While sipping coffee next to a boda-boda station, I encountered a fascinating story to tell.
Having arranged their motorbikes in a row and sat on them, a passenger came and signaled a boda-boda rider for transport. Guess what the riders did! They gave a chance to a rider whose children were sent home from school because of school fees. They said, “Take the passenger to get something for your children’s school fees”. I was amused at seeing such organised boda-boda riders.
It did not take long for another passenger to arrive. When the passenger arrived, they gave a chance to a rider whose wife had just given birth to twins a week ago. They gave him a chance, saying “Take the passenger and get something for your twin babies”. I saw it and it almost shocked me. After a while, another passenger arrived and signaled a rider. The riders gave a chance to a rider whose mother is sick in the hospital, saying “Take the passenger and get something for your sick mother”.
Among the boda-boda riders was a soldier who gave up being a soldier and ventured into a boda-boda thingy. His landlord has given him a 3-day ultimatum to vacate the house if he does not pay money for rent and 3 days were coming to elapse. A passenger arrived and while on the verge of calling a different boda-boda rider, a soldier, now a boda-boda rider, was given a chance to take the passenger. This was to let him get money for the rent.
I tell you, I almost shed tears. If I were not rushing to my place for hustling, I would spend some hours to understand what was going on at such a boda-boda station. But for a few minutes, I spent at it, I was able to capture what was going on. South Sudanese are living below the line of poverty. Almost everyone is poor and the chance for a better tomorrow is too slim.
How much would a boda-boda rider get to pay for a rent or medication bill? Everyone knows what fails South Sudan is poor governance, but South Sudanese think that charging fellow South Sudanese would make them earn a living. A landlord knows the tenant renting his house is of the same socioeconomic status as him, but he cannot make the renting affordable for him.
Instead, the landlord thinks he will achieve all his dreams by putting the renting at a high price and demands for a 6-month advance payment and after some months later, he increases the rent. If the landlord is an Equatorian and the tenant is from Bahr El Ghazal he would overcharge the tenant, with the thought that Bahr El Ghazalians have money as the president hails from Bahr el Ghazal region. Or the landlord would overcharge the renter as a punishment that Bahr El Ghazalians are the ones destroying the country.
Medical personnel in both private and public hospitals see every patient as a millionaire and that, they overcharge them, thinking that they would get money they were supposed to get if they were being well-paid by the government. This compromises the so-called access to healthcare. Instead of overcharging government officials who are the ones destroying South Sudan, ordinary South Sudanese overcharge themselves. This is a misdirected anger.
The government should improve living standards so that South Sudanese who indulge in small-scale businesses can afford basic services, such as clean drinking water, electricity, food, healthcare, and a lot more. Furthermore, the claimed free education, which I think is free politically, should purely be free to allow children of the peasants to acquire education.
Thanks for reading “Sowing The Seed Of Truth”.