily. The poor man is rusty from too much teaching and not enough competition.
Around noon, Yaw, Kennedy Okezie and I go to the Nigerian Ambassador at the Nigerian High Commission, in Hill Court area of Freetown, to honour a courtesy visit arranged by my hosts.
The embassy is in one of the high brow areas of the town, high up one of the highest points in the city, an exclusive area for the nouveau rich, and not far from the residence of the President of Sierra Leone.
I am actually looking forward to meeting the President. A courtesy visit to his office is in the itinerary sent to me in Lagos before setting out.
We are treated to a fantastic reception. H.E. Amb. Dr. Habiss Ibrahim Ugbada, is a former footballer in Niger State. Our conversation is very easy because he played for Niger Tornadoes. So, he knew about me very well.
I tease him that he is a lucky man not to have faced me in those days. We become instant friends. His beautiful wife invites us for lunch the following day.
We spend a good hour in the well maintained and beautiful embassy discussing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, Nigeria, politics, his experience in the foreign service, football, the exciting opportunities for business in Sierra Leone and the program of the following day to which he has been invited.
We leave the embassy and go for a round of
media interviews arranged to promote the events of the following day. We end up downtown for lunch in a new restaurant located directly under the Financial Crimes Commission offices of Sierra Leone. It is owned by Chris and his partner, both Nigerians.
Our hosts in Sierra Leone are two extremely hardworking journalists, Maraya Mushkat, a Sierra Leonian ex-BBC staff, and Kennedy Okezie, her Nigerian partner. Between them they have masterminded an assembly of corporate giants from Sierra Leone and other African countries. These barons and captains of industry are to help navigate serious-minded Sierra Leonian youths through the maze of the business world by sharing their knowledge and experiences.
The media is a very powerful tool in Sierra Leone. Before long many Nigerians in town hear that ‘Mathematical’ is in town. Their interest to host me is flattering.
The leaders of the Nigerian community in Freetown call Maraya to arrange to host Yaw and I at lunch before leaving Freetown.
Our last port of call is a local market for art works and souvenirs in downtown Freetown. Yaw buys a small drum, and I window-shop.
Evening comes quickly and we retire for the night.
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