Forgotten Bakassi communities hang on to Nigerian Naira

The Idabato council in the Bakassi Peninsular whose staff have gone for six months without salaries has neither a building nor sources of income as communities in the municipalities hang on to Nigerian currency as legal tender, Mayor Ntimi Oliver Akan says.

The Cameroon Journal caught up with the mayor during a visit in the Bakassi peninsular over the weekend. He took some timeout to talk about the sorry state of affairs in his municipality and council.

The Mayor told The Cameroon Journal that the indigenous people of Oron and Ebiobio who have rejected the FCFA are yet to start paying taxes to the council.

He said that the council has tried several times to collect taxes from traders in the subdivision but their attempts have always met with stiff resistance.

“Since the creation of the council, we have not received taxes from the local population. The absence of portable drinking water, electricity, markets, toilets and other welfare infrastructure remains a big concern. We depend on FEICOM (Special Council Support Fund for Mutual Assistance) for assistance to pay salaries of council employees.” he revealed.

According to the mayor, even oil companies which have been exploiting oil in the area since 1974 do not pay royalties to the community.

The Cameroon Journal gathered the subdivision has a population of over 50 thousand inhabitants. Only a quarter of the population had the right to Cameroonian nationality before the 2008 Green tree accord which saw Nigeria ceding over the disputed part of the peninsular to Cameroon.

The main economic activity in the Idabato municipality is fishing while its residence continued to use the Nigerian naira. But Ntimi says most of the aquatic ‘blessings’ of the area have been washed away due to oil exploitation and pollution.

In 1974 Idabato was 4km wide and 36km long. “I fear that the whole village might be washed away in future.” He said.

Idabato is a municipality bounded in the north by Isangele and Kombo Abedimo subdivisions; in the east by Bamusso and Kombo Itindi and to the west by Nigeria, south by the ocean.