A Modicum of Civism!

It is a musical image of disorder that best describes driving attitudes in Yaounde. In music, such a situation will be described as a cacophony.

Countless visitors coming into Yaounde for the first time have always quickly noticed the disorderly manner in the flow of traffic. The recent deployment of the police in major city squares has greatly reversed the situation, but not enough to give the city traffic circulation system a clean sheet of orderliness.

In recent years, the municipal authorities took the necessary pains to install traffic signs on all the major streets of the city, but these road signs have served more as a decoration than as guide to help fluidify traffic as the initial intention was.

Manifestations of indiscipline include driving through zebra crossings without any regard for pedestrians, driving through when the red signals are on, overtaking and running on opposite lines often resulting in obstructing on-coming traffic and sudden halts with the necessary signaling signs for menial reasons as greeting a relative or acquaintance. The list of these malpractices on the urban highway is very long; but one must deploy a new wave manifested essentially by senior state officials who ought to show the good example.

Several cases have been documented where ministers or other high-ranking officials ignore traffic rules and regulations. Many of them drive through "no passage" routes or "one way" routes while the respect of red lights has simply been thrown to the dogs! These blatant acts of indiscipline by those supposed to be role models, have rather encouraged ordinary citizens to follow suit, creating a generalized atmosphere of confusion and cacophony described above.

It is now a common sight in our cities to see taxi drivers lined up in a ministerial motorcade to enjoy the impunity of neglecting traffic rules. The same is observed nowadays of ambulances which are followed by unending queues of fast-going vehicles, with all the dangers that implies. A modicum of good citizenship is needed to salvage the present situation and the example must first of all come from above!