MONROVIA – “When we go to the cool storage to buy our market (goods) to sell, our markets can spoil. Many days, we don’t gain anything. We can’t be selling cool storage foods like fish, chicken feet, pig feet, and from rock of ages, we don’t have current even though we are paying rent and sending our children to school as a single parents. Every day they will tell us current coming, current coming, it can’t reach and we have been living here since the 1980s. It’s more than years now since the light poles were planted in our communities. And so, we need current. We are willing to pay bills,” Bernice Wilson, mother of three children and a marketer stated.
By Obediah Johnson
She sells frozen foods (fresh fish, meat and chicken feet) in a local market in Brewerville.
She was among hundreds of aggrieved residents of district # 17, Montserrado County who staged a violent protest demanding the supply of public electricity to their homes and businesses by the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led-government of President George Manneh Weah.
The protest, which was staged during the early morning hours of Monday, February 13, was also intended to display to the government and others residing in Liberia and abroad the primitive manner and form in which thousands of residents of the district are living in this 21st century due to the lack of electricity.
It paralyzed normal working; academic and commercial activities in the district for a while, making the entire Brewerville community and its surroundings to appear like a ghost town. The protest also prevented the free flow of traffic in the area.
The protesters were seen chanting anti-slogans against the government and holding placards with inscriptions: “No Electricity, No Vote; World Bank We Are Dying; District 17 Is The Darkest Place On The Planet; Power Has Lost From District 17; LEC is a Cemetery; We Are In Total Darkness; among others.
It turned violent when some of the protesters who burned tyres and set road blocks at the St. Paul Bridge and other areas were removed from the main road by the police. The protesters later began to throw stones, something which prompted the firing of few rounds of tear gas and the arrest of several persons by the police.
Those arrested were detained at various police stations in the district.
The protesters claimed that since the supply of electricity was restored to post-conflict Liberia by the administration of Madam Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, residents of Brewerville and other adjacent communities are yet to benefit.
The protesters maintained that the crime rate in the district, including armed robbery, hijacking, among others have intensified due to the lack of public electricity supply.
They observed that though citizens and others residing in various districts across the country have the privilege to benefit and enjoy access to electricity like other public officials, they (residents of Brewerville) are living in the “stone age”, when people did not have access to basic social services.
They observed that economic activities are not booming in the district as compared to others areas, imposing additional burdens on them and their respective family members.
Experiencing losses
Speaking in an interview with FrontPageAfrica, Bernice disclosed that marketers, especially those engaged in the trading of frozen foods, are experiencing losses on a daily basis due to the lack of stable electricity in the area.
She said the harsh economic constraints in Liberia, make it difficult for citizens and others to buy their frozen foods.
As a result of this, she disclosed that, they are constrained to eat or get rid of their left over goods, making them making them to loss hugely.
Madam Wilson disclosed that most of those selling in the various markets in the district are single mothers who are struggling to put food on the tables for themselves and their respective family members.
She noted that the profits generated are also used to send their children to schools, colleges, and universities.
She observed that with the prolonged unavailability of electricity in the district, single mothers are the ones that are mostly affected.
Madam Wilson pointed out that most often she is constrained to dry her goods for fear of losing them due to the lack of electricity supply.
According to her, the drying of her goods discourages customers from buying, adding that, “some people do not like dried market; many people like fresh market.”
“If I meet the President today I will tell him that I need LEC current because, I have my children and they have to go to school. By selling is the only means I have to send them to school. If I don’t have US$60 to pay for community (private) current, it means my market will spoil.”
High cost for private electricity
Few private individuals are providing electricity at a high cost to residents of Brewerville and other surrounding communities.
These individuals are charging between US$60 to US$70 per amp.
The community electricity service being rendered to the locals is not stable as compare to the one being provided by the government, through the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC).
According to the protesters, the high cost to run private electricity is imposing more hardship on them.