SDF grappling with development problems in Kumba

The dramatic outcome of the September 30, 2013 twin elections that gave the Social Democratic Front, SDF, absolute control over Kumba, meant that the population needed a change in the way Councils and Parliament could respond to their basic needs.

On October 16, 2013, the Councillors voted their Mayors, as the population was expecting rapid development.

One year after, the SDF Mayors, Councillors and Parliamentarian are still grappling to meet the needs of the population.

Prime among the shortcomings of Mayors John Kona Makia, Abel Ebako and Martin Forcha Ndobegang, is the unsuccessful move to establish a smooth working relationship with the Government Delegate to the Kumba City Council, Victor Nkelle Nogh.

The situation is, more or less, a repeat of the last mandate which saw constant disagreement between the Mayors and the Government Delegate, to the detriment of the population.

With such an atmosphere, a subvention from the City Council to the Subdivisonal Councils, fails to meet required deadlines, thereby, grounding development projects.

To avoid such over dependence and create revenue generating facilities, the Councils must conceive projects; especially building separate markets. Another area where the Mayors have not stamped their authority on is hygiene and sanitation. Kumba, as it stands, has hundreds of houses build without toilets. The same houses get building authorisations from the Councils.

In the same line, the Mayors have done little or nothing to ensure cleanliness at the many make-shift restaurants that litter the metropolis. The danger continues to stare the population in the face, especially in the present dispensation of diseases such as cholera and the deadly Ebola Virus.

One major weakness of the party since taking over command of the Council is the inability of most militants to differentiate between Council management and party activities. The situation, in the last one year, has been one of wanton movement of party militants from one Council area to another in quest for unjustified gratifications.

At the individual level, Mayor Ebako has been credited for relocating the Council from its former site, where the Council was paying FCFA 400,000 as rents.

But one of his major projects that have stirred public debates is the ongoing construction of a business centre opposite the former treasury. Given the predominantly urban nature of Kumba I, many have argued that the building does not befit the centre of the town.

In Kumba II, Mayor Forcha remains the Mayor in the eye of the population, given the controversial circumstances through which he ascended to mayoralty. One year on, Forcha has spent time trying to consolidate his position as municipal authority. He has failed to start construction work on the FCFA 312 million Kosala Market project conceived by Asapngu.

The situation remains complicated, given the multiple court cases over the said piece of land for the project.

John Kona Makia of Kumba III, on his part, is yet to move into the new Council Chambers, despite taking over from CPDM's Samuel TakemNdeme, who claimed at the time of the handing over ceremony, that the Chambers was 98 percent complete.

Makia is in a frantic battle with AES-SONEL now ENEO officials to install electricity in the Council.

Despite borrowing from the Asapngu phenomenon of business centre to make use of the land beside the Railway Station, Makia has abandoned his promise of addressing the disorderly nature of the Three Corners Park.

Moreover, having failed to secure a waste parcel of land from MINADER to relocate the market, the Kumba III Council area remains in dire need of a befitting market.

However, the Mayors have remained in the eye of the population amidst realising other projects with sponsorship from the central Government in Yaounde.

At the level of the City Council, the SDF team succeeded in pressing for an inventory of all the stores in the Kumba Main Market where money had long been diverted into private pockets. The situation has resulted in an increase in revenue collection from the market into the City Council’s coffers.

Whatever the situation, the SDF still has four years to sit up. The party must use Kumba as a specimen to prove that it can be an example of good governance and meaningful development and not an opposition party that preaches virtue and practices vice.