Destruction in Bamenda: a bitter pill for all

Even if unconfirmed sources indicate some pockets of violent acts reported in Kumbo, the people of the Region are far from being gripped by the trauma engendered by Thursday’s uprising.

The population and the public authorities have now settled down to do an unpleasant balance sheet of the spate of violent protests which swept through town last December 8, 2016, leaving in its convolution, a trail of destruction of public edifices and anything belonging to government that came their way.

The Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary who met the press last Saturday December 10 put the loss in material terms as follows: “ with regard to the material balance sheet, nine vehicles were destroyed including that of the Commander of the Gendarmerie Legion, the Second-in-Command of the Rapid Infantry Battalion, that of the Bamenda III Divisional Officer, the Camerounaise des eaux, CAMPOST,, Special Intervention units of the Police, the National Gendarmerie as well as two private vehicles.

Several businesses and other urban stands, two public buildings: the third district police station and several pavilions of the Bamenda Regional hospital were also burned”.

As at now, it is difficult to make a reliable estimate in financial terms, but it is obvious that the figure could be staggering. Of course, military vehicles are generally not covered by insurance, neither are government buildings; so one can imagine that all that went up in flames is a loss that has to be accounted for somehow. A police station takes hundreds of millions of our taxpayers’ francs to build; so will the destroyed sections of the hospital.

If one considers material losses in the police station and the hospital and all the other destroyed government property, then Bamenda can be said to have taken a few steps backwards in terms of development. It must be remembered that many of the rampaging youths blamed government neglect for their action. It is therefore paradoxical that the same youths crying for developmental actions should be the first to destroy government property that has been replaced as a matter of necessity. In fact, money which could have been used for some urgent developmental projects will have to be used to replace the damaged State property.

The burning of tyres all over the place on Bamenda’s already precarious roads adds another blow to the City Council which has been talking of the difficulties it encounters either in maintaining city roads or even construction new ones.

The yet-to-be identified hoodlums could have borrowed a leaf from the lawyers in Bamenda who two weeks ago successfully and peacefully marched from Up station to the City Chemist roundabout to press their point. Demonstrations are not illegal in Cameroon, neither is protesting against government action.

But they must be orderly and legally backed! The systematic destruction of the rare government facilities can never be any manner of attracting government attention for a cause. At the end of the day, it is the local population – those in dire need of government services or the scum of society as it were– who suffer the effects of such destruction. Government has already set its priorities for 2017 with the budget just having been voted in Parliament.

So where is the money going to come from to replace the destroyed government property? The ensuing bill from these acts of destruction will have to be paid by ordinary citizens through taxes. So where is the wisdom in these fatuous acts of destruction?