CFA 4.75 Billion for Emergency Projects in Bakassi

Over 10 ministries as well as the General Delegation for National Security and the Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance (FEICOM) require FCFA 4.754 billion to meet the deadline of executing all emergency priority projects in the Bakassi Peninsular that Cameroon got back from Nigeria following the October 2002 International Court of Justice ruling on the border dispute between the two countries.

Members of the Coordination and Follow-up Committee on the Implementation of Priority Projects to be realized in the Bakassi zone during their 14th session on June 15, 2012 in Yaounde, examined the emergency projects and the needed finances. The Committee session came after the inter-ministerial consultation meetings of April 26 to May 3, 2012 during which a well- defined accelerated end of first phase document was produced and emergency projects to be executed identified. One of the main resolutions of the consultation meetings was a proposal to the Prime Minister, Head of Government to instruct the Ministers of Finance and Economy, Planning and Regional Development to disburse funds from the public treasury for the projects.

The Chairman of the Bakassi Committee, Lekunze Ketuma Jacob, speaking during last Friday's session stressed that August 14, 2013 will be time for the final putting in place of the terms of the 2006 Greentree Agreement between Cameroon and Nigeria on the peaceful settlement of their border dispute in implementation of the ICJ ruling. It will mark the end of the implementation of priority development projects in the peninsular by the Cameroon government. Nigerians living in the Bakassi will also decide whether to become Cameroonians, Nigerians resident in Cameroon and paying all their resident papers or go back to Nigeria.

Mr Lekunze Ketuma disclosed to the press that all the other projects have so far been executed in Bakassi by 90 per cent. The major remaining work, he said, were in the areas of electricity and water supply. "We have decided to start collecting rain water to purify for the people to drink," he said, adding that the military has succeeded with this method. As for electricity supply, the Committee Chairman said solar and wind energy were being used. He further stated that the teething problem in the zone remained the road, admitting that the Military Engineering Corps has opened the Mundemba-Isangele-Akwa 75 km road. The permanent solution to the problem is tarring and Lekunze Ketuma expressed optimism that the tarring would start before August 2013.