A modicum of concern for the dispossessed

There was a surrealistic scene last Monday at Nkolmeyang in the Lobo Subdivision of the Lekie Division.

One of the villages affected by construction work on the Yaounde-Douala expressway as villagers and the Minister of Public Works came eyeball-to-eyeball over the non-payment of compensation for the destruction of crops and other property along the road construction line. The tens of aggrieved villagers could hold on no more after having waited for unremitting promises from the public authorities for the payment of the said dues which never seemed to be coming.

The villagers of Lobo have several grievances and have several times smelled a rat over the management of the compensation scheme. And to show their resolve and resilience, several villagers including the old, women and the young spent sleepless nights on the site to let it be known that they are serious about obtaining their rights.

The villagers saddle their claims on the fact that at the very initial stages of the compensation exercise, a mixed commission had identified about 900 persons. The recent decree of the Prime Minister issued on June 15, 2015 came up with a drastically reduced list of 372 people and with claims in the new text as low as FCFA 4800! Many of the people who lay claim to property in the affected area are not found on the new list.

At first sight, the action of the villagers found on this part of the road project may appear as irresponsible and even smack of lack of patriotic spirit, given the high national demands in infrastructural development.

For one thing, Cameroonians have been crying for far too long about the absence of basic infrastructure such as roads and the country’s relative economic difficulties are usually blamed on the absence of reliable and all-season roads which can help take out some of the huge agricultural products from the production basins to markets or points of export and in so doing decrease poverty most badly felt in far-flung inaccessible localities. So, a descent by locals to stop such an important project could not be well taken by the commonality of Cameroonians.

But there is more to it than meets the eye! And here, corruption comes to the fore. This is what many villagers of the Lobo Subdivision believe has infected a scheme which took off virtually without any hurdles. The management of compensation schemes for major projects in the country has become a serious corruption-prone area and in countless cases, face-lifting projects have had to suffer serious setbacks just because the management of compensations was badly handled.

It is too easy to blame the local people. If there are to be sacrifices, they must be along the entire line and not only limited to innocent villagers on whose supposed naivety many public servants hang to reap undeserved benefits.

In countless cases, public servants have been caught red-handed in reprehensible deals which can sometimes range from quickly buying land in places for which some important projects are planned for the future, so as to be beneficiaries of compensation when the project matures to simply including names of fictitious beneficiaries.

Inasmuch as many of these projects revolutionarily impact on the nation’s economic development and, therefore, requiring the support and sacrifices of all and sundry, one must not also forget that in numerous instances, these same projects uproot and scatter family ties that have existed for centuries and which can never be reconstituted again.

So, the sacrifices should also be seen from this other important perspective. Moreover, the compensations are far from loose easy-to-spend pocket money for mundane or other earthly pleasures. For many, the money is expected to help start a new life by building a new home or setting up a new farm and sometimes, even buying a new plot on which to plant.

Decision-makers must be aware of this situation and so give even a modicum of concern to citizens who find themselves in a strife situation not of their making.