Bamenda govt delegate, councillors trade accusations

Following the refusal to adopt some deliberations, Senior Councillors of the Bamenda City Council registered their disdain against the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council, Vincent Ndumu Nji, for single-handedly taking decisions in Bamenda city.

On his part, the Government Delegate has lashed out at the some of the Senior Councillors for manifesting “immaturity” in trying to stifle the onward strides recorded already.

Ndumu Nji accused them of harboring double standards given that the day before he called a meeting where all issues were discussed and considered resolved but embarrassing came up again in the session meant to vote the 2015 budget.

This strange scenario coming from 12 councillors of SDF run councils was described by the Government Delegate as very ridiculous and unfounded to refuse to adopt some deliberations after voting the draft budget that stood at over FCFA 3.6 billion.

The Government Delegate wondered aloud how people he considered gentlemen would reject deliberations such as decongesting the town by ordering that heavy vehicles should stop coming down the station hill rather but use the second axis through Njah.

On the issue of a ten point memorandum tabled to the SDO for Mezam against the Government Delegate by the Senior Councilors, Vincent Ndumu Nji said he is surprised that this issue is coming up again after they sat the day before and resolved what were considered worries. The Government Delegate retorted that bringing up this issue again means it annuls all what was resolved before and therefore warrants the SDO to look into it again.

Another point in the memo accused the Government Delegate of not attending local council sessions in person given that he is always represented. The SDO for Mezam, Nguele Nguele Felix, told Senior Councilors that it is not mandatory for the Government Delegate to attend Sub-Divisional council sessions but called on the Government Delegate to improve on the working relations between City Council and Sub-Divisional councils. He advised that Mayors should be involved in projects that are being carried out by the City Council within Sub-Divisional Councils.

Quizzed as to whether the rejection of some deliberations would affect the execution of the 2015 budget, the Government Delegate responded that the subject of the day was to vote a budget and that has been done and the rejected deliberations would have little to do with the budget execution.

As for the increase in the budget by FCFA 116 Million whereas 2014 budget recorded only a 46 percent realisation, the Government Delegate pointed out that though there is need for a realistic budget, the increase is because other communal taxes would increase in 2015. As for his plan of action for 2015, Ndumu Nji was optimistic that more revenue would be generated to continuously carry out developmental projects within the city.

On the Public-Private partnership as introduced by the government, the City Council would also get in o more agreements for more projects to see the light of day in the city.

Looking at what might have been the cause of this uncommon attitude by Councillors, it was reported that these elected officials took offence that sitting allowances are not increased as in other City Councils. Inside sources at the City Council hold that the said councillors are only interested in what gets into their pockets not the public they were called to serve.